Dozens rally in Dayton for John Crawford

Dozens gathered at the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown Dayton on Friday afternoon to demand justice for John Crawford III, an end to police officer-involved homicides and the dignified treatment of black women and men.

The gathering here is part of a series of protests and demonstrations for #BlackSpring in Baltimore, Ferguson (Missouri), Cleveland, Philadelphia, Oakland and other places. according to the local organizing group, Black Lives Matter Miami Valley.

“After the travesty in Cleveland this weekend; the flagrant miscarriage of justice throughout Ohio demands action. Black Lives Matter Miami Valley is stepping up our campaign,” local activist and former Black Panther Cheryl Smith said in a prepared statement. “The people are returning to the Department of Justice, because the people’s rights have been violated. We believe the criminal justice system has failed us. An innocent man has been killed. Justice has not been served.”

On May 23, white Cleveland Patrolman Michael Brelo was acquitted in a case accusing him of voluntary manslaughter in the November 2012 killing of two unarmed black occupants in a car. Brelo was one of the 13 officers who fired 137 rounds into the car, killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.

The trial judge ruled that he could not determine whether Brelo, who fired 49 shots in all but jumped onto the hood and to 15 of those down through the windshield, fired the fatal shots. The shooting occurred at the end of a chase that began after a beat-up Chevy Malibu backfired.

Thursday, Angela Byers, the new head of the FBI’s Cincinnati division, said agents are conducting a thorough review of the Aug. 5, 2014, shooting death of Crawford inside the Beavercreek Walmart store.

She told the Associated Press that investigators are going through the Crawford case “with a fine-tooth comb” and noted there is no timetable for the completion of that review. Federal authorities announced the independent review after a Greene County grand jury declined to indict Beavercreerk police Officer Sean Williams, who shot Crawford while he was holding a rifle while walking an aisle. The weapon was an air rifle. That Justice Department review into whether civil rights charges should be filed against Williams continues.

#BlackLivesMatter was created in February 2012 after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the slaying of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, Fla.