Warning: The following story contains profanity and violent imagery.
Covington Mayor Ron Washington and Police Chief Brian Valenti held a press conference Friday afternoon with other city leaders to address arrests made Thursday evening after a protest on the Cincinnati side of the river began to cross the Roebling Suspension Bridge.
“Let me be clear,” said Washington, himself a former police officer, “we fully support the right to peacefully assemble. At the same time we support our police officers who are often placed in incredible, difficult, fast-moving situations. But any use of force must be lawful and measured.”
That’s why, the city said, one officer is on paid administrative leave while an investigation is conducted.
The mayor spoke only briefly, and the majority of the press conference was the police chief playing footage pulled from the body cameras of the officers involved.
The arrests took place after the protest in Cincinnati branched off from a vigil for
former Cincinnati Children’s chaplain Ayman Soliman
, whom ICE recently detained following the revocation of his asylum status.
Police and protesters came to a head during a chaotic scene on the bridge. Fifteen people were arrested, according to court documents.
The protestors were arraigned in Kenton County District Court Friday morning, with charges including rioting in the 1st degree (a felony), disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and failure to disperse, among other charges. The people who were arrested were given $2,500 bonds. Another hearing has been set for next week on Wednesday, July 23.
Several videos have circulated among news outlets and on social media documenting the arrests. At least one of the videos shows an officer punching a person in the head while other officers hold them down.
Nick Swartsell, a reporter with WVXU, was on the scene and recorded
several videos
that later became widely circulated among news media and on social media (
he later wrote a complete story about it
).
Videos show the police making arrests, deploying tasers and other weapons and arresting Cincinnati City Beat Reporter Madeline Fening. Another reporter for City Beat, Lucas Griffith, who’s also written for the University of Cincinnati’s student paper The News Record, was arrested.
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One part of Swartswell’s videos shows an officer repeatedly punching a protestor, Brandon Hill, while trying to arrest him. That officer is under investigation and on paid leave, Valenti said, which means he won’t be out on patrol while the investigation is underway, although he will still be doing administrative work in an office.
Much of the backlash from onlookers and the community came from the officers’ use of force during the arrests. The vigil in Cincinnati was organized by a group of called Ignite for Peace in partnership with several faith-based advocacy groups. Ignite for Peace was not involved in the actions on the bridge, but the group later sent out a statement condemning the behavior of the police.
“Ignite Peace believes we can build a nonviolent society and during the vigil we stood with people who believe that we are in difficult times, that we can be brave and that we must demonstrate and deepen this solidarity and commitment to nonviolence,” said Shannon Hughes, Ignite Peace executive director, in the organization’s written statement sent to news organizations. “We are heartbroken by the police violence that occurred after the vigil and the inappropriate force with which peaceful marchers were met. We need to heal and to practice care for our community in our ongoing work toward justice and peace.”
The night after the arrests, a handful of protestors demonstrated outside of the police station on Madison Avenue demanding the release of the prisoners, a snippet of which a passer-by recorded and
posted on social media
. On Friday, activists and community members encouraged people to contact their city commissioners. A bail fund was even started that people could donate to, which had successfully raised about $20,000 as of the publication of this article.
Valenti said that Covington Police only learned about the demonstration after receiving call about a group of cyclists blocking the bridge. He later stated Covington Police had not been informed of any protest planned for the bridge from either the organizers or other police departments.
He played a video from Officer Chris Haubner, who approached the cyclists. The cyclists wore masks and were communicating through shoulder-mounted radios. An officer told them “get out of the road, or you’re going to jail.” Two of the four cyclists were later arrested.
Another video, captured by an onlooker and
which had already been circulating among news organizations
, shows protestors in yellow safety jackets pushing against a large, black SUV as it attempted to cross the bridge.
“We were able to actually contact the driver of this vehicle,” Valenti said, “who stated that those individuals attempted to break out their window – his windows on the driver’s side.”
Subsequent videos show other officers repeatedly instructing the protestors to disperse. The mayor stated during his introductory remarks that most of the demonstrators followed instructions to get off the road, but a small group refused. One video showed officers attempting to contact the group’s leader, who, according to Valenti, can be heard warning the protestors they could risk getting arrested if they didn’t comply. Admittedly, it is difficult to tell from what was shown at the conference where the speech is coming from.
Valenti then played several videos showing Hill, dressed in a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, tussling with an officer and attempting to take his pepper ball gun, which resembles a paint ball gun, from his hands. Valenti read from the officer’s use of force report, which argued the officer believed Hill was preparing to draw a weapon. Hill can also been seen clutching the railings of the bridge later in the video, which provoked a fear of falling into the bridge in the officer.
Later on Valenti referenced the death of Covington Police Officer Mike Partin, who fell to his death into the Ohio River in 1998 while on duty.
“We spent a lot of time on those bridges,” Valenti said. “And the safety of not only the public that are up there but our officers is of the upmost importance.”
The officer admits to punching Hill in the face during the struggle. Valenti played videos at various angles showing Hill’s – at times quite violent – arrest and said the department planned to review the hundreds of hours of video footage during the course of the investigation.
Valenti then fielded questions from reporters, which ranged from the nature of administrative duty, the circumstances of the two reporters who were arrested and proper de-escalation policies, among other questions.
As it related to the reporters’ arrest, Valenti could not speak to Griffith’s arrest but said that Fening lacked any discernible press credentials.
“She didn’t have any credentials whatsoever,” Valenti said. “As a matter of fact, she didn’t even have an ID on her, apparently. So, there’s nothing to identify her as a reporter.”
Valenti could not speak to whether charges would be dropped for the reporters; that’s up to the courts.
Additionally, Valenti said there was no indication the protestors were paid to demonstrate. No weapons were found on the protestors. The protestors on the bridge also didn’t have a permit to demonstrate on the Roebling.
As it related to de-escalation, specifically the timing of de-escalation, Valenti said, “We always try to use arrest as a last resort… We try to give everybody ample opportunity to move along, do whatever they need to do, but in this case there was a group that did not. It’s hard to say exactly whether there was ample amount of time.”
When asked if punching someone was an appropriate arrest technique for the situation, Valenti said, “We’ve opened an investigation on that. I don’t want to speculate as to how that’s going to turn out.”
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