Report from Cleveland Heights City Council Meeting
by Craig Bourne
Tonight 2/6 we went to the Cleveland Heights City
Council to voice our outrage over the abuse Carol Fisher suffered, and
to deliver the first few signed petitions to them. More than 25 people
came to support Carol, the vast majority being residents of Cleveland
Heights and wearing the “Bush Step Down” stickers. More chairs had to
be brought into the council chamber. About a dozen people spoke.
The picture of Carol in confrontations was
consistent. All these people had only seen her delivering a calm
rational response in every confrontation they witnessed. As many
stated, she had never been observed to raise her voice in a
confrontation, much less her hand. The firm belief, expressed by all,
was that Carol committing felony assault was so far out of her
character as to be beyond belief.
People spoke with passion and conviction of the need to affirm and
strengthen a compassionate and ethical community, and to extend the
embrace of this community to Carol. They asked repeatedly that council
repudiate the arbitrary and excessive use of force and of
untruthfulness, that several of them had experienced directly, by
members of the Cleveland Heights police department.
Many connected the conduct of the police to established trends,
in national politics (the cavalier disregard for human rights under the
Bush Regime– there was a call to Council to draft a resolution calling
for Bush to step down from office), in Religion (the efforts of some
religious groups to relegate women to docile subservience), in American
history (in the 50’s we were all urged to find the Reds hiding under
our beds. Clearly those damned pinkos were asking for whatever abuse
the police might visit on them), and in psychology (identifying with
the aggressors, people who clearly know Carol better than their
question might suggest have asked, “well, if you are charged with a
felony you must have done something, what did you do?”).
This last is clearly what the police counted on when they fabricated
these charges. What better way to cover for their own excessive use of
force than to accuse their victim of it. Council, the mayor, and
the city manager (who commands the police department in this city)
compounded the shame of Cleveland Heights by endorsing each and every
one of the police department’s fabrications in a statement clearly
prepared before they heard from those who spoke for Carol. The mayor
also delivered,with his prepared statement, the news that the Grand
Jury had handed down indictments on both of the felony assault charges
against Carol.
There were many calls of “shame, shame on all of you” directed to Council as we left.
With regard to identifying with aggressive police and vigilante acts
directed against those accused of crimes (If they are accused they must
be criminals, right?)– does the start of WWII ring a bell with anyone?
The Nazi persecutions started, not with Jews, not with Gypsies, not
with Catholics and not with homosexuals. The Nazis started by going
after criminals. Not much argument from the average German over that.
The list of “crimes” grew longer in inverse proportion to the strength
of the standards for proof.
—
Best Regards,
Craig Bourne