Free Press Heroes

This month the Free Press honors the dedicated people holding weekly demonstrations at Republican Senator Rob Portman’s office in an attempt to keep him from voting to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. In particular, five brave and dedicated occupiers even camped out at his office overnight on July 6. In addition, the Free Press recognizes the group of ADAPT individuals who joined local activists continuing the vigil on July 7 who were brutally attacked and arrested by the Columbus Police. The Columbus Police made national news by throwing a woman out of her wheelchair. The police also confiscated a disabled woman’s scooter and refusing to release it (for no apparent reason) for a week. Thank you to Junto Unsilenced, Socialist Alternative, DSA, Ultraviolent, Planned Parenthood and other groups organizing the Portman actions for all of us. Shame again, on the defiantly deplorable Columbus Police.
 

The Free Press Salutes

Major kudos to all the states who refused to comply with the absolutely ludicrous request to release individual voter information to Trump’s newly-formed and ironically-titled “Election Integrity” commission. Thankfully, Ohio was among them. The commission, headed up by notorious election fraud specialists Kris Kobach and our own former secretary of state Ken Blackwell, asked for voters’ name, address, date of birth, party registration, partial Social Security numbers and voting, military, felony and overseas history, among other data. According to the Washington Post “At least 44 states have indicated that they won’t provide all their voter data, with some saying they would give nothing and others offering what information they could under state laws.” In times of burgeoning fascism, it is more important than ever to resist these types of demands and to NEVER “believe, obey, fight.” We salute those who are doing the right thing and continue to thwart this threat to our voting rights.
 

Enemy of the People

We know that not all members of the Columbus Police force are bad apples -- there are some good officers out there. But our enemy this month has to be their leader, Chief Kim Jacobs. The inexcusable behavior of some officers makes it clear they lack any reasonable direction, leadership, and hope of reining them in. Although it was great news to hear that Henry Green’s killer, Officer Zach Rosen, was finally fired -- albeit for kicking a man in the head as he lay face down in cuffs on the ground -- originally Chief Jacobs merely wanted to give him a 24-hour suspension. She continually allows officers to remain on the streets who kill people (case in point -- Officer Bryan Mason has shot four and killed two, including 13-year-old Tyre King). We call for her to clean up her act or she needs to go.