Judi Hill was “frustrated” and “absolutely heartbroken” by Mayor Shammas Malik’s decision to cancel all large events on city property last weekend due to safety concerns.
It was a sentiment shared by others at a meeting that Hill, president of the Akron chapter of the NAACP, called Monday afternoon at the organization’s office. In addition to reporters from Signal Akron and the Akron Beacon Journal, Lathardus Goggins II, education chair for Akron NAACP; Ray Greene, executive director of The Freedom BLOC; and Imokhai Okolo, a lawyer and community organizer, were present.
In a press conference Friday evening, Malik said he had received a letter that afternoon signed by eight members of Akron City Council. In the letter, the council members said they had “grave concerns regarding the Juneteenth celebrations that are scheduled to take place during this weekend on city property.”
The letter went on to cite the June 2 shooting in East Akron that left one man dead and 27 people injured. “We believe to allow city-sanctioned gatherings so soon after this tragedy is irresponsible,” the letter read.
In response to the letter, Malik canceled 11 events, including three Juneteenth celebrations. During the press conference, the mayor said there were no “credible threats” of violence reported.
Hill said the mayor called her Friday afternoon to tell her about the letter. Greene said he spoke to Nanette Pitt, the mayor’s chief of strategy before Friday’s press conference. Hill, Goggins, Greene and Okolo all said no one from City Council reached out to any of them about the letter and ensuing cancellations.
“That letter is laughable,” Okolo said. “It’s clear that there was so much political motive behind this, and it just makes you question, like, what are we even doing here? Like, what is actually going on?” People in Akron, he said, “wanted to have a fantastic Juneteenth weekend, wanted to go out and celebrate freedom. And they were told ‘No. Stay in the house. No freedom for you. Maybe come out Wednesday; we’ll allow you to come outside.’”
Okolo was referring to the city’s official Juneteenth celebration happening Wednesday at the John S. Knight Center. In the press release announcing the cancellations, organizers and vendors who were part of the canceled Juneteenth events were invited to attend Wednesday’s event.
“The things that we had planned, you can’t take it inside,” Hill said of the invitation to the city’s official Juneteenth celebration.
Because it did not take place on city property, The Freedom BLOC was able to host its Freedom House Open House and Juneteenth Celebration Kickoff Saturday. Goggins said none of the council members who signed the letter attended the event.
Hill said there were safety plans in place for all the Juneteenth events. Goggins and Greene said the mayor and city officials should first have had a conversation with the organizers of the various Juneteenth events about safety concerns before canceling the events.
Goggins went on to say that true safety can only be achieved through community engagement on the city’s part.
“Safety isn’t just the avoidance of violence,” Goggins said. “Safety is about proactive, positive engagement, meaningful relationships.”
Hill said she understood that the mayor had to do something in response to the council members’ letter, but canceling the events sent a message that Akron is unsafe.
“So are we going to cancel everything now, because we haven’t captured the person that shot up the east side?” Hill said. “Come on. We are sending the wrong message. We cannot continue to live and work in fear. That is not the way we do things. And that’s the sadness that this has created.”
The eight members of City Council released a second letter Saturday stating that they did not ask the mayor to cancel all events on city property. “We wrote a letter expressing our concern about the hosting of the Juneteenth events after an earlier attempt to convey the magnitude of those concerns, particularly about the inequity of the police staff ratio for the different events were unfruitful,” the letter read. “The decision to attribute the scope of the concerns to all events being held on city-owned property, and cancel those events too was Mayor Malik’s decision and his decision alone.”
