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Columbus Faith Leaders Submit Over 300 Signatures Calling on Mayor Ginther to Fire Deputy Chief Quinlan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 1, 2021

MEDIA CONTACT

Michelle Nealy, mnealy@faithinpubliclife.org, (202) 735-7123

Dan Clark, dclark@faithinpubliclife.org, (614) 648-3663

Columbus Faith Leaders Submit Over 300 Signatures Calling on Mayor Ginther to Fire Deputy Chief Quinlan 

Columbus, OH —  Today, prominent Columbus faith leaders joined in solidarity with community members by submitting to Mayor Ginther a letter from over 300 Columbus residents calling for Thomas Quinlan’s firing from the Columbus Division of Police. Quinlan’s contract as Chief of Police included a probationary period ending on February 7, 2021. On Thursday, January 28th, Chief Quinlan was asked to step back to a role as Deputy Chief. This move was not what the community and faith leaders asked for; they demanded that Quinlan be terminated.

Following a press conference announcing the letter with this moral demand, faith leaders entered City Hall to submit the signatures on behalf of the community. 

The letter states, “We believe every child of God deserves to be safe and healthy. But the leadership of the Columbus Division of Police has allowed excessive and deadly force against our Black and brown neighbors for too long.”

For the full letter, click here

For video of the event, click here

Adrienne Hood, Mother of Henry Green, killed by Columbus Police in June 2016

“Cancer does not cure cancer. Because of the leadership that continued to play inside the Columbus Division of Police, we are here today, not asking, but demanding that someone from the outside come in.“

Bishop Donald Washington, Mt. Hermon Missionary Baptist Church

“For Thomas Quinlan to step down and become the deputy chief is an egregious insult to our integrity. He needs to go. He needs to go now. Because a leopard never changes his spots.” 

Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, Crazy Faith Ministries

“We think that Quinlan needs to be as far away from us as possible. We need somebody there that will look at us not as objects, but as human beings. We have been dehumanized and criminalized historically and we say, on this day, that it is time for it to stop. We matter. We matter. We matter.”

Rev. Dr. Jefferey P. Kee, New Faith Baptist Church of Christ

“We need equality. He (Quinlan) has demonstrated from his 30 years of being on this police department that he is part of the status quo in this culture, and we have seen the evidence of the harm that he has brought to our community.”

Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, Congregation Tifereth Israel

“My Jewish tradition teaches that God will accept our acts of repentance even until our final days on Earth. But in order to have [complete repentance] he must first acknowledge the wrongdoing, ask for forgiveness, and seek to never do it again. I believe that we feel we are still waiting for all three of these steps.”

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Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality and the common good. Together, we are leading the fight to advance just policies at the state and federal level. Our network of 50,000 leaders engage in bold moral action that affirms our values and the human dignity of all.

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