CINCINNATI—Spurred by the aftermath of a street brawl that went viral where two people were brutally attacked by multiple men and women, and concerns about crime in Cincinnati, Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy co-hosted a town hall on Aug. 4.
Ramaswamy shared the stage with Christopher Smitherman, the former Cincinnati vice mayor and former president of the Cincinnati National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who organized the event.
“We’re here because there was a group of people violently attacked by a mob,” Ramaswamy said.
The town hall’s goal was to answer the question “How do we end the epidemic of violent crime?” he said.
“Too many people feel uncomfortable at night in the downtown of their own city. That’s not right, and we’re going to fix it. It starts with unfiltered dialogue about the problem,” said Ramaswamy, a former presidential candidate who was raised in Cincinnati.
The incident happened on July 26 at 3:06 a.m., when Cincinnati’s downtown area was crowded with more than 150,000 people attending a Cincinnati Reds game, the Cincinnati Music Festival, and a basketball tournament that night.
According to police reports, officers arrived on the scene at 3:12 a.m. to discover the attacks had ended. Most participants were gone, but the victims were still present.
A video filmed by an unnamed bystander shows a man in a white T-shirt getting shoved to the ground by two assailants. Moments later, he was beaten and stomped on by multiple people, surrounded by a jeering crowd.
A woman trying to defend the man was knocked out with a punch to the face and left motionless on the ground.
Five men and one woman “were subjected to unimaginable physical violence” in the brawl, Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said during an Aug. 1 press conference.
She added that six people have been charged with felonious assault and aggravated rioting.
Three have been arrested. Police are still searching for three more suspects and will name them when they’re apprehended, she said.
Ramaswamy told the crowd that the city where he was raised has a chance to be an example to other cities in addressing urban crime.
Fighting crime is not a left or right issue, he said. It is about “right versus wrong, common sense, and giving kids a shot at the American Dream.”
The viral video has led to criticism of Cincinnati city officials from multiple Republicans—including Vice President JD Vance, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), and Ramaswamy—who have demanded that a detailed plan to address crime in the city be established.
At the town hall, Ramaswamy said he was “shocked” that Holly, the woman who was knocked unconscious in the video, told him that no statewide or local elected official had called her three days after the attack.
He called city leaders “out of touch” with residents.
“We have to get back in touch with who we’re actually here to represent,” Ramaswamy said.
“We’re not missing the knowledge. We’re missing the courage. That’s where leadership comes in.”
At an Aug. 1 press conference, Democratic Mayor Aftab Pureval said, “It’s overt racial tensions that have been claimed by irresponsible leaders, who have unfortunately cynically tried to take advantage of this awful fight and try and divide us.”
Pastor Damon Lynch III was among several speakers at the press conference who said the fight was racialized.
Lynch said that what he saw in the videos was a black man and a white man engaged in a verbal dispute. A second black man stepped in and attempted to deescalate the situation, Lynch said.
Then the white man slapped a third black man. After that, the white man was met with “disproportionate force,” Lynch said.
Lynch questioned why only black suspects have been arrested.
Theetge said the department will release more video footage and has not done so because the investigation is in progress.
During a July 28 press conference, Theetge said video footage of the brawl is missing “context” and blamed social media and mainstream media.
Race immediately entered the town hall conversation when Ramaswamy called on a black man to ask the first question.
The man, who referred to himself as Robert, said that it was important to look at “all the violence that was perpetrated on [black] people” for 400 years.
“You want to sweep our history under the table, but you don’t sweep the Ashkenazi Jews with the Hitler thing under the table,“ he said. ”All the things that you did to the other races of people, you don’t sweep that under the table. But when it comes down to the black Negro, we can always sweep what happened to us under the table.”
Robert added that according to reports of yet-to-be released video footage, the white man who was attacked “cast the first stone” and that people had a right to defend themselves, eliciting groans from the audience.
Ramaswamy responded that no race’s ethnic history should be “swept under the rug” just as the late July street brawl in downtown Cincinnati should not be ignored.
“When you say ‘our people,’ when I hear that, I’m thinking that ‘our people’ is everybody in this room,” Ramaswamy said. “I see black, white, brown, man, woman. These are our people. America is our people. Ohio is our people. Cincinnati is our people. And I believe it is the God-given right of every person to be able to live a life free of violence.
