Local
The following story has three sources, a local attorney acting as a protest legal observer and two current Columbus police officers. All insisted on remaining anonymous.
After all that has happened, one would think our Columbus police would have thought twice before arresting more peaceful protesters who are simply exercising their rights.
But on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, June 23-24, 2020, video and eye-witness evidence show certain units of Columbus police once again utilized the “jump out” strategy to target protesters and perhaps deliberately target protester leadership.
For instance, on Tuesday night in front of City Hall several marked police cruisers suddenly raced on the scene to confront peaceful protesters. Unprovoked officers emerged from their cruisers to arrest without warning at least nine protesters in just a few minutes. The protesters were simply holding up signs, chanting and not blocking traffic.
The House just passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (236-181). This legislation is historic and comprehensive in scope. Most importantly, this bill is responsive to the demands being pressed by demonstrators who are calling for policing reform and an end to police brutality. Dozens of member of Congress gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to make clear that this bill is needed to move our nation forward.
Here are the key components of the bill
Friday, Saturday & Sunday June 26-28th, 2020
Hosted at https://www.comfest.com/virtual-comfest-2020/ and on our Facebook page
Facebook event
Comfest Facebok page
Featuring performers, workshops, Street Fair vendors, Community Organizations, and a Program Guide for 2020.
Thursday, June 25, 7:30pm
Online Event
Facebook Event
Watch the movie Just Mercy on your own (streaming free for the month of June on Amazon Prime), then
Join a community conversation with Marcia Miller of Yoga on High and Abraham Bonowitz, co-director of the national group, Death Penalty Action. Abe is a Columbus resident who will share his experience of this work and update us on issues within our own state of Ohio.
Thursday, June 25, 7:30 to 8:45p.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime outspoken critic of the Columbus Police Department states, “Sunday’s use of tear gas and pepper spray on peaceful protesters in downtown Columbus should not have surprised anyone. Even with the mayor’s new directive on prohibiting the use of tear gas by Columbus Police on peaceful protesters just five days ago, Columbus cops continue to ignore any such orders.”
“And why on earth were members of the CPD dressed in riot gear? Putting on riot gear also puts officers in the mindset of preparing themselves to perform combat. The sight of this riot gear only escalated matters. It would appear that Chief Quinlan has lost control of his department,” he said.
Motil states that, an AP wire story in the June 22 Columbus Dispatch titled, “Injuries at protests draw review of weapons” claims that, “Rubber bullets and similar projectiles have damaged eyes or blinded at least 20 individuals from ages 16 to 59, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, since protests began over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.”
Tuesday, June 23, 2020, 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Daily
EVERY NIGHT we will be marching from Ohio's Statehouse to different Columbus communities.
Start gathering around 5:00 pm each night outside the Statehouse.
** We will begin the march around 6:30 pm and return to the Statehouse afterward. **
Join us to bring hope to Columbus' communities and keep up the push for change! #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor #SayTheirNames
After a day including an LGBTQ-Black Lives Matter march at noon and other anti-police brutality gatherings at the Statehouse this evening, the Columbus Police and SWAT seemed to anticipate trouble with an unprecedented and unnecessry show of force around 5pm, witnesses report. Bike cops rammed into protestors without provocation. On Facebook videos, police are seen running on the sidewalk and one wrestling with and punching a young black man. It is unclear what prompted this proactive violence on behalf of the police.
But a look at a June 19 Dispatch article might give a clue. The police union president Keith Ferrell complained that he was stymied by not being able to use tear gas -- it had beeen banned by Mayor Ginther -- to disperse a crowd. Perhaps starting a new riot after weeks of peaceful protests is what Ferrell needs to make his point.
A timeline from our Free Press photographer match with photos below:
5 pm: State police guarding the Ohio Statehouse during protests Sunday evening. Note red paint on stone facade, remnants of "bloody" handprints applied by protesters on Friday.
Back in the mid-sixties, in the heady days of Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society Program,’ I was working in my first job out of college as an ‘intergroup relations professional’ at the Detroit Commission on Community Relations. I spent my days helping to enforce newly enacted ‘open housing’ and ‘equal opportunity’ ordinances designed to begin reversing centuries of injustice against African Americans in the Motor City.
With two sociology degrees focused on race relations on my vita, I was assigned to design and facilitate a program of ‘racial sensitivity training’ for Detroit’s entire -notoriously racist - police force. The program was funded under the then newly created Federal Office of Equal Opportunity.