The beating heart of Columbus, Ohio is Capitol Square. It is where the action is. Not retail action, that’s at Easton or Polaris.[1] Not food and beverage action, that’s in the Short North and scattered throughout the city.[2] But political action. The Governor works there, the General Assembly (Ohio’s legislature) meets there, and the Supreme Court of Ohio is just a block west. And when the times call for it, Capitol Square is where protests take place.
I have been using the area around Capital Square for my one-person Columbus Biathlon. I think I’ve mentioned that I like to read. Well, I also like to walk. And sometimes I combine the two, especially when it is hot. I walk until I start sweating, then sit down to read. I read until I stop dripping, then resume walking. And then I repeat. It’s pretty easy to read a few chapters and walk a few miles without losing interest in either activity.
Lately, I’ve been doing this against a backdrop of protesters. From our apartment we can see the rally point for the police, a large parking lot that has been hosting, at various times, mounted officers, jeeps, semi-armored vehicles, and plain old patrol cars.
Sometimes the vehicles sit all night and sometimes they deploy en masse, as they are here. Once, about 20 patrol cars parked on the Broad Street bridge, then officers piled out and marched to Capitol Square from there. We also have a great view of the helicopters. Usually at least one is aloft and, often, as the light wanes two helicopters cover the area, sometimes hovering over the protest group and sometimes circling downtown.
It is difficult to assess the damage that has been done, but it appears that most of it happened early, during the first couple of nights of protesting.[3] Many buildings have plywood concealing windows, whether to cover damage or prevent it is difficult to assess. Here is a picture of the Ohio Judicial Center, home of the Supreme Court. It was damaged enough to be closed for one day, which didn’t affect productivity because we are already working remotely because of covid-19. Windows are relatively easy to fix. Does anybody know how to clean graffiti off marble?
For the uninitiated, “12” is the unit number of the drug force used by the Columbus Police Department and is especially loathed by some. “ACAB” stands for “all cops are bastards,” which I know isn’t literally true. One of my son’s friends is a relatively new member of CPD and he is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
I have walked past Broad and High, which is one corner of Capitol Square and the starting point for most of the protests several times in the past week or so. Most days start slow, just a dozen or a few dozen protesters. But last Saturday was different. As I walked I saw that protesters were marshalling. Most of the people I have seen streaming toward the protest area have a suburban hipster vibe. That might not be fair, but mainly I see white young adults, carrying hand-made signs, with few non-adult or middle-aged compatriots. They dress in a lot of black clothing and, in the main, wear masks.
By 12:30 or so, the Statehouse grounds were crowded. There were so many people that two separate groups had formed. A smaller group, several hundred, gathered on the south side of the Statehouse, while a larger group, 2,000 plus, occupied the large expanse of lawn west of the Statehouse. Both groups were chanting independently of each other. Some were vulgar and not particularly helpful, such as “fuck the cops.” Some were eminently practical, such as “get out and vote.” Most of the chants were related to George Floyd – “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd.”
Everyone seemed happy to be there, despite the circumstances that brought them together. The crowd exuded energy and compassion and displayed no disruptive behavior. There were a few vendors, just a couple of people either selling or providing bottles of water (it was hot). Despite all of these people, when I sat down to read on the north side of the Statehouse, it was quite serene; I could not hear either protest group.
Throughout the day, the Statehouse was patroled by State Troopers, who were both obvious and unobtrusive. They stuck close by the Statehouse, near all doors and corners, mainly mingled among themselves, and kept away from the protesters. Few protesters took notice of them and they ignored the protesters.
The east side of the Statehouse was also quiet. There are a couple of memorials and fountains and, for a splash of color, flowers in the shape of the US flag and the Ohio flag. It’s not obvious, given my poor photography, but the flag of Ohio is pennant shaped, the only non-rectangular state flag.
I walked by Capital Square tonight. It was very quiet. There were a couple of people, looking like they missed the crowds. They had a canopy and plenty of bottles of water, but no people to sell or give them too. It was hot tonight, but I didn’t stop and read. The Columbus Biathlon is my event and nobody else is competing, so I can make or break rules as I see fit.
[1] Easton is a modern outdoor mall, designed to look something like an old downtown business district. It has never stopped growing since it was built. Polaris is a modern indoor mall that has been morphing to be more like Easton. Both are now quite sprawling with many big box retailers circumscribing the malls.
[2] Like most cities Columbus (with a metro of approximately two million) has many and varied restaurants. The largest aggregation is probably in the Short North, the area north of downtown but short of OSU’s massive campus.
[3] I am not a journalist and don’t pretend to understand everything that has been going on. But I do know what I have seen.
Firsties!!!