Cleveland City Council mulls rule changes after protests interrupt council meeting

Cleveland City Council is considering stricter rules regarding public behavior at council meetings after hundreds of pro-Palestine demonstrators packed and interrupted Monday night's meeting.

Protesters called on Mayor Justin Bibb to denounce a post he made on X, formerly Twitter, after Hamas, the militant group governing the Gaza Strip, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 Israelis.

The Associated Press reports that in the weeks following the attack, Israel's military ground campaign and airstrikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 Palestinian civilians.

For weeks, protesters have flooded public comment asking Bibb to support Palestinians and retract his statement, some calling Israel's action "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide."

As public commenters spoke during Monday night's meeting, demonstrators held up signs with names and ages of Palestinian children they said had been killed in the war. When those who were signed up for public comment to speak on behalf of Israel were not present, cheers erupted through the crowd, with chants of "Free Palestine."

Griffin said the commenters who did not appear felt "intimidated and threatened," which was "inappropriate and unacceptable."

“I get it. This is their homeland. This is the Palestinian homeland. These are people they love. People they care about. I would be frustrated too," Griffin told Ideastream on Tuesday. "But at the same time, we run an organization, and we run a system here that is built on making sure everybody’s voice can be heard, and that's what was frustrating yesterday."

"They have every right to be frustrated and have their opinion but they don’t have a right to make anybody uncomfortable, anybody intimidated," he said.

Tensions heated up in the later part of the meeting. After Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones spoke about trick-or-treating in her ward and asked people to make sure to vote in the upcoming Nov. 7 election. Following her comments, a member of the crowd began a chant that sounded like "Mayor Bibb, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide."

The 200-hundred-plus protesters in attendance joined in, even after Council President Blaine Griffin repeatedly banged his gavel and threatened to remove demonstrators from the chamber.

"I'm going to ask that we escort our guests out of here," Griffin said after several minutes of unwavering chanting. "Do I need to do it myself?"

The chant leader was ultimately removed by Cleveland police. Dozens of other protestors followed him out.

During the meeting on Oct. 23, demonstrators chanting "Free Palestine" were moved to the hallway and the council chambers doors were shut after a public commenter expressed support for Israel.

"It’s a legitimate topic that they’re talking about," Griffin said. "The problem is sometimes it’s the aggressive nature of how you confront people."

Mayor Justin Bibb's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Council considers more public comment and disruption crackdown

Monday night's protestors are not the first to take to a council meeting to criticize local officials.

Last month, Cleveland City Council came under fire from free speech advocates after cutting the microphones of several public commenters for a variety of reasons including making homophobic and anti-Semitic comments and criticizing elected officials by name, which Griffin said violates council rules.

Andy Geronimo, the director of the First Amendment Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, told Ideastream that if a municipality offers a public comment period, they must adhere to First Amendment rights, which includes allowing hate speech.

The First Amendment Clinic has since offered to legally represent Chris Martin, one of the two public commenters whose microphone was cut after discussing a council member's receipt of funds from a political action group.

At that time, Griffin said council was considering strengthening rules to prevent unruly conduct, a sentiment he doubled down on after Monday's demonstration.

Cleveland City Council

He said the display clearly violated council's rules, which include holding up signs in council chambers.

"If we continue to see outbursts and people continue to disrupt the city business like this, we’re going to have to deal with law enforcement and others to mitigate civil unrest," Griffin said. "Because I think it turned from public comment to, quite frankly, civil unrest."

Griffin said council is looking to beef up security and police presence, but he is also planning on reaching out to local Arab-American and Palestinian leaders to help the group "police themselves."

He also said council is considering changing public comment rules, but could not yet reveal details. He said he will be meeting with all members of council in two weeks to discuss new rules and will make those changes public when they reach an agreement.

Councilmember Mike Polensek said he believes public comment should be restricted to city of Cleveland residents only. Some of Monday's speakers were from surrounding suburbs.

The discussion comes as the council considers an ordinance designed to bring local rules in line with state laws, including a move to change "disrupting a lawful meeting" from a fourth-degree to a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying the potential for a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.

In an Oct. 25 safety committee meeting, several council members voted against moving the measure forward, citing free speech concerns and a lack of clarity about what kinds of meetings would be governed by the ordinance.

"I have real First Amendment concerns here," Ward 17 Councilmember Charles Slife said in the committee meeting. "So I'm surprised that it's in state law, and I’m not sure that’s something we should be reflecting in local law to the degree we already are."

That ordinance has been tabled while council waits for clarification from the law department.

There is no Cleveland City Council meeting next Monday ahead of the November 7 Election Day.