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Why the Article “Fact Check: Is Columbus the Most likely place in America for police to kill black people?” by The Columbus Dispatch Is a Flawed Analysis

List of cities and police killings

With the recent killings of Black citizens by police that made national and international headlines, Columbus’ troubling history on this topic has resurfaced. A graphic that originally circulated via social media four years ago after the killings of Henry Green and 13-year-old Ty’re King went viral in the past couple of weeks. On June 10th, The Columbus Dispatch posted an article, “Fact Check: Is Columbus the Most likely place in America for police to kill black people?” Their ruling of the graphic is that the information presented is false, however the analysis in this article is deeply flawed.

Let’s start with the title.

Cleveland’s Black Lives Matter tells Columbus: Our civilian review board has no true power

People marching with big banner

Mayor Ginther and many others are calling for a civilian review board to investigate and rule on police misconduct, but recent history from other cities has shown many civilian review boards to be mostly ineffective.

Take Minneapolis, which has had several civilian review boards come and go over this century. Since 2012, over 2,600 complaints were filed against police, but only 12 resulted in discipline, the most severe punishment being a 40-hour suspension, this according to the Communities United Against Police Brutality, a twin-city advocacy group.

The fundamental problem is, almost all civilian review boards in the US can only recommend how police should be punished. Out of the 200 civilian review boards in our major cities, only a handful have the authority to make final decisions on punishment.

Final say on punishment is instead delivered by a department’s chief of police or a city’s safety director.

If Minneapolis had a civilian review board with the final authority on how police should be disciplined – such as removing an officer from duty – would George Floyd be alive today?

Under-policing and Over-policing Convergence

Lots of police cars
I witnessed 22 police cars and one helicoptered converge on downtown Columbus when an elderly black man's car's brakes failed and he hit a white woman protester on a bicycle and the protesters were yelling at him. She wasn't hurt,  or at least got up and no ambulance came.    Why was a group of protesters even at State and 4th Streets at 9pm, to be hit by an elderly driver? The unaffiliated group pictured in the middle of High Street at 7pm had marched around town as they have been doing each evening, unmolested by police but followed by a helicopter, a hands-off policing policy apparently adopted to allow protesters to blow off steam after business hours.    At 9pm they were returning to the Statehouse. Possibly the helicopter summoned the police in response to conflict after car met bike, but this amazing display of bravado (20-some police cars tearing down North High from north of the Statehouse en masse, sirens blaring and lit up like Christmas trees) proved unnecessary.  According to eyewitnesses, the cyclist had ridden away and the incident had been resolved by the protesters by the time the police arrived at the scene.

March For Ohio Families Killed By Police Friday June 12

People's Justice Project logo

What: March For Ohio Families Killed By Police: Hundreds will march to honor families in our state who have lost loved ones at the hands of police. Protesters will be wearing red to symbolize the bloodshed caused by police brutality.

Who: Ohio parents of people lost to police violence, Adrienne Hood mother of Henry Green (Columbus), Sabrina Jordan, the mother of Jamarco McShann (Dayton), People’s Justice Project

Where: Participants will gather at Columbus City Hall and march to and around the Ohio Statehouse where speeches will be made.

When: Organizers will be available for interviews at Columbus City Hall beginning at 3:30pm, at 4pm community members will gather, the march will step off from there and speakers will begin at the Ohio Statehouse.

Who are Black Freedom? Some activists tell group ‘don’t speak for me’

With groups of young people taking over downtown Columbus, the George Floyd protests are unique in how decentralized their organization has been and how social media was used to coordinate thousands to converge on downtown.

Many groups have shared the mic and they have similar goals to completely restructure the concept of policing.

But this decentralized movement – a fundamental strategy for today’s protesters – has led some local protesters to separate themselves from others so to promote what some believe are “softened” demands to city government and Columbus police.

At warp speed many protesters soon felt they were being led by people they have never met, who are spreading a message many protesters don’t agree with.

How did the Columbus protests become co-opted by group(s) who don’t share the same vision and goals as the majority of protesters? And just exactly who are some of these group(s) who seemingly materialized out of clouds of tear gas?

Love is Letting Go of Fear

Love is Letting Go of Fearis the title of a small book  with a big message. You can think of love and fear as sides of a coin: while the one side is dominant, the other side is negated.

In our current situation, there is a lot of fear going around concerning the COVID virus. But is it rational?

If it’s true that love and fear, light and dark, life and death are sides of a coin, we have the ability to decide which side of the coin we are going to turn up. It’s a choice. Yes, even life and death because we make choices every day that effect the quality and quantity of our life. And we can choose to NOT be afraid.

Remember the Law of Attraction: “that which is like unto itself is drawn.” What we focus our energy and attention on is what we manifest in our life.

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