When it comes to police reform, we are hard-pressed to find a more qualified, subject-matter expert in our community than former assistant county prosecutor Ayesha Bell Hardaway, who is now a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, where she also directs the Social Justice Law Center and co-directs the Social Justice Institute.
For the past six years, Hardaway has also played a key role as Deputy Monitor on the independent monitoring team appointed to evaluate police reforms pursuant to the consent decree agreed to by the US Department of Justice [USDOJ] and the City of Cleveland.
The consent decree arose after a thorough investigation by USDOJ into local police practices and misconduct, most notably apparent in such events as the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and the high-speed “137 bullet shoot out” that resulted in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, two unarmed black citizens.
Hardaway was forced to resign as Deputy Monitor last week by the chief monitor, Hassan Aden, who told her that he had received complaints from the City of Cleveland and the Department of Justice, about comments she made about the Derek Chauvin verdict on local public radio in her role as a law professor. Hardaway’s comments made no reference to the consent decree or the Cleveland police.
Hassan gave Hardaway the bogus choice to be used as a prop by leaving the oversight team and becoming its Community Outreach Coordinator. Had Hardaway accepted such a depreciation of her role, it would have spared scrutiny of Hassan’s weak-kneed decision and undercut the validity of her trenchant observations about the systemic nature of violent policing in America.
Hassan’s decision is a blow to the accountability, transparency, and efficacy of the monitoring process. That he would bend his knee so readily to off-stage demands to silence Hardaway calls into question, not Hardaway’s impartiality, but his own strength and fitness to be an impartial Monitor. Hardaway has the trust and the confidence of our community. We implore Hassan to reconsider his decision.
Hassan was selected as Monitor by the federal court overseeing the consent decree. His selection was no doubt approved by both the City of Cleveland and the Department of Justice, the two parties to the lawsuit. That being said, we lament Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson’s failure to defend Hardaway’s stalwart work on behalf of his constituents. Jackson for too long failed to say he was retiring this year because, he said repeatedly, he did not want to be treated as a lame duck. In this instance, he has clipped his own wing.
There will be a rally at 11am tomorrow on the steps of City Hall to protest the forces that led Hardaway to resign and to demand changes in the monitoring process that will ensure full compliance with the Consent Decree is a reality and not just an illusion. A healthy representation of the community will send an urgent message that Cleveland's citizens want a Monitor with a backbone.
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