Hough became the punch line for jokes told by local comedians and was stereotyped as the crime and violence capital of Cleveland. Citizens approached Mayor Ralph Locher with requests to revitalize their neighborhood, such as a plea to fully support law and order and to treat everyone equally when making arrests. The mayor ignored these requests, seeing the problems as minor.
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"The racism of the police ultimately led to the ghetto’s frustration, as their poor representation in government resulted in their inability to improve police practices."
~Bertran Gardner; Negro Director of the Community Relations Board, 1968 |
"Young people of Hough were always bothered by police attitudes, accusing them of making unnecessarily brutal arrests based off of suspicion or no reason at all." ~Call and Post; July 21, 1966 |