For months, protesters have been flooding the public comment period at Cleveland City Council meetings demanding council support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War.
The at-times loud and disruptive nature of the demands has apparently unsettled some council members struggling to manage meetings.
At a safety committee meeting on Jan. 10, concerns over security at council meetings focused on reports of protesters who tried to enter council chambers with contraband.
“I was informed by three officers that the protesters tried to bring into city hall contraband that would be used against council members, that was going to be thrown against council members — specifically, fruit,” said Ward 8 Councilmember Mike Polensek.
He questioned Cleveland’s Police Chief Wayne Drummond about what he said officers thought was a bag of tomatoes.
Police told the people to leave the fruit in their car, and then allowed them to proceed to the council meeting on Jan. 8, according to a police spokesperson.
This did not sit well with Polensek.
“What concerned me greatly was they were still allowed to come in after the contraband was confiscated,” he said.
Polensek’s comments generated a lot of interest. The mayor’s office and police fielded questions about the contraband. A local TV news station wanted to know — did someone plan to throw tomatoes at the mayor and council?
They weren't tomatoes and not for throwing, protester says
“They’re not tomatoes, and they weren’t rotten. They were beautifully ripe persimmons," said Ayat Amin, who was the person who brought the fruit to city council. "I can’t believe they were called rotten tomatoes. I was so insulted.”
What is a persimmon?
A persimmon is a kind of berry about the size of a tomato. While they’re often found in the specialty fruit section of grocery stores, they're native to the Middle East and North America.
The persimmon was first described on these shores in a 16th-century description of Hernando de Soto’s expedition to the southeastern United States, according to a 2005 research paper titled "The Common Persimmon: The History of an Underutilized Fruit Tree."
The first English language description of a persimmon was in Thomas Herriot’s "A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia," published in 1588. Early English settler John Smith, of Pocahontas fame, described Native Americans pruning persimmons in Virginia in 1612.
There’s a common misperception that persimmons only ripen after the first frost. That’s not always true. They, however, do not taste good until fully ripe.
“It tastes more similar to a plum and an apricot than it does to a tomato," said Amin.
She and her roommate are part of a group called Food Not Bombs that rescues food from restaurants, markets and grocery stores before it goes bad. Sometimes the food includes bulk items — before the meeting, Amin got a bag of persimmons.
Amin said she brought the persimmons for eating, not throwing.
“We were there from five til 9 p.m.," she said. "I had a lot of persimmons at home, and I thought I'd bring them to share.”
Amin brought the fruit to council at a time of heightened tensions.
Since Cleveland City Council added public comment in 2021, members have struggled to balance respect for the public’s free speech rights with expectations of decorum in the legislative body.
It has not always gone smoothly — especially since the Israel-Hamas War began in October attracting an at times unruly public to council chambers. Members of the public's mics have been cut, police have removed at least one person from chambers and a First Amendment lawsuit is working its way through court.
Food as a protest projectile, a history
Although it is tomatoes that have most famously entered the popular consciousness as a response to mediocre theater, food has been used as a protest projectile for millennia.
Rioters reportedly pelted Roman Emperor Vespasian with turnips around 63 AD. More recently, climate activists in Germany threw mashed potatoes at a painting by French Impressionist Claude Monet.
This is anxiety-inducing for some politicians. Former President Donald Trump said he feared protesters would hit him with "very dangerous" fruit at rallies.
Protesters wonder if anxiety over fruit is a symptom of bias
Amin said she thinks council was suspicious of her fruit because of who the protesters are.
She’s a Muslim woman and part of the group who has been coming to city council meetings for months, asking them to pass a declaration calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
“The way that council is reacting to the group that is coming to public comment these days has been showing a lot of negative bias that council has towards the Muslim community,” she said.
Council President Blaine Griffin did not respond to calls for comment.
There have been other comments that demonstrated bias, Amin said. After protesters disrupted a meeting in November, Councilmember Joe Jones said he felt traumatized and had a newfound need to protect himself.
“Mr. Chairman, I never had to think about that. I even told the safety chairman today I’m going to have to go buy me a gun now," he said during a safety committee meeting. "Because I’m not going to come down here [and] let you disturb my peace and break me up and then put a bomb up under my car.”
Councilmember Stephanie Howse-Jones called Jones’ comments ignorant during the meeting.
Amin said the comment about the bomb under his car showed a biased view of Muslims as terrorists.
Jones later apologized.
Amin said she’s concerned suspicions of fruit throwing in council means the protesters’ central message is getting lost.
“We are not a violent crowd," she said. "We're just asking for a cease-fire — literally an end to violence.”
Amin plans to be back at council, but won't bring the persimmons because they've been turned into jam, and will continue pressuring council members to take the same position, she said.
The next council meeting is Monday at 7 p.m.
