Akron’s mayor Shammas Malik often says, “Safety is the number one priority for our administration.” He said this as recently as Oct. 17, 2024, while announcing a decline in violent crime rates while standing alongside police chief Brian Harding. This was just a month after a chemical plant hidden in the middle of a residential neighborhood caught fire, forcing residents to evacuate. One month later, the Akron Police Department chased down high school freshman Jazmir Tucker and killed him with three shots to the back. The mayor has also offered no resistance to the venture capital takeover of the city’s non-profit health care system.
Police violence and incompetence
On Nov. 28, 2024, Akron Police Department officer Davon Fields killed 15-year-old Tucker by shooting him three times in the back, after police had responded to the sound of gunfire.
In the released body camera footage, two APD officers pursue Tucker on foot before Fields fires his accessorized assault rifle multiple times, striking Tucker three times in the back. They left Tucker to bleed on the ground for more than seven minutes, shouting commands at his unresponsive body and administering no aid. A gun that was found on Tucker’s body was in a zipped-up coat pocket, firmly out of reach.
That the officers were chasing Tucker, that the shots were to his back and that the only weapon on his person was zipped inside a coat pocket, make it apparent that Tucker posed no threat to the officers. He was a child, killed in cold blood.
Local media reports show that the killer cop Fields has a long history of violence. In 2022, Fields shot and killed 21-year-old Lawrence Rodgers during a chaotic call. The body camera footage did not show what actually transpired when Rodgers was killed. Fields was also present when Jayland Walker was killed by the APD in 2022, being shot 46 times while fleeing APD officers.
Fields has filed 36 use-of-force incidents. These reports contain multiple instances of Fields pulling his service weapon on people fleeing from him and of him striking suspects who were already on the ground. In an April 2024 incident, Fields threatened a woman, tased her, struck her in the face and then pushed his taser into her as she was being handcuffed on the ground by other officers.
More funds for killer cops
Malik’s first city budget, passed in 2024, provided a massive funding increase to the APD. The new police budget totaled $92 million, up from the $78 million it was allocated in 2023. Police funding was increased under the rationale that “safety is [Akron’s] number one priority.” However, according to the APD’s own statistics, use-of-force incidents have increased by 38%. Between January and October 2023, 195 use-of-force incidents were reported, going up to 269 use-of-force incidents between January and October 2024.
The city budget has given police an additional $14 million to brutalize people with, while working-class Akronites remain trapped in poverty. All this money could go towards actually improving the lives of Akron’s people, particularly its poorest populations, but instead it is handed over to killer cops who only grow more violent year after year. We must ask the question: whose safety has been improved by this increase in funding? Who is safer now, a dead teenager or the officers who killed him?
The acquisition of Summa Health
Working-class Black residents will also be disproportionally affected by the acquisition of the non-profit Summa Health. Historically, Summa Health has accepted anyone regardless of whether or not they could afford treatment, making it vital for people who are impoverished and unable to pay for expensive medical care. In January 2024, it was announced that the venture capital firm General Catalyst would be acquiring Summa Health and privatizing it, transforming it into a for-profit corporation.
The purchase, negotiated behind closed doors between Summa capitalists and the venture capital firm and decided without the input or approval of Akronites, has been marketed as something which will improve the quality and accessibility of care. But we know that this will not be the case. Research on for-profit health care reveals that patients suffer from higher fees and increased levels of disparity along racial and class lines, and that workers suffer increased hours and layoffs. Health care workers will also lose qualification for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, available only to non-profit employees, which helps pay off student loans, making for-profit hospitals a less desirable workplace.
When health care becomes unaffordable and nurses and doctors are overworked and artificially stressed by the conditions put on them by their employer, patients receive a lower quality of care. If people cannot afford health care and they are turned away at the doors of the hospital because of this, they will die. Malik and Akron city government are complicit in the scheme, having put up no resistance to (and some even approving) the for-profit takeover of the city’s main care institution.
The chemical fire on Rosemary Blvd.
On Sept. 5, 2024, a chemical plant on Rosemary Blvd. in East Akron owned by SMB Products caught fire, creating a huge smoke plume visible for miles. An evacuation zone with a radius of 0.5 miles around the site of the incident was declared, encompassing multiple working-class neighborhoods. Stored on site were hazardous chemicals including methanol, xylene and propane, the latter giving cause for concern of explosion to firefighters on the scene.
Some residents had no idea that they had a chemical plant for a neighbor. Local resident Joon Kostar told Signal Akron, “I didn’t know that they kept – I didn’t know what they did there. I didn’t know it was full of, like, highly flammable, dangerous chemicals.”
Others knew of the plant’s existence. Several residents, who only wanted their first names used, spoke to Liberation News. Richard said that the plant has been on fire before: “This isn’t the first time. That’s why they changed their name.” The SMB Products plant was previously owned by Koki Laboratory.
Laray, another affected resident asked, “Why is this plant across from a residential area? From a daycare? There are a lot of kids in this area.”
“What is this, a kill-off-the-poor campaign? Bringing a chemical plant next to a neighborhood?” asked local resident Linda. “They wouldn’t put these plants in a rich area, they instead put them in our area.”
These residents were not contacted by Akron’s government after the fire. They reported to Liberation News that they did not feel safe in their homes, and that they felt they were maliciously neglected by the city. They questioned how city zoning laws allowed for a chemical plant to be placed next to a neighborhood full of families and next to a daycare facility. A dangerous chemical plant like this would never be placed in a middle-class suburb, but Akron’s government allowed it in a neighborhood of impoverished Black Americans.
Connecting the dots: a war on Black Akronites
One thread unites all three of these stories from 2024: the victims left in their wake were and are primarily Black. Jazmir Tucker was a Black teenager. The purchase of Summa Health will disproportionately hurt Black Akronites, who are systematically and disproportionately impoverished due to centuries of racist policy. The neighborhoods surrounding the SMB Products chemical plant are majority Black.
Poverty, police violence and hazardous environments in Akron are hurting and killing its Black residents. Dire poverty, repeated police brutality and total disregard for peoples’ health make it clear that for Black Americans, safety is not the first priority of Akron.
As it stands, Akron only seems to be getting more dangerous for Black Americans, Akron’s most vulnerable demographic. If safety is truly a priority, it must include Black Akronites. The city must stop funding killer cops, ensure that health care is accessible to all and make all neighborhoods safe places to live without the looming threat of industrial accidents requiring residents to evacuate. Black Akronites deserve access to quality and affordable health care, livable neighborhoods free from pollution, protection from industrial accidents and safety from killer cops.
Feature photo: Fire burns at the SMB Products chemical plant in East Akron, Ohio, Sept. 5, 2024. Liberation Photo
