CINCINNATI MASS DEFENSE COALITION

Press Release: June 2, 2020

Cincinnati Police Department and Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office

Engaged in Campaign of Abuse and Violence against Protesters
on the Streets and in Custody

CINCINNATI, OHIO ― For the past four days, Cincinnati-area police have responded to
protests against racist policing and brutality with more brazen racism and brutality.

The Cincinnati Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office have boldly
displayed disdain for protesters who are calling on police to stop brutalizing Black people. CPD
police and HSCO deputies have time after time needlessly, and without warning, escalated
peaceful and lawful protests into chaos with unprovoked and unjustified use of chemical
weapons, including tear gas, OC spray, beanbag guns, pepper ball guns, with flash-bang
grenades, and other tools for brutality. Police have rolled over and pushed people with their
motorcycles and bicycles and have attacked and fired tear gas at medics providing aid to injured
people. Protesters with their hands in the air have been assaulted, grabbed by police, and
thrown to the ground. In addition, many children have been present during and affected by this
senseless violence.

CPD police officers and HSCO deputies are engaging in an ongoing campaign to provoke and
incite demonstrators with the clear purpose of justifying arrests, locking people up, and chilling
free speech. On several occasions, CPD and other police agencies have pushed protesters off, out
of, or away from public forums while they attempt to exercise their First Amendment rights. On
Saturday and Sunday, CPD made mass arrests after separating protesters from each other,
trapping people in alleyways and on city streets with no opportunity to disperse. Many others
were arrested without warning while trying to leave. As of Monday morning, arrests totaled
around 300, and include unfounded and trumped-up charges. Witnesses report police assaulting
and groping protesters during handcuffing.

Once arrested, people have been further traumatized by abusive and unconstitutional
conditions of confinement while in the custody of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Arrested

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people have been held for hours on end in buses and even outdoors. From Sunday night to
Monday afternoon, protesters were held outside in a courtyard with no access to water, food, or
bathrooms. People were forced to urinate on themselves. Though it was cold overnight in the
courtyard, protesters were not provided with blankets. There was no room to socially distance,
and HCSO deputies took masks from arrested people, leaving them exposed to COVID-19 risk.
While in custody, multiple protesters suffered medical emergencies, including seizures while in
handcuffs and denial of critical medications. Protesters were also subjected to ongoing abuse by
HCSO deputies, including reports of discriminatory and cruel physical and verbal assaults
against transgender prisoners. HCSO failed to comply with the City’s policy of cite-and-release
for non-violent misdemeanor cases, and instead forced people to suffer in horrific confinement
conditions.

The City’s curfew crackdown has deprived protesters of their First Amendment rights. On
Monday night, extreme enforcement measures lead to people being arrested in their own back
yards, the detention of journalists, and violence against people at their own workplaces and
homes.

CPD police and HSCO deputies are treating these protests as open season. The legacy of racist
policing in Cincinnati lives on in their conduct. On May 31, 2020, while wearing riot gear,
several Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies raised a “thin blue line” flag over the Justice Center
—signaling clearly that the police here are anti-Black. CPD police and HSCO deputies have
taken steps to avoid accountability for their misconduct, covering their badge numbers to
prevent identification.

The City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Police Department, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s
Office have put out false narratives painting protesters as a homogenous group of violent
rioters. But media footage and social media videos have exposed instead that the CPD and
HCSO are engaged in unchecked and unprovoked violence against peaceful and lawful
protesters.

The physical injuries and emotional trauma suffered by the people of Cincinnati are real, and
were also preventable. Our organizations, as members of the Cincinnati Mass Defense
Coalition, condemn the shocking and egregious conduct of the Cincinnati Police Department
and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. We stand in solidarity with the people of Cincinnati
who have protested after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year old Black man who was murdered
by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020. We stand with all people who protest for an end to
state-sponsored racism and brutality by police. We demand that the CPD and HSCO
immediately cease this brutal, unconstitutional course of conduct, and that those responsible
are held to account.

Until that day comes, we will continue to send legal observers into the streets to document
police misconduct, to provide jail support to people in custody, to bail people out, to organize
lawyers to fight unfounded charges in the courts, and to provide support to our community as
people stand up in the fight against racist policing and brutality.

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 Member Organization Contacts:

Ohio Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

Jacqueline Greene – 216-401-1941

Law Office of the Hamilton County Public Defender

Sean Vicente – 513-946-3715 / 215-868-6154

Beloved Community Church

Rev. Nelson Pierce Jr – 513-578-1130
Robin A. Wright – 513-362-9580

ACLU of Ohio
Celina Coming – ccoming@acluohio.org

Cincinnati Chapter of All of Us or None

Zaria Davis – 513-975-9812

Ohio Justice and Policy Center

David Singleton – 513-543-7254