So, in December 2014, did the Cleveland police help create a new mainstream racist hate group that has spread to other parts of the country and is still raging on in Cleveland? Even I know that this sounds crazy. Especially since at first glance, the Sea of Blue movement (made up of Greater Cleveland area police officers and their supporters) seems innocent and even positive. It had been described by its organizers as a movement of love aimed to honor police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. That sounds really nice actually…. Its Facebook Banner even reads, “Peace.” It has been described as a peaceful movement characterized by quiet rather than noise and riots. But further analysis reveals the deceptive and sinister underbelly of this so-called peaceful movement.
Officer Michael Brelo’s verdict, who was charged for jumping onto the hood of a car and shooting 15 bullets into an unarmed Black couple’s vehicle, after shooting 34 from the ground, in Cleveland, was originally scheduled for Monday, May 18, 2015. However, it was on Saturday May 23, 2015, during Memorial Day weekend, that his not guilty verdict was announced. As anyone who lives in the Cleveland area knows, Cleveland downtown was sure to be flooded with drunk suburban sports fans. The streets, bars, and patios of downtown were sure to be packed, and the tensions between drunk suburban sports fans, protesters, and police armed in riot gear, were sure to rise high. Many local and nonlocal news media also had gone out of their way to report on anticipated Cleveland riots that, despite a few incidents, didn’t actually end up taking place.
On the Friday evening before Brelo’s verdict was announced, a group of over 100 people, anticipating possible riots, held a Sea of Blue Prayer Vigil. Sea of Blue President, Mary Jo Graves, was quoted saying, “We just wanted to get people together and pray for our city, pray for our neighborhoods and pray for our officers. I understand people feel there are injustices done. But it is going to take peace in our hearts and other people’s hearts to make things better.”
That was really nice of her to say. Too bad she skipped the part where 13
Cleveland officers shooting 137 bullets into a car with an unarmed Black couple inside, murdering them, and then the only officer charged with manslaughter being given a not guilty verdict, as the root of the unrest in the first place. So why did the initial violent act get skipped over during a prayer vigil for peace in Cleveland? Why were the unarmed victims not prayed for? As demonstrations against police brutality continued, many anti-protesters also came out to demonstrate against demonstrators.
Although the Sea of Blue has held many such events in the greater Cleveland area, its first event was the Sea of Blue Pro Police Rally held on December 27, 2014 in downtown Cleveland organized by Cleveland police officers. 2,500 police officers from the Cleveland area and mainly White civilians from Cleveland’s surrounding suburbs marched the streets of predominantly Black Cleveland. This pro police rally was held just weeks after a Cleveland officer shot and killed Tamir Rice, a Cleveland sixth grader playing with a toy gun. Many Cleveland officers endorsed this event as a counter to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and as a counter to Cleveland protests against police brutality. At that time, there had not yet been any violence in any of the Cleveland protests, yet images of the violence in NYC was conjured up to make the contrast seem credible. Supporters were encouraged to wear blue. Many spoke of police officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty. Though the lives of fallen officers are worth honoring, doing it in this way was just another deceptive tactic used to conjure up more fearful images of the #BlackLivesMatter movement within the more conservative greater Cleveland area. Never mind that protests against police brutality taking place in Cleveland and all over the country only take place on behalf of unarmed victims. Tamir Rice was a normal kid playing outside, not cop killer. Yet, Cleveland Police and other organizers saw it fit to counter the #BlackLivesMatter movement by speaking of the dead among police officers.
Many of the group’s supporters then praised the event on social media for its calm, quiet, and peaceful nature. They somehow managed to omit the part where they remained calm while not being aggressively confronted and cornered by police officers in riot gear. They also somehow forgot to mention the violent shooting death of the Cleveland preteen just weeks prior, let alone the part where Cleveland officers then did not even call an ambulance after a child was shot. Rather they just stood and watched as Tamir Rice was bleeding to death. So why the oversight?
An interesting post from May 25, 2015, from the Sea Of Blue Cleveland Facebook page reads, “I am going to agree 110% with Huey Medlea- I also think people have the right to protest, but the rules should change. They should be made to get a permit each and every time if they are going to be in the street and it should not be allowed near a public venue. It should also be away from people who are trying to enjoy themselves. There should also be a limit as to how close they are allowed to come in law enforcement's safe space. The idea of that lady drawing a line at the feet of our or any officer should not be allowed. ever.”
The Sea of Blue movement has been pushing for protesters to be quiet, compliant, and not to disrupt anyone’s lives in anyway. Perhaps this is because the organizers of this deceptive movement know that protests fail when they are not disruptive and when they don’t affect the economy. Quiet and compliant protests that don’t bother anybody can and will go ignored and police can then continue to murder in peace. Blocking an intersection or protesting around people having a good time is being projected with far more contempt than killing an unarmed sixth grader or gunning down an unarmed couple in a motor vehicle because when protests are strong and disruptive enough that the underlining oppression becomes unprofitable, things start to change.
The failure of the supposedly peaceful Sea of Blue movement to mention the police brutality that is at the underlining cause of the unrest between Cleveland police and Cleveland’s public is rooted in good old fashioned American racism. The history of the relationship between White and Black America is incredibly violent. White colonists originally brought African slaves to America to increase profits for the British. Black slaves were expected to be compliant and submissive to their white masters no matter the degree of violence inflicted upon them. Slaves who revolted were severely punished and wrongly demonized among the pearl clutching white folk whose lives they were not to disrupt. To this day, Black Americans are suffering under severe violence and oppression with law enforcement systems still at forefront of the oppression. The Sea of Blue Cleveland inadvertently says to Cleveland's Black majority, “We will continue to support our police as they continue to murder your children. But you better remain peaceful. We are the master, you are the slave. Stop revolting!”
6:40 AM PT: I apologize for the massive typo. Yes, it was 49 shots that Brelo shot. I will fix this in the diary entry as son as I can.p
6:40 AM PT: I apologize for the massive typo. Yes, it was 49 shots that Brelo shot. I will fix this in the diary entry as son as I can.p
6:40 AM PT: I apologize for the massive typo. Yes, it was 49 shots that Brelo shot. I will fix this in the diary entry as son as I can.p