A Democrat city council member in Cincinnati, Ohio, is facing backlash after a comment she posted about the victims in the downtown street brawl that happened on Friday.
“They begged for that beat down! I am grateful for the whole story,” Cincinnati Councilwoman Victoria Parks replied to a video of the assault, the New York Post reported Thursday.
Click here to see the Facebook video on which Parks commented.
The fight erupted on the streets of the city’s downtown and when video footage of it emerged online, officials were outraged and denounced the behavior, per Breitbart News.
One clip of the incident shows two men fighting as others watched and recorded with their phones. At one point, a man in a white shirt falls to the ground and is beaten. Moments later, a woman in a floral dress is hit in the face and crumples to the pavement, unconscious:
Cincinnati Chief of Police Teresa Theetge said only one person out of the 100 at the scene called 911 for help. Per the Post article, the victims sustained serious injuries and several people were arrested and charged as a result of the brawl.
“Montianez Merriweather, 34, Dekyra Vernon, 24, and Jermaine Matthews, 39, were all slapped with charges including felonious assault and aggravated riot. Police alleged Merriweather and Matthews coordinated the ‘ambush’ attack as they were on Elm and Fourth streets,” the outlet said.
Meanwhile, Parks’s comment has drawn a lot of criticism.
Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police president Ken Kober said, “It’s unconscionable that an elected official would be celebrating violence in the very city she was voted to serve.”
Social media users shared numerous screenshots of Parks’s comment, and some argued she should apologize and resign from her position.
“Resign. What a horrible thing to say,” one user said, while another commented, “Better be fired.”
However, Local 12 reported on Wednesday that Parks “is standing by her controversial social media post regarding a fight that has sparked national backlash.”
It appears that Parks’s X account, Victoria4Cincy, which can be viewed here, was deactivated after criticism began pouring in.
Parks is not the only official who is facing backlash linked to the downtown incident.
Breitbart News reported on Wednesday that “Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) believes Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval (D) should resign following the violent brawl that broke out on the streets of downtown Cincinnati over the weekend, as he and others point to Democrat policies as a key factor in generating such violence.”
