Peaceful Civil Disobedience Protest at Columbus City Leaders Houses Lands 5 People In Jail
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Peaceful Civil Disobedience Protest at Columbus City Leaders Houses Lands 5 People In Jail
2023 Columbus City Mayoral Hopeful Joe Motil Arrested
Civil Disobedience on the 59th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech led to five people being arrested.
Yesterday, activists with FirstCollective614 lodged concurrent protests at several city leaders' homes: Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin, Columbus City Councilwoman Shayla Favors, and Columbus City Attorney Zach Kilen. They were protesting in an effort to raise awareness about the city’s shameful actions towards houseless & homeless people. Recently the city has swept and displaced several camps. They’ve set an eviction at Camp Shameless for Sept. 14th without giving a solution for where the residents can get housing.
According to FirstCollect614’s website, they are “a nonprofit organization in central Ohio. We are a group of organizers, activists, and local residents interested in making art, creating social infrastructure, and fostering community through mutual aid.”
As the old saying goes, “though we may be small in number; we are mighty in our actions.” There were reportedly eight campers in total and three liaisons— 11 people in total spread across the three locations simultaneously.
City Attorney Zach Klein
At the City Attorney’s home UnBossed! Nightly News was told that he wasn’t home at the time of the arrests or the protest when tents were set up in his yard. Neighbors reportedly called the Columbus Division of Police. Three people were arrested.
Out of the three arrests, you can see in the above Instagram video on the collective’s page that one protester was indeed disabled and wheelchair-bound; so the Columbus Division of Fire was dispatched to assist with transporting her to Central Booking downtown.
Nightly News has been told by sources the disabled protestor-- was released first on scene. While, the other two were taken to Central Booking and processed.
We have reached out to the City Attorney’s office for comment and haven’t received a response at the time of publication of this story. We will keep you updated if his office responds.
Columbus City Councilwoman Shayla Favors
At Councilwoman Favor’s house, there were no arrests made. In fact, the Columbus Division of Police was never called. Eyewitnesses on the scene tell Nightly News that the Councilwoman came out of her home and spoke with the three white female protesters who had lodged tents in her yard and she even offered them water to drink.
Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin
Meanwhile, on the East side of the City at the Council President’s home things heated up a bit. Leading to the arrest of 2023 Columbus Mayoral Candidate Joe Motil and long-time advocate for the homeless Rev. Gary Witte. They were charged with trespassing on private property.
Motil describes in a Facebook post earlier this afternoon the details of the protesters interactions with Hardin prior to CPD being called to the scene:
Shannon Hardin refused to have any open dialogue with myself, Reverend Witte and David Harewood regarding the Camp Shameless homeless encampment & lack of city policy. Instead he stated that, “This is not how I engage in business. Get off my property or I am calling the police.” My response was that, “meetings with you are like talking to wall. They are waste of time because the results are nothing more than lip service. You don’t have the courage to enact policy on your own unless you are given the blessing from those who control you and city policy.”
Nightly News reached out to Motil and he told us, “that I and Gary were both arrested last night at 7:40pm.” Prior to their arrest, CPD did everything within the ram to get Motil and Witte to move just approximately 10-feet off of Hardin’s property. They both refused and were given as a first violation a citation for trepassing.
Approximately 40-minutes later, Motil tells us that’s when the two were cited again and arrested for continuing to trepass on private property. During our conversation with Motil he said, they were in police custody for nearly 12-to-14 hours. They were released from Franklin County Jackson Pike Jail this morning around 9:15 am on their own recognition.
Joe Motil and Gary Witte were given a summons to appear before a Franklin County Municpal Court Judge for next Thursday morning at 9AM.
UnBossed! Nightly News did reach out to the offices of Councilwoman Favor and Council President Hardin and no one was available for comment. We also reached out to the communications director of Columbus City Hall and are awaiting a response.