During Operation Buckeye, Mayor Ginther insisted Columbus police were ordered to not help ICE agents from apprehending immigrants, but emerging from that fateful week is a story of an ICE protestor who was arrested by Columbus police for simply exercising their right to free speech.

Now comes word out of Minneapolis that protestors felt as if their local police were there to protect ICE and not those they are sworn to protect. ICE murdered a protestor January 7, a young woman in Minneapolis. ICE turned 37-year-old Renee Good into a martyr.

By most standards Kevin Logan (pictured above) does not look like someone who would vehemently oppose ICE but looks can be deceiving. He's a tall middle-aged white guy with a beard. Standing well over 6-feet tall, the father of four daughters and one son has already lived a life which inspired him to care for those who have been marginalized because of their skin color.

Given up to foster care at birth, Logan spent much of his youth in "the system," with several years spent at the Buckeye Ranch in Grove City. This upbringing shaped and nurtured who he is, he says.

When the Free Press met with Logan this past weekend he was wearing a black hoodie with "You're probably DEI too" on the front in white lettering.

"I'm just a regular person who's for common sense and human rights. Whatever I got in me, that's where it came from," said Logan about foster care. "When ICE came to town, I was going to be ready. I don't want my community to be terrorized. I grew up with people who didn't look like me. I wanted to protect and speak out for those people."

Logan is a true community activist. He's president of the Olde Sawmill Civic Association. Runs the Community Response Team page on Facebook, and is a small business owner (power washes homes). And, perhaps best of all, "I'm an antagonist" towards fascists and MAGA. He claims he's not a leftist but did vote for Kamala Harris.

When word began to spread that ICE was holed up at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Columbus on the Far North Side, he was one of the first to arrive, which was Thursday night. But rain kept the protest crowd thin and the energy low.

Friday night was an entirely different animal. He bought a case of Red Bull for the much larger group of protestors and brought a bullhorn which was equipped with a siren. A bullhorn he purchased that day, just for the protest.

Twenty-five Columbus police vehicles were parked at the hotel, and soon enough, he was threatened by some Columbus police that if he pointed his bullhorn at them again with the siren blaring, he would be arrested. Juxtaposed to their anger was how Logan became friends with one of the numerous officers at the scene. Who happened to be a member of the Division's "Dialogue Team," those officers wearing blue vests now seen at protests. "He was a very caring guy. I hugged that guy that night," said Logan.

On Saturday night, however, he was apparently singled out by the Columbus police.

When Logan pulled into the Hilton parking lot that night at 11pm, two Columbus police cruisers were immediately behind him with lights spinning and flashing. He put his work truck into park and got out – and noticed there were now four Columbus police cruisers with lights on. He immediately brought his truck's tailgate down and sat there.

"They basically jumped on me, they pounced on me. It was like six or seven officers trying to push my arms around my back. I demanded, 'What are you doing?!'" He already had arthritis in one of his shoulders, which the officers popped out during the arrest. Why was he arrested to begin with? They told him he had "spun his tires" or squealed his tires, a misdemeanor.

Logan's arrest was happening not far from the hundred or so protestors who immediately came over with phones in hand. That's when the officers manhandled him into the back of a paddywagon and peeled out of the parking lot, essentially squealing their tires. The back door was swinging open, and two officers were hanging off the back. "I was legitimately worried about them," said Logan, who shouted, "'Get in here, you're going to kill yourself!'"

They took him to a nearby Home Depot where a base camp of sorts had been set up, and the police began talking loudly amongst themselves, as if they wanted Logan to hear what they had to say.

"And [one officer] says, 'That hotel has lost of lot of money the last couple of nights and this guy is the ring leader,'" recalled Logan. They then told him: "the rest of your friends had left" -- implying the protestors at the hotel had quit, which was a lie. "They just further emboldened me," he added, "and why would I care if the hotel lost money, that was the point."

Logan was charged with several misdemeanors related to the arrest. He is speaking with attorneys about potential litigation, something City Council and Ginther are all too familiar with since the summer of George Floyd (2020). 

"Absolutely I was targeted. I was easily the loudest and most animated protestor out there. And I was speaking directly to them. I am Antifa! Who's not anti-fascism. Who is for fascism?"

"And what's cool is, it's not organized [Antifa]," he continued. "These kids are dancing and these old folks are out there with bells."

"I don't understand why everybody is not pissed off and speaking out. What the (expletive) is everybody elses problem? There were nice people in Nazi Germany who didn't want to create waves. So (expletive) you people. I can't be silent."

The Free Press reached out to the Columbus police for a statement but have yet to hear back.