Local
Sunday, June 21, 12pm
Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square
“We need in every bay and community a group of angelic troublemakers.”
Bayard Rustin
Join Kingfinity and the Columbus, Ohio LGBTQ+ Community as We March Against Racism and Police Brutality. Stand With Us As We March For Black Lives!
Did you miss the June Free Press Second Saturday Cyber-Salon?
If so, here's a run-down of what happened and how you can be involved next time!
COLUMBUS, OH: June 17, 2020 - Today a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, demanding the immediate suspension of a unique Columbus City Charter provision which places a one year timeline on ballot initiative petition gathering. The City’s June 18 deadline on signature gathering for the petitioners is unconstitutional during the Covid-19 pandemic, because it effectively kills ballot access, according to the lawsuit.
“The City cannot have its cake and eat it too,” says volunteer petitioner Kathy McGlone. “One day they say democracy and a safe response to the pandemic can co-exist. Yet they refuse to take action to safeguard the petition process, effectively killing our promising ballot initiative drive.”
Mayor Ginther has taken action on a few fronts: Ginther signed an executive order last week that would require all police killings and uses of lethal force to be investigated by Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations working under the Ohio Attorney General, ordering tear gas and mace to no longer be used against peaceful protestors, announcing that Columbus will join the ‘8 can’t wait’ campaign, and establishing a panel to advise Chief Thomas Quinlan.
But what about the CDP officers who have killed Columbus residents yet still work for CDP and facing no indictments? It is often said there are only a few “bad apples” tarnishing the entire force.
Although Ginther didn’t specify whether these independent investigations on CDP would include reopening ones from the past, perhaps it would be beneficial to set a new precedent by seeking out justice for the unheard victims of CDP.
Columbus, Ohio Defend Black Lives Event
Friday, June 19, 2020, 11:30 AM
Juneteenth, celebrated on June nineteenth, is a day that honors Black freedom and Black resistance. This Juneteenth join MAG & the nationwide 6.19 Day of Action by attending this local event! Come join us for a few hours of celebration to commemorate Juneteenth at the MPACC BoxPark, 925 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43203. More information and sign up here.
Epstein came to my attention when I was an investigative journalist for one of Columbus, Ohio's alternative newsweeklies, Columbus Alive. Not many people know that the infamous Jeffrey Epstein spent a lot of time in Columbus in the 1990s and owned the second most valuable house in Franklin County (where Columbus resides), in the plush Stepford suburb known as New Albany. I investigated central Ohio billionaire Les Wexner's and Jeff Epstein’s ties to the intelligence community more than 20 years ago. Much of this is captured in two books – The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, and Nazis and The Fitrakis Files: Cops, Coverups, and Corruption (CICJ Books, freepress.org).
Thursday, June 18, 6-7pm on Facebook Live
https://www.facebook.com/byron.l.potts
Facebook event
Now that the protesters have the attention of the entire nation, it is our responsibility as Legal Professionals to help bring about change, and to educate the public about what steps they can take, too, to create the change they are fighting for. Focusing on what the Legal Professionals can do to educate the community on how to continue to push for change after the protests.
“There was nothing that I can tell was improper from that incident,” said Clermont County (Bethel) prosecutor Vince Farris about the sucker punch to the back of the head of a peaceful protester.
Since Sunday, June 14, the small town of Bethel, Ohio, became a dangerous place for peaceful anti-racist protesters after four different biker clubs arrived on the scene to confront the protesters, some of whom were physically assaulted.
The Free Pressspoke to several of the protesters who easily identified four different sets of biker vests among those throwing sucker punches and spewing the n-word. Also disconcerting is that bikers and Bethel police in several videos appear to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder facing down protesters.
“At times the police seemed too chummy with the bikers,” said one peaceful protester, a Bethel resident who was sucker punched several times in the face. “I saw police pat them on the back.”
