Lawsuit: Police brutality, 'bogus' arrests, inhumane jail conditions during 2020 protests

Kevin Grasha, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
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Cincinnati Police Officers arrest protesters on McMicken Street in Over-the-Rhine after the 8 p.m. curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020. This is the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Cincinnati Police Officers arrest protesters on McMicken Street in Over-the-Rhine after the 8 p.m. curfew on Monday, June 1, 2020. This is the fourth night of protests in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Hundreds of people were subjected to police brutality, wrongful arrests, inhumane jail conditions and unlawful seizures of property during local racial justice protests in the summer of 2020, a lawsuit says.

The protests, between late May and early June of 2020, unfolded in cities across the country and were sparked by the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer. The outrage also was related to the killings that year of other unarmed Black people, including Breonna Taylor in Louisville.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Cincinnati, says the killings "reignited and spread collective outrage at racism, and specifically racist policing and brutality."

Protestors locally gathered at government buildings, in parks and on the streets, marching, chanting and carrying signs. It was done "in solidarity" with the global Black Lives Matter movement, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says the "overwhelming majority" of protestors were nonviolent and acted lawfully.

But multiple businesses were looted and windows were broken at various locations in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine as well as near the University of Cincinnati. The city instituted a curfew and police arrested more than 500 people in about four days.

Riot police approach a protestor kneeling on Central Avenue in Over-The-Rhine in the early hours of Saturday, May 30, 2020. The protest started in response to the death of George Floyd. Sort of image that shows what was happening on the streets that night. Protesters blocked the street and were removed by police.
Riot police approach a protestor kneeling on Central Avenue in Over-The-Rhine in the early hours of Saturday, May 30, 2020. The protest started in response to the death of George Floyd. Sort of image that shows what was happening on the streets that night. Protesters blocked the street and were removed by police.

According to the 108-page complaint, Cincinnati police and county law enforcement responded in a manner that showed "precisely the deeply rooted problems" being challenged by the protesters.

Officers who at times wore no badges or didn't activate their body cameras, the lawsuit says, engaged in indiscriminate acts of violence and uses of force. Protesters were "corralled and trapped" so they couldn't leave and then arrested.

The lawsuit accuses police of indiscriminately deploying tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades and other projectiles at, or in the vicinity of, crowds of protestors, which included disabled people, children or others not involved in the demonstrations.

The lawsuit says detained protesters were held for hours on buses and outside in the cold, without access to toilets, water, food, blankets, shelter, necessary medication and other basic human needs. This all happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Protesters, it says, were wrongfully prosecuted for a year before the charges were finally dismissed.

The lawsuit says the poor treatment and wrongful prosecutions of protesters was both retaliatory and intended to prevent them from exercising their First Amendment rights.

"The government cannot silence dissent by violently attacking people who exercise their lawful rights, or (through) bogus arrests and prosecutions," an attorney for the plaintiffs, Jacqueline Greene, said in a statement.

The lawsuit names the city, county as well as numerous officials, including its former mayor, John Cranley, and former police chief, Eliot Isaac. It also names several police officers as defendants as well as 1,000 unnamed officers and 450 unnamed Hamilton County sheriff's deputies and jail officers.

It was filed on behalf of 11 people but is seeking class-action status.

Spokespeople for the city and county did not respond to messages seeking comment.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Suit: Police brutality, 'bogus' arrests during George Floyd protests