News

Lead lawyers in the federal lawsuit for protestors subjected to false arrests, illegal use of chemical weapons, and assaults by Columbus police officers during the Black Lives Matter protests in the Summer of 2020 announced today a settlement has been reached.

Attorneys John Marshall and Fred Gittes reported that, subject to final approval at the December 13 meeting of the Columbus City Council, the City will pay $5.75 million and abide by a permanent injunction barring use of non-lethal but dangerous weapons, chemical agents, and police tactics against peaceful protestors.

Environmental coalition cited as instrumental in setting city’s climate goals in line with climate science

Sustainable Columbus unveiled the city’s first Climate Action Plan (CAP) on Thursday, December 9, 2021, with an ambitious overall goal of reducing carbon emissions 45% by 2030, in line with climate science. 

More than a year in the making, the final CAP contains a series of goals and action steps to reduce emissions, increase equity, and make Columbus more sustainable in five areas: Climate Solutions, Sustainable Neighborhoods, Buildings, Transportation, and Waste. Its overall goal is to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 5.2 million metric tons by 2030, or 45%. 

For safety reasons, the names of the sources in this article are aliases.

This past Monday morning, students were shocked to find white supremacist propaganda spread around Ohio State University’s campus. Flyers saying “HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS” were pasted over mask mandate signs.

An OSU spokesperson told the Free Press the University “emphatically rejects racism and religious intolerance of any kind.” They said, “in accordance with the university’s policy on signage, the flyers were removed.”

This isn’t the first time white supremacist propaganda has been posted on OSU campus this school year. Flyers with lengthy and incoherent statements about immigrants and quotes from Hitler were found in September and students say this is a consistent occurrence. The constant presence of white supremacist hate groups on campus has many students worried for their safety.

Today’s full page plus story in the Columbus Dispatch titled, “Group: Road done for developer not safety” reveals the never ending unethical, underhanded unbridled perpetual deal making that goes on in Columbus City Hall.  

Former Columbus City Council candidate Joe Motil says, “Like Centerplate, Redflex and Colemans house sale to a Chinese businesswoman, the Little Turtle road project reeks of political corruption that runs rampant through the Public Service Department, City Attorney’s office and exposes Coleman's reign over City Council President Shannon Hardin and other City Council members.”   

Former Columbus City Council candidate Joe Motil, who for several years has been Columbus’s most outspoken critic of the Mayor and City Council’s blanket tax abatement policies, states that, “You can certainly tell that the Columbus City Council election is over and it’s back to business as usual. It has been nine months since a $54 million tax abatement was handed out to an unknown data center operator. Heaven forbids that such an outrageous one night of nine unjustified tax abatements of just over $55 million be given out during the election season that could give an opponent and the media something of concern to bring to light to the voters of Columbus. Well, I guess we can only hope that they will be enlightened by this historic moment this evening of continued thievery by the mayor and city council members of our property tax revenues.”                   

When and where is non-conforming high density new development appropriate? For several years now, residents from across Columbus, especially in urban neighborhoods (but not limited to) have been at odds with developers and city officials on this question.

For example, the University District’s Pavey Square initially proposed to demolish an entire city block of historic structures and replace them with a 10-story apartment complex. A 5-story 117-unit apartment building at South 18th and Oak Streets in Old Towne East brought concerns from nearby residents about height and density. And most recently, the fight over the Pizutti proposal to re-develop the former Giant Eagle site in Schumacher Place with a 262-unit 62-foot-tall mixed use apartment complex. Although zoning variances were  approved by Columbus City Council, the project has been allowed to proceed but the re-zoning is being appealed in the courts by nearby homeowners. Many more examples of contentious developments could be added to this list.

The COP 26 climate talks took place in Glasgow, Scotland last week. COP stands for Conference of Parties – it is the annual meeting of countries of the world under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to discuss and make commitments for dealing with the climate crisis.

Although COPs occur every year – and have been happening for the past 26 years – some COPs are more important that others. Most important in recent history was COP 21 in Paris, when for the first time all nations of the world agreed to make their own voluntary commitments, known as National Determined Contributions, to fight the climate crisis.

Although the total of national commitments in Paris was not enough to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) – the limit that the agreement set – the nations did agree to meet every five years to ratchet up their commitments. COP 26 in Glasgow – rescheduled from 2020 due to the covid pandemic – was the first meeting at which these additional commitments were to take place.

We republish this article from 2015. US Army veteran Gena Smith (pictured above) served in Iraq as an intelligence specialist and experience combat many times during her year-long deployment. She is also a victim of Military Sexual Trauma or MST. She currently resides in Seattle.

No surprise is how the Columbus Division of Police and its union, the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, are heavy with MAGA.

The Free Press and the community understand why some of our police, if not a majority, are this way. The Division is mostly white and male, many reside in rural counties outside Columbus, and last, but certainly not least, some harbor anger towards their perceived outlook of America’s future.

The job of a police officer is dangerous and stressful, and we need police to protect are most vulnerable. They deserve good pay and good cops deserve respect.

But what is not okay is Columbus police and its union forcing  extremist political ideology onto the community (especially young people).

One unnerving concern facing this entire nation is, how far will MAGA go to get their way?

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant repeatedly stated during her first four months of leadership that she will hold her officers accountable for any misconduct. 

As recently as October 6 at the meeting of the Columbus Metropolitan Club, in response to the recent arrests of two Division of Police narcotics officers accused of selling large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine, Bryant told the audience, "Any time we find officers that are doing wrong we want to hold them accountable so if these allegations are proven to be true we will hold every single person accountable for everything they are found to do that are not within the standards of this division. Period."

One month ago, she was given the opportunity to discipline three supervisors who participated in retaliatory actions against Columbus Police Lieutenant Mellissa McFadden in connection with her book, Walking the Thin Black Line: Confronting Racism in the Columbus Division of Police, released September 2020.