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Pastor With Rap Sheet Joins Black Leaders Demanding White Cincinnati Beating Victim Be Charged With Incitement

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A black pastor with a felony conviction on Monday joined other black leaders and elected officials in Cincinnati demanding a victim of a beating by a mob be charged with felonies, claiming he provoked the attack.

A Hamilton County, Ohio, grand jury indicted six people Friday on charges of rioting and assault for their actions during a brawl that left six people injured, including a single mom who intervened in an effort to stop the fight. Senior pastor Tracie Hunter of the Western Hills Brethren In Christ Church issued the demand during a Monday press conference where she and other black leaders objected to the fact that all those charged for their roles in the fracas to date, including a seventh person accused of stealing jewelry during the fight, are black.

“Because those six individuals were charged with aggravated assault, which is a felony, the white guy incited or urged six other people to commit a felony, which means based on part B of the statute, he should be charged with inciting to violence, a felony of the third degree,” Hunter claimed.

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Hunter, a former juvenile court judge in Hamilton County, claimed during the press conference that two provisions of Ohio law, Ohio Revised Code 2917.01 and Ohio Revised Code 2917.02, required the victim of the beating to be charged, FOX19Now reported.

“It is easy to manipulate charges and that is the problem we have identified in this case. Six black people have been indicted…, but the white individual that appeared to incite the fight or riot and the other white individuals involved have not been charged at all,” Hunter said, according to FOX19Now.

Hunter’s law license was suspended indefinitely by the Ohio Supreme Court in November 2023 after a 2014 felony conviction stemming from her acquisition of confidential documents related to a termination proceeding involving her brother, according to Ohio Court News.

Other black elected officials have made inflammatory statements about the incident, with Councilwoman Victoria Parks of Cincinnati saying the victims in the brawl “begged for that beat down,” drawing calls for her resignation.