CINCINNATI, Ohio — Dozens of Cincinnati community leaders and residents rallied at the Hamilton Courthouse Tuesday and called on police to drop the charges against the hundreds of protesters who were arrested for violating city curfew in May and June.
Community leaders said the arrests were injustices against Black people, and protesters applauded and cheered in agreement.
“These charges should be dismissed,” said Mona Jenkins, a protest organizer. “It’s the right to have them dismissed. So, I can’t even think beyond that because by right it seems only logical that they be dismissed.”
Just this week, the Cincinnati Mass Defense Coalition legal team filed a motion to the prosecutor’s office to dismiss the charges against the protesters.
They said the protesters constitutional rights were taken away from them.
“They had to the right to express their anger towards the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and anyone else who has died at the hands of racial police brutality,” said Jenkins.
And Jenkins said it doesn’t just end with justice from police brutality.
“We want justice when it comes to being incarcerated, mass incarceration,” she said. “We want justice when it comes to our education. We want justice when it comes to our housing. We see so much discrimination across the board.”
Jenkins said if charges are not dropped, they will continue to fight until justice is served.
“We’re going to keep on going and it’s not going to stop with just police brutality. We’re asking for equity across the board,” she said.
We also reached out to the Cincinnati’s Prosecutor’s Office for their response to the motion, but we could not get a hold of them.
