Columbus police department facingmultiple civil rights lawsuits
City has paidmore than $4Min damages over the past decade.
Almost 20 COLUMBUS — years after the government sued Ohio’s largest city alleging police routinely violated residents’ civil rights, Columbus is facing more than two dozen complaints raising similar concerns, records show.
Documents also indicate that the city has paid more than $4 million to individuals who alleged civil rights violations over the past decade.
Recent police shootings havealarmedlocalclergyand activists, who want the city to trainmore officers onhow to de-escalate potentially violent situations with people having mental health crises. They alsowant more police training fordealing with people with mental illness, and to have officers trained to recognize racial bias.
“We’re just asking for justice,” said Pastor Jason Ridley of the HilltopCommunity Worship Center. “We’re just asking for the simple reality that I can leave my house and not fear.”
That includes police acknowledging that sometimes they make mistakes, said Ridley, who is black.
Among the 26 currently pending lawsuits reviewed by The Associated Press:
■ The estate of 23-yearold Henry Green, who was fatally shot by two police officerswho said he opened fire on them last year, alleges wrongful death, civil rights violations, constitutional violations and racial discrimination. Green was black. The officers are white.
■ A woman claims that Columbus police shot and mortally wounded her brother, Kareem Ali Nadir Jones, whowas black, without justification and then conspired to provide misleading information about the July 7 confrontation. Columbus police say two officers sawthe 30-year-old Joneswalking between cars and behaving erratically.
■ Attorneys for Timothy Davis say officers at the scene of his Sept. 1 arrest inside a convenience store shielded fellowofficersattackingDavis to keep witnesses fromseeing him being punched and kicked, and tried to cover up what happened by falsely claiming Davis put them in harm. Davis is black; the lawsuit doesn’t indicate the race of the officers, but says the department doesn’t properly investigate police use of force against blacks.