CLEVELAND — On Friday, a small group of protesters from Cleveland’s Sunrise Movement gathered outside the home of Mayor Frank Jackson around 6:30 a.m. calling on him to defund the police and improve the city's recycling program.
A protester who spoke at the gathering called for the defunding of prisons and the need to invest in education.
“We need to do better. We need to defund the police, and the prisons especially and stop the school to prison pipeline,” said one protester.
"Unfortunately, those are just the people lucky enough to be taken into custody. Outside of the jail, poor and black people are targeted and harassed by police officers and they are facing death just by leaving the house. Tamir Rice and Desmond Franklin were not granted their right to a trial, she added.
The protesters also claimed Jackson has not addressed the recycling crisis.
“Even before COVID-19, most of us know our recycling was going to a landfill. So all of our hard work is literally going to waste," said a protester.
Watch the full protest outside Jackson's home in the embedded Facebook video below:
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