Dialing it down in Columbus

As a response to what the New York times aptly and accurately described as America’s “Week From Hell,” Saturday’s protest in Columbus leaves us with much to be relieved about, much to think about, and much to respect.

As reported by staff writers Larry Gierer and Alva James-Johnson, community activist and former Columbus Council candidate Marquese Averett and Columbus NAACP President Tonza Thomas were arrested and (very briefly) held after a protest event Saturday on Veterans Parkway.

Averett, a Young Minority Leaders organizer, said he put together the event as a protest against recent police-related shootings around the country. Thomas said she got involved in the event at Averett’s request, and while unlawful assembly and blocking traffic weren’t necessarily part of the agenda, “we knew it was a possibility that we would be going to jail.”

What stands out about this sequence of events is the degree to which both the protesters and the city of Columbus — especially the whole law enforcement community — seem to have made every effort and taken every precaution to keep the “civil” in civil disobedience. If the subject of this protest was clashes with police, it seems everybody was determined that it was not going to involve one.

Averett announced plans for the protest in a Facebook post. Police Chief Ricky Boren told Averett a gathering of more than 16 people on public property without a permit would constitute unlawful assembly; according to Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, “Marquese said he understood but was going to move forward anyway.” City leaders wisely decided, “given the tensions and emotions across the country,” not only to let the assembly issue slide, but to have police officers on hand for the protesters’ protection. (As, tragically, were the Dallas officers who were slain protecting what should have been a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest event.)

Only when the protesters blocked Veterans Parkway to traffic — reportedly including a fire truck — and after three warnings from police were Averett and Thomas arrested.

“If people are going to gather,” Tomlinson wrote afterward, “they must obtain a permit so the police can plan and protect them, as well as others. It’s serious. We will exercise our First Amendment rights, but we will have civil order that protects everyone.”

And after the two protest leaders had been released on bond posted by their fellow participants, Thomas commended the police for their handling of the whole thing, describing the professionalism of Boren, Assistant Chief Lem Miller, Major J.D. Hawk and the deputies at the jail as “awesome.”

Certainly it appears the city’s responses, and especially those of the police, were pitch-perfect: Only when police determined (rightly, we believe) that protesters’ actions had become an issue of public safety did they step in.

Maybe it’s naïve to expect that this event set a tone and an example for how Columbus can avoid the rage and violence that made last week in America so hellish. Naïve or not, that tone is something we would be irresponsible to disregard.

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Dialing it down in Columbus."