Cuyahoga County Sheriff surrounds Justice Center with temporary fencing ahead of continued protests against police brutality

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- County workers on Friday encased the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in temporary metal fencing on Friday ahead of scheduled protests against police brutality.

Sheriff David Schilling ordered the fencing installed “to protect the public and employees and inmates for whom we’re responsible," county spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan said.

Saturday’s protest is scheduled to take place at 2p.m. outside the Second District police station on Fulton Road, a 3.5 mile walk from the Justice Center. Other demonstrations have seen protesters march for several miles.

Crews and volunteers have spent several days this week repairing the damage to the Justice Center, including scrubbing off vulgar, anti-police graffiti and boarding up broken windows left in the wake of last Saturday’s demonstrations.

The Justice Center complex is largely the epicenter of the criminal justice system in Cuyahoga County. It houses felony and misdemeanor courts, the headquarters of Cleveland police and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department and the county jail, where more than 1,000 inmates are housed. Saturday’s mass protest that began at the Free Stamp a block east quickly made its way to the Justice Center, where police blocking the building’s glass doors clashed with protesters who threw items including water bottles and food at the officers.

Many people who were at the Justice Center, including legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild, said the police department failed to give an audible order for the crowd to disperse before they began firing canisters of tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets and other “non-lethal munitions” on the crowd.

Cleveland police said officers also reported having rocks thrown at them at the Justice Center, but seven people who spoke to cleveland.com who were at the front of the confrontation, including three legal observers, said they saw no rocks thrown.

The vandalism to the building escalated after police began deploying the munitions on the crowd. People smashing windows of the building on all sides. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said a group of people breached the Justice Center with the intent to free inmates. The county has not responded to cleveland.com’s requests for security video of the incident.

Schilling told cleveland.com this week that his department was not prepared for last Saturday’s events to turn chaotic, and some business owners have publicly accused the city of Cleveland of not being adequately prepared after demonstrations in cities across the nation saw police clashes, riots and looting.

Williams said at a news conference on Friday that the department has a plan in place for this weekend’s demonstration.