Spring ‘22: Civil Rights Law
Protesting Police Violence:
An Essential Civil Right BY FREDERICK GITTES
On July 8, 2020, 13 individuals, having been attacked, arrested, or both by Columbus Division of Police officers during protests against police racism sued the City of Columbus, its police chief, and individual officers and supervisors for violating their civil rights under the First and Fourth Amendments. The federal court action in the Southern District of Ohio was among the earliest of many cases throughout the country arising from similar attacks and false arrests of peaceful demonstrators at protests following the murder of George Floyd by Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.
warned his officers Photo: Paul Becker / Becker1999 these protests focused on them, unlike the other protests and demonstrations they had handled over the years, and had made other statements suggesting that even innocent-looking protestors might not be what they appeared. As is apparent from videos, there were thousands of people present downtown at several locations, but they were mostly located around the Statehouse and the corner of Broad Street and High Street. The crowds were extremely diverse in terms of age, gender, race and prior protest experience.
In Columbus, the protests took place throughout the summer. The court hearing focused on protests beginning May 28 through June 21, 2020. In their subsequent testimony, Mayor Ginther, former Chief Quinlan and other command officers confirmed that the protests, especially during the first weekend, were among the largest demonstrations ever to occur in the city, and that the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful. Chief Quinlan also confirmed that he had 4 2 | C o lu m b u s B a r L aw y e r s Q u a rt e r ly S p r i n g 2 0 2 2
Photo: Paul Becker / Becker1999
