Headline: Man who posed for photo with gun in Mayor Frank Jackson’s driveway named in gang case involving mayor’s great-grandson
Ohio gun owners are very familiar with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, even if they are blessed to live outside of Cuyahoga County.
Throughout his years as mayor, Jackson has sought to punish law-abiding gun owners for the violence in his crime-plagued city again and again and again.
But as recent headlines continue to show, if Jackson really wanted to do something about crime, he would start literally with his own house.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
A 19-year-old man who posted a photo of himself with a large gun in his pocket in Mayor Frank Jackson’s driveway is named in new court documents in a gang case involving the mayor’s great-grandson.
Shawn Murray Jr. is named as one seven suspected members of the No Limit-700 gang in charges filed in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court.
Four juveniles, including the mayor’s 16-year-old great-grandson, are charged with participating in a criminal gang. Three adults, including Murray, are named as co-defendants, but have not been formally charged.
Murray, who has previously been convicted of several felonies and is currently fighting charges of illegal gun possession, sometime this summer posted a photo of himself standing the mayor’s driveway, with a large gun in his pocket and two handfuls of cash. A Cleveland police cruiser is visible over Murray’s shoulder.
Law enforcement sources told cleveland.com that Murray is part of a gang that frequents the mayor’s home and is friends with the mayor’s grandson and the great-grandson who is charged in the case.
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The gang is accused of operating from at least the Dec. 31, 2018 through July, according to court records. They are accused of being responsible for committing shootings, armed robberies, burglaries, illegal gun possession and other offenses, according to court records.
According to Cleveland.com, the home is guarded around the clock by at least one Cleveland police officer.
The Plain Dealer article goes on to say that questions are now being asked about Jackson’s law and police departments’ handling of two cases involving his grandson, Frank Q. Jackson, including a deadly daytime shooting and a separate attack on an 18-year-old woman.
From a Cleveland.com article entitled "Time for Mayor Jackson to relieve Cleveland police of the responsibility for investigating his family members":
[I]t’s unrealistic to expect city officials and city police who answer to him to be able to set that aside when it comes to criminal investigations touching on the mayor’s grandson and great-grandson.
It’s already apparent that they can’t do so, from three anomalies documented by cleveland.com reporter Adam Ferrise:
*The city prosecutor’s failure to charge Jackson’s grandson, Frank Q. Jackson, with a crime, despite a police report describing criminal activity in his alleged June abduction and beating of an 18-year-old woman. Months later, a Cuyahoga County Grand jury indicted the 22-year-old on two felony charges in the case.
*The Cleveland police's failure in late August to take Frank Q. Jackson into custody, question him or collect evidence -- and a related failure to impound the young man’s car -- after police arrived at the mayor’s home seeking to question Frank Q. in the fatal shooting of 30-year-old Antonio Parra earlier that day. Witnesses saw a car race from the murder scene that was registered to Frank Q. Jackson. It was later torched.
*The unexplained failure by Cleveland police to have their body cameras turned on during that August visit to the mayor’s house.
Despite repeated calls from the Cleveland media, both Mayor Jackson and the Cleveland City Council have thus far refused to call for a independent investigation or special prosecutor.
Instead, when asked about the photograph shown above, Mayor Jackson defiantly told WKYC-TV “What happens at my house and my yard is not [city] business."
In a statement released following the arrest of his grandson in 2017, Mayor Jackson said "Frank is my grandson and as any parent or grandparent who has raised children in a challenging environment knows, there is a constant worry about their wellbeing."
Mayor Jackson's repeated efforts to violate the Second Amendment rights of residents of this "challenging environment" have been found by courts to be unconstitutional (see here and here).
In early 2018, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to take up the City of Cleveland's appeal of an Eighth District Court of Appeals decision which declared that a Cleveland gun offender registry and several gun regulations first proposed by Mayor Frank Jackson in 2014, and passed by city council in 2015 are unconstitutional. A lower court had already struck down other parts of the law in 2016.
Buckeye Firearms Association has fought Jackson's efforts for many years. We have repeatedly exposed the fact that the local gun control policies he supports are rarely used to prosecute crimes because, as municipal statutes, they can only be enforced as misdemeanors, whereas when crimes are committed involving firearms, state laws have been violated that carry felony penalties are involved. Given the choice, prosecutors will naturally chose to pursue charges on the higher penalty.
It's no surprise that crime is up in a "challenging environment" like Cleveland. What else would anyone expect when the city "leaders" are part of the problem instead of part of the solution?
Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Additional Information:
Mayor Frank Jackson has a crime problem — at home
Anomalies add up in deadly shooting investigation involving Mayor Frank Jackson’s grandson
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