Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty was pepper-sprayed by police in Columbus on Saturday during a protest decrying police brutality and demanding justice for George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after an officer knelt on his neck. Beatty, who is Black, denounced the violence perpetrated by both demonstrators and police in Columbus and elsewhere in the aftermath of Floyd’s death.Violence “doesn’t work — violence either way,” she told NPR’s “Weekend Edition” on Sunday. “We have to somehow make sure that we get the word out that you cannot come in and tear up buildings,” said Beatty, a Democrat. “When you break windows and destroy businesses and people get hurt, that’s not going to resolve the problem of why George Floyd died.”Beatty said in an earlier interview that she’d attended the protest to stand “in solidarity” with demonstrators. “You know, I’m a grandmother, I’m an elected official, but I’m a black woman first and I felt the pain,” she told NBC 4.Beatty was with Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin and Kevin Boyce, a member of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, when she was pepper-sprayed by police.
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- This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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