Ego-trippin’ mic-snatching councilman can’t control his childishly immature urges

CLEVELAND, OH – The man in the yellow t-shirt is lifelong Cleveland and Ward 7 resident Robert Tinsley. His Facebook Live video shows him voicing his concerns  about youth violence only to have the microphone taken from him by councilman and South Euclid resident Basheer Jones. 

https://www.facebook.com/robert.tinsley.1044/videos/444658382724590/

Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones takes the microphone from Robert Tinsley as the Cleveland and Ward 7 resident shares his thoughts about youth violence.

Jones didn’t want to hear what Tinsley had to say at a corner lot where he claimed he was operating his ward office out of a tent to hear resident concerns and draw attention to youth violence.

When Tinsley started talking to Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairwoman Chontel Brown, the two-day temporary resident of Cleveland interrupted him again. He tried to play it off as if Chontel was being disrespected and he was her great protector. But it was obvious Jones didn’t like being revealed by someone who actually lives in Ward 7 as someone Tinsley didn’t know and has never seen.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” he said. Jones didn’t like hearing Tinsley say “nothing’s changed” with the new councilman.

Bishop Tony Minor stepped in with words to Jones to let Chontel and Tinsley talk as he became more belligerent in his attempt to control what was being heard.  Attention being on someone else than him was too much for the South Euclid resident’s ego; so the video shows him stepping in again to disrupt a conversation that had nothing to do with him between Brown and Tinsley.

Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairwoman Chontel Brown listened attentively to tendency after he didn’t fight Jones taking the microphone from him.

Jones, a government official, had already taken the microphone from Tinsley, a citizen, in violation of his 1st Amendment free speech rights. Jones’ interference with his 1st Amendment conversation with the Democratic Party’s chairwoman had some thinking he was going to get violent with Tinsley. 

The video shows men moving towards Brown and Jones as Tinsley controlled himself despite the outrageous and civil rights-violating conduct of the Cleveland government official.  One of the men is Cleveland councilman  Blaine Griffin.

In the photo with Jones facing the camera it features a section of the video where Jones is badgering Tinsley with “what’s your solution?’ questions. When Tinsley answers Jones says he doesn’t want to hear it. 
Tinsley’s FB live recording reveals the mind-numbing immaturity of Ward 7’s first year councilman who lied about his residency to win an election in 2017.
The video shows how he spent his temporary two-days of residency in a tent on the corner of 79th & Superior. Suppressing black free speech again.
After taking the microphone from Robert Tinsley, he decided to step in between the conversation the man was having with Democratic Party chairmwoman Chontel Brown from a second time. This time me in the background like Councilman Blaine Griffin moved forward to step in case Jones got violent. Tinsley, the video shows, was always controlled and respectful.

The event was a fundraiser to raise money for the museum.  Mayor Frank Jackson’s building officials had cleared the building for occupancy earlier in the week.  Jones decided the building was unsafe for occupancy and called police to supersede the mayor’s authorization to open it.

His acts stepped across the legal authority of a member of council.  Jackson had his chief of police, Calvin Williams, tell cops to ignore Jones’ calls and authorized the event to continue uninterrupted.  
Jones won the council seat by 13 votes from incumbent councilman TJ Dow in tight primary and general elections.  Instead of making friends the South Euclid resident continues to anger Ward 7 residents with “hood rat” tactics like those he used against Tinsley.  
Residents have twice circulated petitions to recall Jones after less than a year on council.  Some of Jones’ critics are predicting he’ll face criminal charges before his term of office expires.

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Eric Jonathan Brewer

Cleveland's most influential journalist and East Cleveland's most successful mayor is an East Saint Louis, Illinois native whose father led the city's petition drive in 1969 to elect the first black mayor in 1971. Eric is an old-school investigative reporter whose 40-year body of editorial work has been demonstrably effective. No local journalist is feared or respected more.

Trained in newspaper publishing by the legendary Call & Post Publisher William Otis Walker in 1978 when it was the nation's 5th largest Black-owned publication, Eric has published and edited 13 local, regional and statewide publications across Ohio. Adding to his publishing and reporting resume is Eric's career in government. Eric served as the city's highest paid part-time Special Assistant to ex-Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White. He served as Chief of Staff to ex-East Cleveland Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor; and Chief of Communications to the late George James in his capacity as the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's first Black executive director. Eric was appointed to serve as a member of the state's Financial Planning & Supervision Commission to guide the East Cleveland school district out of fiscal emergency and $20 million deficit. Former U.S. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson told Eric in his D.C. office he was the only mayor in the nation simultaneously-managing a municipal block grant program. Eric wrote the city's $2.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant application. A HUD Inspector General audit of his management of the block grant program resulted in "zero" audit findings.

As a newspaper publisher, Eric has used his insider's detailed knowledge of government and his publications to lead the FBI and state prosecutors to investigations that resulted in criminal prosecutions of well-known elected officials in Ohio; and have helped realign Cleveland's political landscape with the defeat of candidates and issues he's exposed. Eric's stories led to the indictments of the late Governor George Voinovich's brother, Paul Voinovich of the V Group, and four associates. He asked the FBI to investigate the mayor he'd served as chief of staff for public corruption; and testified in three federal trials for the prosecution. He forced former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj to admit her investigations of police killings were fraudulent; and to issue notices to local police that her investigators would control police killing investigations. Eric's current work has resulted in Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo accepting the criminal complaint he guided an activist to file against 24 civil rights-violating police officers in the city he once led for operating without valid peace officer credentials. USA Today reporters picked up on Eric's police credentials reporting from his social media page and made it national.

Eric is the author of of his first book, "Fight Police License Plate Spying," which examines the FBI and local police misuse of the National Crime Information Center criminal records history database. An accomplished trumpet player and singer whose friendship with Duke Fakir of the Four Tops resulted in his singing the show's closing song, "Can't Help Myself": Curtis Sliwa of New York's Guardian Angels counts Eric among his founding chapter leaders from the early 1980's role as an Ohio organizer of over 300 volunteer crime fighters in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio. For his work as a young man Eric was recognized by Cleveland's Urban League as it's 1983 Young Man of the Year.

Known in Cleveland for his encyclopedic knowledge of government and history, and intimately-connected with the region's players, every local major media outlet in Cleveland has picked up on one of Eric's stories since 1979. There is no mainstream newspaper, television or radio outlet in Cleveland that does not include an interview with Eric Jonathan Brewer in its archives over the past 40 years.

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