As the city of Akron reaches the midpoint of Mayor Shammas Malik’s first term, residents are being encouraged to celebrate a list of accomplishments promoted through podcasts, press releases and carefully curated messaging.
Leadership is not measured by branding, picture taking or talking points. It is measured by outcomes, and when it comes to public safety, housing and economic opportunity, the gap between rhetoric and reality continues to widen.
For the poor White, Black and Brown communities who are living in fear of the Akron police, leadership starts with public safety. From 2012 through 2023, there were 15 settlements involving police misconduct, according to publicly available settlement records and Law Department disclosures. At that point, the city of Akron averaged approximately 1.36 police use-of-force settlement cases per year…