No meeting between mayor, Black Lives Matter activist

4/16/2018
BY SARAH ELMS
BLADE STAFF WRITER
  • CTY-protest11-5

    Demonstrators on Erie Street between the Safety Building, headquarters of the TPD, and One Government Center, in downtown Toledo. Black Lives Matter of Greater Atlanta organized a protest in Toledo after a video showed a Toledo Police Department officer cursing and insulting a resident during a call.

    The Blade/Jetta Fraser
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    • Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Sir Maejor Page.

    A tentatively scheduled meeting between Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and an activist from Black Lives Matter Greater Atlanta did not take place Monday morning.

    The mayor offered the 7:30 a.m. meeting with Sir Maejor Page, the organization’s president, after he and other protesters on April 11 marched to One Government Center and gathered in the mayor’s office lobby to demand a meeting. The protesters were demonstrating to denounce police misconduct and cited a video on Facebook depicting a Toledo police officer swearing at a resident and raising his middle finger as the impetus for their march.

    VIDEO: Toledo Police officer curses at person

    Mayor Kapszukiewicz was unavailable to meet with Mr. Page on April 11 but offered the Monday morning meeting as an alternative. City spokesman Ignazio Messina said the mayor’s office reached out to the group several times after their protest to firm up the meeting, but Mr. Page would not confirm the sit down and did not show up to the mayor’s office Monday.

    Attempts to reach Mr. Page on Monday were unsuccessful, but in a phone interview Tuesday he said the mayor’s office did not extend a formal invitation to meet.

    The video that prompted last week’s march, posted March 10, shows Sgt. James Taylor and Toledo resident Corvin English in a dispute. The footage shows Mr. English telling the sergeant to stop approaching him because he feels threatened. The sergeant replies that he does not care.

    Mr. English later calls Sergeant Taylor a coward, and the sergeant calls Mr. English a criminal, the video shows.

    Toledo police gave Sergeant Taylor a verbal reprimand after the video surfaced.