Black Lives Matter protesters march outside the Ohio Statehouse on July 21.

Despite an attempt to sabotage it via social media, a Black Lives Matter march went on as planned Thursday evening. Over 100 protesters marched around the Ohio Statehouse and continued to the Columbus Division of Police headquarters.

That morning, organizers became aware that the Facebook event page for the march had been taken down, and the account associated with it was locked. Someone had reported the event to Facebook, flagging it as involving either “violence or harmful behavior” or “hate speech.”

Facebook made no attempt to contact the organizers of the march to verify whether it would involve anything inappropriate. They just took down the page. Undeterred, organizers quickly got the word out to supporters that the event was still on.

The attempt to derail the march underscores the racial tensions in Columbus that go unspoken. Instead of engaging in an open, honest dialogue with the Black Lives Matter movement, someone decided to stay in the shadows and employ a dirty trick to try to stop the march.

This underhanded tactic reflects the more overt national backlash against Black Lives Matter, with police chiefs in Surf City, Detroit, and elsewhere labeling Black Lives Matter activists as “terrorists.” A petition on whitehouse.gov calls on the Pentagon to designate Black Lives Matter as a domestic terrorist organization.

People’s Justice Project organizer Tammy Alsaada spoke to this backlash before the march on Thursday. “We are not against the police,” she said. “The Black Lives Matter movement is a movement for justice. We are not terrorists. We are not the enemy. We are your community members. We’re here to say to our police department that we want a full, independent investigation. We’re not going to give up until we get justice for Henry Green!”

Alsaada was joined by the family of Kawme Patrick, who was killed by officers Cassie Scott and Linda Gutierrez on June 30. “The police officers killed my son for nothing,” said Tasha Reeder, Kawme Patrick’s mother. “My son was on his knees with his hands up when the police shot him. The police said they shot him four times. They actually shot him eight times.”

After marching on the sidewalk around the Statehouse, the protesters took over the northbound lanes of High Street for several blocks as they proceeded to police headquarters. Police cruisers surrounded the marchers with lights on and sirens blaring. When police ordered them out of the street, some protesters complied and others didn’t.

When the marchers arrived at police headquarters, officers on bicycles surrounded them and forced them onto the sidewalk. Five officers decided to make an example out of Tynan Krakoff, who is white. They arrested him on three charges, including pedestrian use of a roadway.

Before the march, when supporters were gathering at the Statehouse, police had pinpointed Krakoff, a member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, as the “leader” of the protest. At least one plainclothes officer tracked Krakoff through the march until he was arrested.

One of the demands made by the family of Henry Green, who was killed by police on June 6, is for the police to stop deploying plainclothes officers in Columbus neighborhoods.

Krakoff was released later that evening. His arraignment hearing is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, July 28 at the Franklin County Municipal Court.

“I never said I was a leader, and don’t consider myself a leader, except perhaps in the Ella Baker model of leadership,” Krakoff said. “I was part of the organization that led it, but there were many leaders. We are leader-full.”