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The verdicts have been reached:

Wriply Bennet: Disorderly Conduct - Guilty
Failure to Obey - Guilty
Resisting Arrest - Guilty

Ashley: Disorderly Conduct - Guilty
Failure to Obey - Guilty
Resisting Arrest - Not Guilty

Kendall Denton: Disorderly Conduct - Guilty
Failure to Obey - Not Guilty

Sentences will happen in 3-4 weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has come out to support Wriply, Ashley, and Kendall over the past week. Continue to keep the #BlackPride4 in your thoughts.

Monday, February 12, 7-9pm

Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Ave.

Today’s program: Pat Marida. Pat will speak about Ohio’s nuclear reactors and the Portsmouth Nuclear Site, nuclear threats to the Great Lakes, and bad state and federal legislation. Pat Marida has been an Executive Committee member of the Ohio Sierra Club and chair of their Nuclear Free Committee for the past 10 years. She has been a member of the national Sierra Club Nuclear Free Campaign Core Team since its beginning in 2010.  She was an office volunteer and board member of the Ohio Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign throughout the 1980s. As such she has followed nuclear issues at the state, national and international (with Canada) levels. She will give an overview of nuclear issues in Ohio and beyond. Pat was chair of the Central Ohio Sierra Club for 9 years and edited their newsletter for 11 years in the 90s and early 2000s.

Contact: cohioansforpeace@gmail.com

Students For Opioid Solutions, a grassroots movement to prevent opioid deaths on college campuses, is proud to announce that February 7, the Undergraduate Student Government at THE Ohio State University unanimously passed SOS’s trademark legislation.
 

This legislation will reduce the number of deaths from opioid overdoses on college campuses to zero through a five part process: 1) Pass student government legislation calling upon school administrators to require that residential life and campus police officers receive training in the recognition of an opioid overdose. 2) Encourage residential life staff to receive training in the use of naloxone and either carry it or have reasonably quick access. 3) Ensure that schools record and report the number of opioid overdoses and deaths in their annual public drug and alcohol report. 4) Ensure amnesty for students who report overdoses. 5) Enact a Good Samaritan clause protecting students who come to the aid of someone suffering from an opioid overdose.
 

Great news! Today, Governor John Kasich announced he will grant a reprieve until October 17, 2018 to Ray Tibbetts, who had been scheduled for execution on Tuesday, February 13, 2018. The purpose of this temporary reprieve is to allow the Ohio Parole Board to convene a hearing to consider new evidence bearing on Ray's clemency request. 

Thanks to you and many others taking action, there will not be an execution next week. There is a lot of work that goes into stopping executions. That's why we are so grateful to you for being an Ohioan to Stop Executions. Thank you.

Since there will not be an execution Feb. 13, we've decided to postpone the activity at the Statehouse to April 11, the date of Ohio's next scheduled execution. OTSE will post information and actions on the case of William T. Montgomery in the coming weeks.

Following is a statement from Erin Barnhart, attorney for Ray Tibbetts:

The jury in the #BlackPride4 trial deliberated until 7pm on Friday, February 9. They broke for the weekend. Their deliberation will continue on Monday, February 12.

Saturday, February 10, 2018, 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St. Columbus
East side door
Parking in side lot, on street or in back parking lot
Free, no RSVP needed
Join progressive friends for food, drink, and great music. Presentation on the Year of Cannabis. 
colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2571.

Day Five - #BlackPride4 Trial

Once again, the #BlackPride4 trial courtroom was packed. All seats were filled inside courtroom 13-A and there were another 20 or so community supporters in the hall.

In the finest tradition of mutual aid, the supporters were providing lunch for each other to the point that the judge had to admonish them after break that while it was a “public forum” she didn’t want the courtroom trashed.

The supporters immediately went to work tidying up the place.

Early in the trial, the Columbus Police Officer in charge, Hasan, said the orders of the day were for the police to use verbal commands first if someone was blocking the Parade, followed by escorting them out of the street, and finally using mace if they didn’t comply.

One of the witnesses’ testimony indicated that the police disregarded the first two stages and proceeded to macing and the forcible take-downs and arrests of the demonstrators.

Saturday, February 10, 2018, 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
All are welcome to attend.  We will be discussing the strategy going forward on how to gain Medicare for All in Ohio.  SPAN Ohio supports Healthcare as a Human Right!  All are welcome to attend.  Location:  First UU Church of Columbus, 93 W Weisheimer Rd, Columbus, OH.  More information about SPAN Ohio:  www.spanohio.org and Facebook.

The courtroom was again full of #BlackPride4 supporters.

City Prosecutor Isaac Rinsky called the Chair of the Stonewall Board of Trustees, Dr. Tom McCartney, to the witness stand. McCartney testified that he carried a banner at the front of the Pride Parade and went into detail on how it is the largest Pride Parade in the Midwest.

McCartney sated that people who want to march in the Parade must sign up for the Parade in advance. He stated that Stonewall does not accept hate groups, and groups that march must have non-discrimination policies. McCartney, who admitted that he didn’t witness the #BlackPride4 protest, said that he thought the protestors stopped the Parade.

Video shown after the event last July had revealed that the Parade continued around the protestors. 

The fact that the protestors were invited to march in the Pride Parade with  the International Socialist Organization and the Green Party has thus far been left out of the trial. The Green-Socialist alliance had been marching near the end of the Parade.

Thursday, February 8, 7-8:45pm
St Stephen's Episcopal Church, 30 W Woodruff