Columbus City Council on Monday night voted to add penalties to the city's face covering mandate. The ordinance replaces an executive order issued last week by Mayor Andrew Ginther, and requires residents over the age of 6 to wear facial coverings in all public spaces.
Columbus City Council is promising short-term reforms for the police and committing to longer term, structural transformation. Council members aim to complete the first wave of legislation by the end of July.
Columbus will adopt a set of restrictions on police use of force known as #8CantWait, even as the campaign’s organizers insist the policies should be considered merely a first step.
Columbus' fifth full day of protests remained mostly peaceful, with police walking and even kneeling alongside protesters, until just after curfew when officers met demonstrators with pepper spray on the Ohio State campus.
Gov. Mike DeWine is calling the Ohio National Guard into service after three days of violent protests in downtown Columbus.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced a city-wide curfew from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. beginning Saturday. Anyone on the streets past then can be arrested, he said.
For the fourth Monday in a row, there will be no Columbus City Council meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic. Council last met on March 16, just two days before Mayor Andrew Ginther declared a state of emergency for the city.
In a newsletter this week, Columbus City Council president Shannon Hardin had a prediction: “Coronavirus may not discriminate, but underlying health and economic disparities mean that the impacts of COVID-19 will hit neighborhoods like the Near East Side and Southfield the hardest.”
Ahead of the Buckeyes game against Penn State, a stretch of North High street from Lane Avenue to Dodridge will be reduced to three lanes on Saturday, with the fourth dedicated solely to bus bike and scooter traffic.
UPDATE: On June 28, City Attorney Zach Klein dismissed charges against Jonathan Robinson. Read our original story below.
A weekend incident on Columbus’ South Side is forcing city officials and residents to once again wrestle with the lines of justifiable use of force by police officers.
