We Need to Stop the Columbus Police
Again
Local police departments should almost never make national news. Sure, the exceedingly rare, “serial killer caught by local detective,” might, but those are few and far between.
Much more common are things like, “Out-of-state officers shot and killed a man wielding two knives blocks away from the RNC, police say.”
To the surprise of no one here, that was the Columbus Police Department, whose bloodlust seems to know no bounds in or out of Columbus.
On the streets of another city, without understanding the neighborhood or people, 5 CPD officers opened fire on a homeless man with a knife.
That isn’t to say that a man fighting another, with a knife is good, or ok, but if the local PD had been handling it, in their own city, they could have de-escalated or done anything to help the situation that wasn’t immediately using deadly force.
David Porter, who said he knew Samuel Sharpe and is also homeless, was angry that officers from outside of Milwaukee were in his neighborhood.
“If MPD would have been there, that man would still be alive right now,” Porter said, referring to Milwaukee police.
If the CPD won’t keep their own citizens safe, why would they ever stop and consider the humanity of someone outside of Columbus?
The CPD have been rotten for a long long time, with no end in sight, and operate without regard in a city fully content on letting them fester. Take some recent examples:
I could keep going on but you get the point.
I had some hope in 2021 when Elaine Bryant was hired as Chief, from outside the Department, that things would marginally improve. This did not happen. The department is rotten so deep to their core that the chief does not matter. This has been shown time and time again the last three years.
A question I’ve seen a lot though is if this is really a unique Columbus problem. If all police departments are bad, than are the Columbus Police really just a symptom of the greater disease?
They are not. They are uniquely bad, and absolutely nothing is changing.
This is from a 2024 study of police violence, with Columbus coming in as the third deadliest department in the country. The top 4 here are also significantly worse than any behind them with a wide gulf.
We aren’t imagining it, or biased with our locality, they truly are one of the very worst in the country.
What’s even more upsetting is that this gets them rewarded.
They received, less than three months ago, a new contract with a 15% raise over 3 years. We are paying them more money to continue to murder residents.
“Fifteen percent across the board over three years is a lot of money, but it's not just that. It's getting the best and the brightest to come here to Columbus, but also retaining the best and the brightest,” said Columbus Police Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts.
It goes without saying that the best and the brightest are not being retained, they were never here to begin with. They do not make up a department that is so absurdly deadly.
It’s exceedingly hard to not be angry about this. They embarrassed Columbus this week on a national stage. They murder and cover-up the murders of our own residents. Enough is enough, and if the city council had any spine they would have stopped this a long time ago.
The city does not need to continuously work with the police union, who is fabulously racist and corrupt. After the last President of the Police Union stepped down because he called for literal lynchings his ideological equal took over.
These are who they are, and they once again showed us this with their actions and violence.
Instead of accountability, the only one of the two biggest players in Columbus commented on the events in Milwaukee. City Council President Shannon Hardin has said nothing. Mayor Ginther released a boilerplate statement deferring to the police for following their training.
It’s just business as usual for the city government who has shown no interest in substantive change and lets this go on. Clearly I’m sick of it, and hopefully one day we can get elected officials who are. Until then this will continue, the CPD will continue to deface themselves in front of the world, and more innocent people in Columbus will die.
Business as usual.