CINCINNATI — In Cincinnati, an overnight curfew has been put into place after violence and criminal activity marred protests in that city overnight.
The curfew for Saturday and Sunday is from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m., Mayor John Cranley said at a news conference Saturday morning.
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He and Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said while the majority of the more than 200 protesters were peaceful as they marched through and around downtown in reaction to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a smaller group of people broke store windows and looted some businesses in the Over-the-Rhine section of the city.
The trouble began roughly after 11 p.m., after a group of protesters shut down I-75 South near downtown for about 20 minutes, Chief Isaac said.
Two Cincinnati police officers suffered minor injuries, while at least 11 arrests were made for crimes ranging from vandalism to criminal damaging to burglary. Some people even threw rocks and other items at police officers, the chief said.
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“If you throw a rock or bottle at our police officers, they will come after you,” the chief said, acknowledging his officers were outnumbered by the people who had come downtown. Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies and Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers were in the city’s core along with police during the protesting, which lasted until 5 a.m.
Chief Isaac said police will pay special attention to I-75 tonight, to keep protesters off the interstate.
“This was a very young crowd,” he said of Friday night’s protesters who made their way to the interstate to shut down traffic. “They covered quite a bit of ground.”
The fact that protesters outnumbered police was another reason for the curfew, the mayor said.
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“Downtown, Over-the-Rhine is still open for business,” Cranley said. “The criminal activity from last night is a distraction,” he said, “from the moral issue we all have to face” regarding what happened in Minneapolis with George Floyd.