After Police Chief Brian Harding rejected the police auditor’s report calling for discipline of the officers involved in the controversial body slam and arrest of an Akron woman named Dierra Fields, a prominent Black-led community organizing group is demanding the chief resign and is criticizing Akron Mayor Shammas Malik.
“The continued abuse of Akron citizens by the very body hired to protect them is a failure on the City of Akron and the Malik Administration,” wrote Freedom BLOC Executive Director Ray Green Jr., in a statement released Monday morning. Freedom BLOC strongly opposed the internal-only, two-candidate contest that led Malik to appoint Harding as police chief earlier this year.
Freedom BLOC’s condemnation of city and police leadership comes days after Harding rejected Independent Police Auditor Anthony Finnell’s April report criticizing Officer Thomas Shoemaker, who body slammed and arrested Dierra Fields in January, and Sgt. Timothy Shmigal, who was on the scene and did not intervene.
“The Freedom BLOC and our community members have no confidence in neither the governing body of Akron nor the Mayor, and therefore we are demanding the immediate resignation of Police Chief Brian Harding. His inability to hold his officers and supervisors accountable is an extreme flaw in the system of accountability and requires immediate action for the protection of the most vulnerable populations in Akron.”…