Those arrested during Columbus protests were mostly local residents

Nearly everyone arrested during the ongoing protests in Columbus is from central Ohio, despite statements by the mayor and some social media posts indicating that outsiders were inciting violence.

The Dispatch compiled a list of 99 people who have been arrested in connection with the protests that began Thursday night and found only nine with addresses outside Franklin or its contiguous counties. All of those arrested are from Ohio.

Based on information available through public records, at least seven of those arrested are accused of felony offenses, with only one of them from outside central Ohio.

On Sunday, after protests in some parts of Downtown, the Short North and University District turned violent over the weekend, Mayor Andrew J. Ginther blamed outsiders.

The mayor said Columbus police intelligence indicated that those who were damaging property and antagonizing police were from outside the city and included white nationalists and anarchists.

On Wednesday, Ginther issued a statement saying that the “arrests show only a portion of the picture.”

He referred to “the recovery of the bus registered in Vermont filled with bats, rocks, meat cleavers and axes on Sunday night,” which Columbus police revealed in a Twitter post Monday.

A brightly colored school bus and smaller van, parked at the Key Bank lot during Sunday’s protest, was stopped by police as it began to drive away just after the sweep.

Columbus police told The Dispatch that it initially was stopped for blocking traffic. Deputy Chief Michael Woods said at the time there was suspicion that some in the vehicle were helping the protesters assault law enforcement officers.

“Our concern is that they may be assisting people that are throwing objects at us,” Woods said.

About seven were removed from the vehicle and handcuffed. It was unclear if they were charged, and a report requested by The Dispatch was not provided.

Ginther also mentioned a “break-in to a critical infrastructure site on Saturday morning that did not lead to any arrests, but showed the motivation for bringing down the power grid in Columbus.”

After police and protesters clashed and businesses were looted and vandalized, Ginther on Saturday imposed a citywide 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew that has since been extended indefinitely.

Protests erupted late last week in Columbus and in cities across the country in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of white police officers in Minneapolis.

The Columbus arrest records, which cover Thursday evening through Tuesday morning, reflect the diversity that was seen in the protests those days.

Of those arrested whose race was identified, 49 were black and 49 were white.

By gender: 78 men and 21 women.

Ages ranged from 15 to 47, with a median age of 24. Five of those arrested were juveniles.

Of the 63 cases in which an arrest location was available, 22 occurred Downtown, 21 in the Short North and 20 in the University District.

The most-common offense by far was failure to disperse, which was filed against 42 protesters. The offense is a minor misdemeanor but is elevated to a fourth-degree misdemeanor when it occurs during “a fire, accident, disaster, riot or emergency or any kind.”

The next-most-common offense was 23 charges of violating the mayor’s curfew order, also a misdemeanor.

Few of the arrests appeared related to the trashing and looting of businesses, although two men were charged with breaking and entering at stores where windows were smashed on North High Street in the University District on Saturday night, one at Target and the other at GameStop.

The arrests since the large protests and demonstrations began May 28 have drawn all the attention.

But local social-justice organizers point to a May 27 arrest as part of a systematic problem that the protests are trying to combat.

Christopher Radden Sr., 41, was arrested at the intersection of Livingston Avenue and Lockbourne Road on the South Side just about 6 p.m. May 27.

Radden was there streaming live on Facebook as he paced the sidewalk, openly carrying a gun on his hip — something Ohio law allows — and carrying a sign that read "(expletive) the police."

His video shows he would occasionally step into the street and approach cars. And he can be heard on the video saying that, as more people began to show up, they could block the street. The video ends before Columbus officers confronted him.

A court affidavit filed on the felony assault charges says an officer told Radden to get out of the street and he refused. The affidavit says that Radden threw "a haymaker punch" at Woodyard, that the officer punched back and then there was a scuffle.

After other officers arrived, the affidavit says, and Radden was handcuffed, he head-butted the original officer.

Others who were there dispute that. There was an active social media campaign calling for justice for Radden, who witnesses said was not in the street and shouldn't have been arrested for exercising his right to protest.

Jasmine Ayres, an organizer with the People's Justice Project, said the nights of peaceful protests that followed at Livingston and Lockbourne were born from the mistreatment of Radden.

Dispatch Reporter Lydia Weyrich and researcher Julie Fulton contributed to this story.

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