“And may I even say, if you’re a hard-working American, to go into your city whether you’re black or white without fear of actually being assaulted or battered, that ought to be the birthright of every American. That’s what I want for ‘our people.’”
Smitherman, who called Robert a friend, said that black people have held a high standard even amid difficult times. He talked about the dignity of the Tuskegee Airmen as an example. Then he condemned the actions of the street brawl attackers.
“Those men operating from the WWE and jumping off on them and slamming their bodies into them was not our best moment,” Smitherman said, sparking loud applause. “It wasn’t our best moment as Americans. It wasn’t our best moment as people. We must own that.”
Smitherman noted that the Cincinnati Police Department is not at full force because of the “defund the police” sentiment he blamed on the Democrat-led city leadership.
Before the town hall, Ramaswamy said in a post on X that he talked to Cincinnati leaders, including Pureval and Theetge. He called the discussions “candid” and “productive.”
Ramaswamy previously said that he invited city leaders to attend the town hall. They did not appear.
During the town hall, he was asked about the meetings.
Ramaswamy acknowledged that Pureval, Theetge, and others might have been reluctant to meet with him, and he added that he promised them their conversations would remain private so they could be candid.
Addressing the crime issues in Cincinnati “is not rocket science,” Ramaswamy said.
He suggested that violent repeat offenders should have tougher bail requirements so they remain incarcerated, psychiatric hospitals should be reopened to treat criminals with mental health problems, and police officers should be empowered to perform their duties without concern of repercussions.
The city should hire more police officers, and stiffer sentences should be enforced for violent criminals, Ramaswamy said.
“That’s not an exhaustive list of solutions, but if we do those five things alone, we’re going to have put a meaningful dent in the unacceptable rise in crime,” he said.
Sarah Heringer took the microphone and asked for solutions. Her 46-year-old husband, Patrick, was stabbed to death in the couple’s Cincinnati home during a June burglary.
“Patrick was a decorated war hero. He served two combat tours and was awarded two Bronze Stars and at least a dozen other military honors, which I honestly didn’t have any idea about until after he died, because that’s the kind of man he was,” Heringer said.
Mordecai Black, 38, was indicted on 14 charges: three counts of aggravated murder, five counts of murder, three counts of felonious assault, aggravated burglary, burglary, and trespassing into a habitation. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Black was released from prison in January after serving time for a violent attack in July 2015. Prosecutors said Black violated parole by cutting off his ankle monitor.
Heringer recounted the night her husband died.
“Imagine this. You’re asleep. You wake up to a man standing over your bed with a weapon,” she said. “How did he get there? Because someone made a decision, because someone signed a paper, because someone did nothing. That’s what leadership looks like in Cincinnati: negligence, silence, and cowardice.”
Heringer suggested that a fugitive apprehension unit be formed to track violent offenders and called for city leaders to be transparent about public safety improvement plans by sharing costs and outcomes.
Patrick was the owner of a popular Cincinnati gym. Sarah is also an entrepreneur, and she shared why her advocacy to address violent crime in Cincinnati will continue.
“I run a business here. I serve this community. I show up and I carry the loss of my life partner, while those in charge carry on like nothing happened, not one admission of failure, not even the courage to say his name,” she said.
“Instead, they expect us to move on, to go quiet, to stop asking questions, but I won’t let them, because what happened to Patrick was preventable, and their refusal to name it, own it, or change it—that’s not leadership. That’s complicity.”
Cincinnati has not elected a Republican mayor since the late 1970s. Cory Bowman, a Republican who is Vice President JD Vance’s younger half-brother, said he hopes to change that.
Bowman called for “clean streets, safe streets and prosperous streets” when he spoke at the town hall.
“That is not a right or left issue. That is a city issue,” he said.
“For those that live in the city, if you had told us in February that this is what we were going to see on our streets in the summer, many people wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that. We knew that our streets were unsafe and there was lawlessness going on,” Bowman said.
“When you talk to individuals that live downtown that hear the gunshots every night, when you talk to people on the street that are there to protect and serve, but they feel like that their hands are tied by the top down, then you know that something is wrong.”
