Local activists angered by mixed messages in Amy Acton’s campaign
Statements made by Democratic gubernational candidate Amy Acton regarding qualified immunity and ICE have riled progressives and leftist activists throughout Ohio.
Acton told reporters on Tuesday she supports keeping qualified immunity in place for government workers – even though she signed the petition to end qualified immunity, say activists. Acton also said she backs local police cooperating with ICE agents to apprehend immigrants.
Columbus resident Cynthia Brown has led the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity (OCTEQI) for nearly a decade. After years of underhanded rejection from duplicitous state officials, the Ohio Attorney General in 2024 finally allowed the OCTEQI to begin collecting the 400,000-plus signatures needed for the “Protecting Ohioans’ Constitutional Rights Amendment” to be put on a future ballot.
Brown’s inspiration to end qualified immunity in Ohio began after her 30-year-old nephew Kareem Ali Nadir Jones in 2017 was shot in the back and killed by Columbus police who should never have approached Jones in the first place because he was simply walking down a back alley.
Qualified immunity is a legal loophole that makes it almost impossible to sue government officials when constitutional rights are violated. The doctrine was established by the US Supreme Court in 1967, and it shields government officials, especially law enforcement, from being held personally liable for civil damages.
Local activists have said it time and time again: the only way to change the behavior of law enforcements’ “bad actors” is through policy.
“She has physically signed the petition on multiple times,” said Brown, who asked Acton directly at multiple events for her support.
Regarding Acton’s recent pro-qualified immunity and law enforcement’s ICE cooperation statements, Brown surmised, “I think she was told by her running rate, David Pepper to do this, though David Pepper also signed the petition. Most importantly, she should have told the truth. She could have won this race, but now she has isolated voters. White men on her team are sabotaging her campaign.”
Brown says Acton and Pepper’s playbook was predictable. Establishment politics ask Black and Brown communities to line up and vote, but when candidates run statewide, the consultants tell them to shift to the center right. They start talking about expanding enforcement, embracing ICE, and backing off real systemic accountability to appease swing voters.
“Black policy power gets sidelined. Look at the history,” she says. “When the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was introduced in 2020, leaders like Sherrod Brown co-sponsored it, standing alongside civil rights organizers to demand an end to qualified immunity. Fast forward to the election cycle, and when the political pressure mounts, the stance shifts.”
Acton’s statements came during an event in which she received the endorsement of the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Acton could become the first ever female Ohio governor and the first Democrat since Ted Strickland in 2006.
Yet her aspirations for the governor’s mansion are no doubt dependent on the Black, Brown or urban Ohio vote, and the fallout from her statements was swift.
On Facebook, Columbus NAACP president Sean Walton Jr. put his feeling into a single word: “Man.” He was responding to what local activist and lead organizer for the People’s Justice Project Ramon Obey II had stated, “Talk about blowing A layup.”
And while her stance on qualified immunity will have a lasting effect, what she had to say about ICE was arguably more chilling. Expressly to thousands of Haitians in Ohio facing imminent deportation back to a homeland gripped by gang violence, hunger and anarchy.
“We always work with the federal law enforcement, and we will do so – whatever it takes to keep Ohioans safe,” said Acton.
Cynthia Brown says establishment Democrats expect impacted families and community leaders to fall in line for candidates like Amy Acton. Instead, we should be demanding non-negotiable commitments on constitutional accountability and civil rights.
“We cannot keep accepting a strategy that trades fundamental civil rights protections for establishment expediency,” she says. “Real power isn’t given away at the ballot box for empty promises – it is built through direct democracy, community accountability and holding every leader’s feet to the fire. I will actively campaign against her.”