As of this morning, Cleveland is still shut down.
One local person (who did not want their name included) expressed their sadness for the situation: “The pictures of Cleveland – the city I love, I root for, and I’m proud of leave a knot in my stomach this morning. I think of my friends who own CLE Clothing Company and the Clevelander, my friend who runs Masthead, and my beloved Playhouse Square all now under the weight of shattered glass. I am so sad, truly deep in my bones. But what also makes me sad is that some people are more outraged by the damage to the city than outraged by what put us here. The INJUSTICE felt for what happened yesterday (and believe me – I feel it!) pales in comparison to the INJUSTICE that lead to yesterday (Saturday). It’s not just about George Floyd. It’s about systematic racism and oppression. It’s about unconscious bias. It about every white person on Facebook who posts memes criticizing the victim. PEOPLE – that is white privilege!!! When you post that stuff, you are part of the problem that leads to this.”
Joseph Scherma expressed how he felt being there: “It was something I’ve never seen before, there were times I thought that I wouldn’t make it out. but had to keep recording, I didn’t know if and when one of the rioters (that’s what they were, not protesters) would sucker punch me or steal my phone for recording. There were a couple people asking if I recorded them I just replied no. My alert and anxiety level were extremely high, especially when they smashed the windows on the brewery with the bottles in the windows, that’s when the bottles started to fly on E 4th, I was trapped with nowhere to go.”
Chase Jones from The Chapel Nordonia said: “Went downtown (to clean up) yesterday because I can’t just sit by while my city is in an uproar. Here’s what I saw:
– Lots of news cameras capturing every broken window and overturned bike rack.
– Lots of people walking around taking pictures of the same.
– Destruction. East 9th was a mess.
But you’ll see all of that on your timelines today anyway. Here’s what else I saw.
– School groups (like the one pictured in the red shirts), church groups, and dozens of people like myself who just showed up with brooms and trash bags. Seemed like more were showing up every minute.
– Honest, awkward, and humbling conversations happening on the streets about race.
– Black, white, old, young…people HELPING and CLEANING.
I’m saying all this not to make myself look good. I only picked up three bags of trash. That’s nothing in a city as big as Cleveland. But what if instead of complaining, we all just picked up three bags worth. We can’t criticize if we’re not willing to be a part of the solution.
The narrative will be that we tore our cities down. But no one wants to talk about how we were there to put them back together.
