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City Hall vs. the FOP
A decades-old drama boils over as Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther and the powerful union fight over the future of police reform in Columbus.
Columbus Monthly
No Columbus mayor has more experience working with the local police union than Mike Coleman. Every three years during his 16-year tenure, Coleman and his team bargained over a new labor contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, which represents 28 law enforcement agencies in Central Ohio, including the Columbus Division of Police.
In the early years, the former mayor says he got along fairly well with FOP leadership. The negotiations were tough but respectful. But as the years went on, and FOP leadership turned over, things changed. “There was a big part of my time as mayor where everything was a fight. I
More than two dozen plaintiffs who say they were brutalized by Columbus police during protests against racial injustice last year have asked a federal judge to order immediate changes to officers’ use of pepper spray, wooden bullets and other so-called non-lethal weapons on nonviolent protesters.
Chief U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley is nearing a decision on the preliminary injunction, with responses form both sides filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus.
“The primary goal of everybody involved lawyers and the individuals whose names are in the case is to prevent this from happening again,” said Frederick M. Gittes, one of the attorneys representing the protesters.
Meet the Columbus Activists Converting Outrage to Action
The emerging voices forcing Central Ohio to reckon with the racism in its midst
It was not the Columbus Way.
For a city that values civility and collegiality above all, the protest at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast was an uncomfortable experience. Two activists disrupted the January 2020 gathering a massive affair packed with Columbus movers and shakers to draw attention to the December 2018 killing of 16-year-old Julius Tate Jr. by Columbus police. Interrupting a speech by Columbus Mayor Andy Ginther, they shouted “Justice for Julius” and “he deserved to dream.”
Apr 1, 2021
In this Dec. 23 file photo, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther speaks at a news conference in Columbus. Ginther is vowing that the city s next police chief will come from outside the police department, a first for Ohio s capital city. Ginther says not only will the chief be an outsider, but a new assistant chief position will allow the next leader to bring his or her own people as aides. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins, File)
COLUMBUS (AP) As Columbus confronts a years-in-the-making reckoning over claims of police brutality and racism, its next police chief will be able to hire their own leadership team, a first for the department in Ohio’s capital and largest city.