WHAT: Say No to 616 on 6/16 Rally - Ohio students, educators, and community members are meeting at the Statehouse this Thursday to demand that lawmakers block House Bill 616, promoting the right to an honest and accurate education. At the rally, students from the Ohio Student Association will be doing a visual demonstration that highlights how the bill will whitewash history and erase identities and cultures. 

WHERE: Statehouse, West Plaza

WHEN: Thursday, June 16th @ Noon

WHO: 

• Maria Bruno, Equality Ohio

• Andre Washington, NAACP

• Dr. Brad Maguth, Prof Curricular & Instructional Studies, University of Akron, Ohio Council for the Social Studies (OCSS)

• Rev. Dr. Amariah McIntosh, Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC)

• Other Speakers, TBD 

Columbus Police Lieutenant Melissa McFadden – whose book “Walking The Thin Black Line” exposed how the Division retaliated against her as she sought to make change from within – has won her federal racial discrimination suit against the City of Columbus.

The jury awarded Lt. McFadden just $2. Her book was also not about getting rich, as it has not earned her any compensation either.

In 2016, Lt. McFadden assisted a Black female officer in filing an EEO complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission who claimed she was being unfairly treated by a white commanding officer.

The commander of the Internal Affairs Bureau at the time, Jennifer Knight, was overheard telling other officers the EEO complaint was “stupid,” and that she and others were going to retaliate against Lt. McFadden by “taking her out.”

McFadden was soon subjected to what she described in her book as the “CPD pile on.” A series of false allegations were made against her by fellow officers. She was a “black militant,” for example. She was relieved of her commanding officer duties and reassigned to the property room.

From the Coalition on Human Needs:

Tuesday, June 14, 6:30pm
Two Dollar Radio, 1124 Parsons Ave.
A book club from the Freelance Solidarity Project, reading Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly, this meeting on the first two chapters. Open to digital media workers, organizers, freelancers, artists and anyone interested in learning about labor organizing. 
columbusfreelancers@gmail.com
freelancesolidarity.org

Hundreds of Columbus residents who have been living in tents and other makeshift shelters – community members who cannot afford traditional housing – have been evicted by the City of Columbus. More evictions of tent camps utilizing bulldozers are in the works, including the encampment at Heer Park scheduled for this Tuesday morning where anywhere from 60 to 100 community members reside.

A City eviction notice ducted-taped near the park states “you will be arrested if you are still there on June 14th” when City workers “come in for remediation,” which means all items will be removed and likely with the apparent efficiency a bulldozer provides. This type of so-called bulldozer “remediation” occurred near Green Lawn Cemetery roughly two weeks ago.

Heer Park, which is adjacent to the Great Southern shopping center, was closed by the City during the winter of 2021, but then become a temporary or state-of-flux community for those who, as some describe it, are “camping out.” But the reality is, pitching a tent and sleeping outside is the end-of-the-line when someone is facing the multiple stages of houselessness.