police brutality
Columbus officers will have to testify about use-of-force incidents
An arbitrator has ruled that Columbus police officers will have to testify about colleagues as part of criminal investigations on police conduct during 2020’s protests. Among the incidents was the June 1, 2020 pepper spraying of three journalists with the Ohio State paper, the Lantern, as they stood off to the side of a protest […]
More than a year later, no discipline for cop who pepper-sprayed journalists
More than a year later, no discipline for cop who pepper-sprayed journalists. Columbus police union said to be blocking investigation.
Activists say enhanced protest punishments will lead to more police misconduct
Police already have been overly aggressive in this year’s civil rights protests, some protesters say. If Ohio adopts enhanced penalties related to protests, that will only aggravate the problem, they say. Worse, according to the activists, the bill’s provision allowing deadly force by people who feel threatened during “riots” will only encourage people to go […]
Ohio Public Defenders call for systemic change in criminal justice system to address racism
About 50 lawyers, administrators and investigators from the Office of the Ohio Public Defender (OPD) circled Franklin Park on Monday afternoon, honoring the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by police, and protesting police violence and racial injustice in the courts. The demonstration in Columbus was one of several across the country organized […]
2020 uprisings, unprecedented in scope, join a long river of struggle in America
The river was the metaphor that best captured “the long, continuous movement” of the black freedom struggle for theologian, historian and civil rights activist Vincent Harding. Harding, who had served as a speechwriter for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., wrote in his groundbreaking 1981 study of African-American history, “There is a River: The Black Struggle […]
Congressional Dems lay out expansive police reform plans
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats outlined their vision for sweeping police reforms on Capitol Hill Monday, following weeks of nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. “Never again should the world be subjected to witnessing what we saw on the streets of Minneapolis: the slow murder of an individual by a uniformed […]
Police officers accused of brutal violence often have a history of complaints by citizens
As protests against police violence and racism continue in cities throughout the U.S., the public is learning that several of the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville share a history of complaints by citizens of brutality or misconduct. Decades of research on police shootings and brutality […]
Ohio House Dem Leader: ‘Willful ignorance’ only reason for lack of action on racism
The Ohio House Minority Leader says it is up to white people to address the societies and legislation that they built to be discriminatory. On day five of protests surrounding the Ohio Statehouse, Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes said the state’s government needs to “lead the nation” in passing a resolution declaring racism a public […]