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The FBI’s Cleveland Division has assisted in the indictment of 16 East Cleveland officers with civil rights violations.
With the assistance of the FBI’s Cleveland Division, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office has indicted 16 East Cleveland officers with public corruption and civil rights violations for incidents between June 2018 and July 2022.
During a news conference Wednesday, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley played clips from bodycam footage showing East Cleveland officers brutally beating and terrorizing citizens.
(Warning: Video contains disturbing images)
Officers can be seen stomping on the cover faces of handcuffed victims, brutally beating victims whose hands were up, and then bragging about it afterwards.
“The real victim here was the entire city, all the citizens of East Cleveland, who had to live in a city with fear,” O’Malley said during the news conference.
Over a dozen Cleveland officers indicted by FBI
East Cleveland has a population of just under 14,000 people. However, according to the U.S. Census Bureau 89% of the population is Black.
The indictments come after a two-year investigation led by the FBI’s Cleveland Division.
“Make no mistake, there has been a cancer growing in the East Cleveland police department,” O’Malley told reporters. “We’re doing our best to remove every tentacle of that cancer so that this department can build and grow.”
In a segment on The View last month, host Whoopi Goldberg asked the question of “do we need to see White people also get beat before anybody will do anything?”
“I’m not suggesting that,” Goldberg followed. “So don’t write us and tell me what a racist I am. I’m just asking is that what people have to see in order to wake up and realize this affects us all?”