Free Press hero Cynthia Brown has been unwavering since 2017 in her fight to change or end qualified immunity for law enforcement in the state of Ohio, which if successful, could remove the legal shield police have from being sued civilly by victims of excessive force.

Indeed, Brown has been knocking on Ohio Statehouse office doors of those who have the power to make change, but behind these doors are lawmakers who progressives believe would never want to end qualified immunity for police.

“They control the Statehouse, right? So no laws are going to be passed unless you have Republican support,” says Brown who founded the nonprofit De-Escalate Ohio Now! HeartbeatMovement Inc. “We were the only organization that was invited to the Statehouse during the George Floyd protests to talk policy.”

Brown says progressives want to end or change qualified immunity as well. Some of the nation’s most prominent progressives, in fact.

“Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, they really want to end qualified immunity,” she says.

If lawmakers don’t take action, Brown has also been working on getting a citizen-led constitutional amendment to end qualified immunity on a statewide ballot, possibly in 2023.

Ending or changing qualified immunity is Brown’s unfortunate passion, as her nephew Kareem Ali Nadir Jones was shot and killed by Columbus police in 2017. He was approached for no good reason by two white officers who ordered him to get on the ground. He was then shot in the face, neck, and in the back while face down on the ground. Both officers are still with the Division, still patrolling the same neighborhoods, and Brown still sees them from time to time.

“I have come to the conclusion that you can train police all you want, but if they are going to kill in a split second you are going to get the same result if you don’t try to de-escalate the situation first,” she said.

In the meantime, she continues to push Ohio lawmakers to keep focusing on reforming the criminal justice system, for the betterment of the community and local law enforcement. But like many others she believes reforming criminal justice hinges on something so fundamental – equity for all.

So, she initiated Ohio’s inaugural “Day of Empathy,” which is this Thursday, March 31, from 2 to 4 pm, inside the Statehouse atrium. She has partnered to create the event with Dream Corps JUSTICE, a bipartisan criminal justice organization co-founded by CNN political commentator Van Jones. Ohio’s event is in tandem with the nationwide Day of Empathy, the largest day of “action on criminal justice transformation,” says Brown.                         

The list of speakers scheduled for the Statehouse event is a who’s who of Ohio’s activists and political leaders who have been seeking change. US Senate candidate Morgan Harper, the “Saint of Sullivant Avenue” Esther Flores, and US Rep. Joyce Beatty, to name just a handful.

“As part of the agenda for this year’s Day of Empathy we are focusing attention on sharing our game plan to create positive change and new vision for the great state of Ohio, to be the nation’s leader in reducing violence, crime, poverty, hungry, addiction, and trauma, and broken families by creating equity in Ohio, as well as strengthen relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Brown.

She adds if anyone is interested in hearing about solutions to the most “challenging issues facing residents in Ohio,” this is the event for you.                                           

“We would like residents to earn firsthand how HeartbeatMovement Inc. is working to create windows of opportunities for people impacted by the injustice of the criminal justice legal system and the interconnectedness minorities face regarding poverty, crime, violence, addiction, trauma, hungry, and broken families in Franklin County, and the state of Ohio,” she said.