AKRON, Ohio — It was a sad and very frustrating day for many in the Akron Community on Saturday, as Juneteenth celebrations were scheduled throughout the day but none took place.
They were all canceled because on Friday night, City of Akron officials made a last-minute decision to cancel all large public events this weekend due to safety concerns in the wake of the mass shooting that took place in Akron on June 2.
"This is devastating," said Fela Sutton, one of the coordinators of the Akron Black Coalition's 26th Annual Juneteenth Festival. "This hurts my heart. All the effort that is put into this event. All the children who aren't here right now."
She said this to 3News on Saturday as she looked over an empty Stoner Hawkins Park, where the event should have been held.
Sutton said it was six months of planning unfulfilled.
"There's almost 100 to 200 kids here every year and we have so many supplies to give away and we have so much food that's just sitting at the house now," she continued. "I need to give it to the community, and we have to find out where we can still distribute these things to our children. I'm destroyed and my heart is broken. I don't know what to do but to keep working to make sure that this is corrected."
On Friday night, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik announced the cancellation of 11 public events this weekend, sharing a letter he received from eight Akron councilmembers asking that the weekend's Juneteenth celebrations be canceled, with tensions still high over the June 2 mass shooting that left one dead and 27 others injured at a party.
"When I have more than half of Akron City Council saying that these events are irresponsible, I have to weigh that," the mayor said.
Malik stressed that there was no credible threat, but he wanted to take the letter seriously.
Sutton and her co-organizer Matthew Talley are now expressing their frustration over the loss of an important cultural moment, and the tens of thousands of dollars that their events' vendors will lose.
"Things like that happen, they happen everywhere, they happen often, not just in Akron but all over the country," Talley said. "Nobody else cancels their community events because of poor behavior at a private house party."
Saturday afternoon, Akron City Council released a statement saying that they did not ask the mayor to cancel all large public events this weekend, but only Juneteenth ones, concerned over, "inequity of the police staff ratio for the different events."
3News asked the City of Akron for a response to this, and they told us that, "Chief Harding, Chief Henderson, Deputy Service Director Eufrancia Lash, and Mayor Malik worked hard this past week to ensure there was adequate safety staffing for this weekend’s events."
Mayor Malik said in a press conference Friday that he's working with organizers and vendors of the weekend's Juneteenth events to "make everyone whole."
The City of Akron will now host a Juneteenth event on Wednesday at the John S. Knight Center.
Sutton and Talley are saying it won't be the same.
“That's a city event," Talley said. "It's kind of different than a community event. This is for the community, by the community. A lot of these vendors are set up to bring their tents. They're used to outside events. It's a whole different atmosphere. You can't pull food trucks into the John S. Knight Center. There's certain things that you just can't do. The kids can't run free and play. It's just a different environment. It's kind of like the John S. Knight Center is the city corporate version, whereas this is the community version."
But he's encouraging all vendors to attend the event to hopefully reap back their financial losses.
"It probably won't even help a lot of them, but at least it's an opportunity for some of them to maybe get some exposure and make some of their money back because they've invested a lot into being here," Talley concluded.
The City of Akron is still finalizing details of Wednesday's event.
The full statement released on Saturday by members of Akron City Council in response to the cancellation of the events can be read below:
“We stand behind our expression of concern to Mayor Malik. We want to be clear that we did not request that the mayor cancel all large gatherings on city-owned property. We wrote a letter expressing our concern about the hosting of the Juneteenth events after an earlier attempt to convey the magnitude of those concerns, particularly about the inequity of the police staff ratio for the different events were unfruitful. The decision to attribute the scope of the concerns to all events being held on city-owned property, and cancel those events too was Mayor Malik’s decision and his decision alone.
While there may have been no known credible threats against this year’s Juneteenth events, the fact remains that gun play and gun violence is an everyday reality in the African American community. Gun violence is impacting the African American community in Akron at an alarming rate. Those who do not share such lived experiences are challenged to fully understand and appreciate the fear and trauma experienced by those for which gun violence is an everyday occurrence. A young man was shot at a Juneteenth event last year and his life will forever impacted. His shooter has still not been apprehended. Shootings occur at football practices. “Events can always take place, a lost life can never be replaced, said Ward 5 Councilman Johnnie Hannah. We appealed to the Mayor out of an abundance of caution and stand by our decision.” “The bottom line is that the request was to pause events due to the inequity of the police presence”, said Ward 4 Councilwoman Jan Davis. “I learned that Mayor Malik had been in conversations with the event organizers, but not one time did he or his staff reach out to me as the Ward representative.”
The Mayor’s Together for Akron platform speaks to a level of collaboration that was not evident in the planning of the Juneteenth events. The Mayor had an opportunity to reach out to the Council Members to work collaboratively in planning the Juneteenth events scheduled to take place this weekend. Neither the Mayor nor his Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt chose to do so. Additionally, the safety plan so often referenced was not shared with the relevant members of Council. We welcomed the opportunity to attend yesterday’s press conference but were informed by Chief of Strategy Nanette Pitt that the Council was not invited. When questioned about our absence on two occasions, the Mayor did not respond.
“Our constituents call us when problems arise and to express their fears, and the administration is reluctant to share information with Council that can assist in ensuring that the residents’ concerns are adequately addressed”, said Council President Margo Sommerville. “We have to do better; our city deserves better.”