Columbus officials addressed the continued protests and forceful dispersal techniques used by protestors, the week the city hits a full 30 days of protests. Mayor Andrew Ginther promised change and reinforced previous plans, his City Council put forth new plans with a firm deadline.
“Right now the eyes of the community are on us, on this building on City Hall,” says Council President Shannon Hardin. “Saying 'Do you hear us?' Do you hear me? What are you going to do about it?'”
Council president Shannon Hardin says hold him accountable to a new set of reforms for policing in the city.
Council will hold public hearings, meet with police and community leadership, and draft legislation around four key areas:
- Eliminating no knock raids which disproportionately affect people of color.
- Background checks for officers to identify hate or supremacist group affiliation.
- Demilitarization of police and Distruction of inappropriate weapons.
- Civilian oversight for police policy and use of force.
“Today what we rolled out from council is a package that I can say we will have hearings on, we will bring folks from the community, that we will meet with the police and we will have a vote on in the next several weeks before the end of July,” says Hardin, who was sprayed with chemical agents during protests.
Councilwoman Shayla Favor says the work is necessary not only to address the current issues, but past relationships between police and community.
“These are strategic efforts and steps that we have to take in order to heal those old wounds, move past and make real progress,” says Favor.
Council admits the work will be hard and it won’t end with these short term reforms.
Councilmember Rob Dorans says they are also working to address long term issues with policing, such as the use of force overall, and the relationship between police and community.
"We need to focus on not only the systems tht breed this distrust, but what are the action items in the short term and long term that we can do to improve the situation," says Dorans. "But, also have people in the community say look they are trying to address the concerns that we have."
Earlier in the same week, Mayor Andrew Ginther says he knows there were missteps in policing when he addressed Columbus residents on June But the Mayor doesn't agree with calls to defund police or completely eliminate chemical agent use.
“We have made some missteps, too – I made some, and so did the police,” says Ginther who held a press briefing after his address to city residents on June 23. “Progress is messy. Mistakes will be made. It is critical that we own the mistakes we make, learn from them and pivot to solutions.”
The mayor streamed a statement and took questions from media at the Coleman Government Complex.
He says he is committed to changes that he's announced such as a civil review board, and challenged the fop and the community to work with him.
He also pledged to have independent investigations of police criminal activity by the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, and an independent review of all complaints lodged by civilians during the protests.
Videos of incidents over the weekend spurned renewed calls for action to change policing, and for Ginther and Police Chief Thomas Quinlan to resign.
Ginther says he is continuing to meet with protestors and community leaders to push for change, but isn't entertaining defunding the police department.
“We are on a path to move from 20th century law enforcement to 21st century community policing – from an old model of policing to a new model that protects every resident,” “And we are creating a city that fights racism and discrimination . . . and builds equity.”
Ginther selected the Chief's Advisory Panel earlier this month to help rebuild the relationship between police and the community.
But some in the community are calling to use the money that funds the police department in other areas.
Two of the members of the new panel shared how they see the impact of defunding the police on their communities.
Tammy Fournier-Alsaada, People's Justice Project Founder & Organizing Director
“We get caught up in words. You call it, whatever it is that you call it, we call it liberation for black bodies everywhere. We call it restorative justice and healing. We call it making space for black people to live out the American dream, without someone's knee on the neck. And some people call it defund the police. What we are talking about is a transformation of a system, and I want to correct myself cause I'e been say8ng a broken system. But it's not broken, the system is doing what it's assigned to do.”
Erin Upchurch, Kaleidoscope Youth Center
“Well what we want to see is police, as dollars our city dollars, being reallocated to the services that meet the basic needs of our people. Our budget is huge in the city of columbus yet our schools are struggling, we've got a high rate of homelessness and economic segregation. We could go on and on, and we want social workers in our schools, we want counselors in our schools, we want our people to have homes we want jobs, and we don't need our police to help do those things. We want to know that people can, if they're using substances and have that in a safe way. So it's reallocating the funds in our city to actually support the needs of our community.”