CROWD CHANTS WITH SPEAKER:
"...not in Arizona...NOT IN OHIO...not in Ohio...AND NOT IN CLEVELAND. And not in Cleveland."
About 80 people gathered alongside Cleveland City Hall - protesting the immigration bill that has stirred national emotions, and demanding legal measures be taken to bar similar action here...
Following vigils and rallies in Lake County Saturday, the largely Latino and African American crowd in Cleveland TODAY cheered more than a dozen speakers, each supportive of federal immigration reform.
Some of them, including State Senator Nina Turner, used lessons of the past... as a warning for the future.
SEN. NINA TURNER
"This Arizona law is nothing more than a frenzy of fear and a frenzy of hate. We've been through the bad, bad days in this country before, and we are not going back to that...." (applause)
Local Episcopalian Minister Tracy Lind admonished elected local and federal officials to step outside politics, and vote their conscience...
REV. TRACEY LIND
"To stand up for immigration policies that renew the dignities and human rights of everyone."
60 yards away, Arzone Melnick was one of a quartet from the Grassroots Rally Team of Northeast Ohio; the local branch of a statewide group that supports the Arizona law - and would 'like' to see it enacted in Ohio.
They did not disrupt the larger group, but pushed their points with passersby.
ARZONE MELNICK:
"Something needs to be done, and if the federal government can't do it, then I think each state should have the opportunity to have something, pass a law to protect the citizens and the state."
Cleveland officials attended the rally - but did not promise the city would take any pre-emptive action to try to head off a law like Arizona's in the near future.
Rick Jackson, 90.3.
