Death of Steven Tyler Reed overshadowed:An 11-year veteran of the Columbus Police Department, Nathan A. Schwind, fatally shot 25-year-old Steven Tyler Reed on February 10 in a Hilltop neighborhood. Schwind and other police officers responding to a domestic violence complaint alleged that Reed ran away from the scene, then was involved in confrontation with them, according to news reports. This incident did not cause breaking news because it happened just hours after two Westerville police officers were killed in a separate domestic violence incident.

Timothy Davis beating update:“Cellphone video of Davis' arrest showed officers struggling to subdue him and eventually punching and kicking him. Afterward, police spokesman Sgt. Dean Worthington said use of force depends on a suspect’s behavior and police policy does allow for punching and kicking,” reported the U.S. News and World Report about Timothy Davis’ September 1, 2017 arrest in Columbus. “Video of the September 1 encounter appeared to show multiple officers kicking and punching Davis while yelling profanities at him, as he seems to ignore instructions to put his hands behind his back. At one point, Davis’ pants and boxers get pulled down,” wrote WOSU News. In response to Davis’ lawsuit charging that Columbus Police use excessive force against black residents and conduct “sham” internal investigations of such abuse, Columbus city attorneys maintain that the force was not excessive or improper. Thank you, Zach Klein and friends.  

Columbus Police stats: A very thorough February 7 investigative piece entitled Henry Green, the Columbus Police, and the jump out boys: How racism becomes institutionalized in police departments,” by the Pacific Standard, tells us that “From 2013 to 2017, members from the department fatally shot 28 people, according to Mapping Police Violence. Twenty-one of them were black.” The article in the “award-winning magazine for readers interested in working toward forward-looking changes to private behavior and public policy” also reveals Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien’s record: “In O'Brien's 20 years in office, no officer has been indicted for an on-duty fatal shooting.” Henry Green’s killers, jump out boys Zach Rosen and Jason Bare, were not indicted for shooting him in 2016. Bryan Mason, the officer responsible for 13-year-old Tyre King’s death on the near east side of Columbus has this colorful background, documented by the Pacific Standard: “the nine-year veteran of the force had been investigated at least 60 times for issues such as excessive force and inappropriate language, 25 of which required medical attention. Not one issue was sustained by internal affairs. He'd killed before too: In 2012, he shot and killed a man who refused to discard his gun. Supervisors cleared him of wrongdoing. A year later, Mason shot a man who ran away from a traffic stop and was found within policy when he told a police review board that he feared for his life. The black 22-year-old, who survived, claimed to have never pulled a gun on the officer.”