North Columbus News

The city of Columbus, The Ohio State University, and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs recently hosted an international conference focusing on addressing hate, extremism, and polarization at the local level. This event was part of the Strong Cities Network's “City Leadership in Maintaining Social Cohesion Amid Global Crises” initiative.

Participants included city leaders from various countries such as Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Hungary. The conference featured discussions on how the Glenn College supports the Columbus Division of Police in managing peaceful demonstrations and balancing free speech with public safety on campus.

“This Strong Cities Network event is a great partnership between this pro-peace, pro-conflict-reduction international network, the city of Columbus and Ohio State to serve as a forum for leaders from across the world to share the challenges they face at the municipal level while also showcasing things that work and their best practices,” said Trevor Brown, dean of the Glenn College.

Eric Rosand, executive director of the Strong Cities Network, emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary efforts in tackling hate and extremism. “Given the complex nature of the hate and extremism threats facing communities across the United States, Strong Cities recognizes the need for city-led efforts to prevent and respond to them to be multidisciplinary and draw on innovations and expertise from different local partners, including universities,” he said.

Clifford Stott from Keele University presented his research on crowd psychology. He explained how his methods have been applied globally to train police agencies. Stott collaborates with Russell Hassan to enhance community policing strategies in Columbus. Their work includes developing a dialogue police unit aimed at facilitating communication between police and demonstration participants.

“Through this new science, we’ve begun to understand that the solutions to effective public order management in the local context relate to enhancing police capacity for communication and also developing strategies of facilitation – not just control of negative behavior but also facilitation of positive and lawful constitutionally protected behavior,” Stott said.

Rosand noted that Strong Cities plans to invite Stott into its group of subject matter experts. "Through these and other means, we are committed to ensuring that more cities around the globe can benefit from Professor Stott’s expertise much like Columbus has," he added.

An Ohio State panel discussed how it manages free speech and public safety using protests related to Israel-Gaza as a case study. Moderated by Trudy Bartley, it featured Melissa Shivers and Monica Moll who shared insights into their approach which includes initiating communication with demonstrators, training university police on student perspectives, maintaining relations with officials, supporting freedom of expression while distinguishing it from threats or harassment.

“This is an open public institution so folks have the right to be on campus in our public spaces marching protesting demonstrating,” Moll stated. “We have to allow for freedom of expression robust debate but protect individuals engaging in that also support others on campus who might be affected by those demonstrations protests.”

Ohio State promotes respectful dialogue through initiatives like Listen. Learn. Discuss., which provides tools for civil discourse.