CINCINNATI — Dozens of University of Cincinnati students gathered outside the Hamilton County Justice Center Tuesday night to protest after UC police arrested a student they said he tried to "impede on an active protest on campus."
Collin Miller, 21, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. In a statement, Kelly Cantwell, senior public information officer for UC's Department of Public Safety, said Miller was protesting against a "free speech demonstration occurring on campus that involved non-university-affiliated preachers."
"Police officers warned the student several times not to impede the movement of the demonstrators," the statement says in part. "The student became involved in an altercation with the demonstrators and disregarded police officers' directions. Student was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest."
According to an affidavit, police said Miller bumped into or stood in front of the leader of the demonstration on multiple occasions, ignoring officers who asked him to stop "physically preventing the protester of movement."
"Due to Collin's refusal to cooperate with orders, officers attempted to detain him," the affidavit says.
Laila Shaikh, founder and president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UC, said Miller was arrested for "standing and holding a (Palestine) flag."
"There (were) hundreds of students present, there's hundreds of videos circulating, pictures of what exactly had happened," Shaikh said.
Ameer Alkayali with SJP UC said he was there when Miller was arrested. He said the preachers on campus were making comments about women, Muslims and the LGBT community. He said comments included "Most Muslims are terrorists" and "Most Muslims are rapists."
"What we saw was a large crowd of students looking to UCPD to stop this," Alkayali said. "And what we saw UCPD do was defending these protesters with this racist, homophobic, sexist, Islamophobic rhetoric."
Video their group posted on social media shows what appears to be the moment officers attempted to arrest Miller, with multiple officers working to constrain him and get him into handcuffs.
"The school of force that they used against the student was abhorrently disgusting," Shaikh said. "Their priorities should be the safety of their students who are affiliated with UC, who do pay to go there, not to protect a random preacher."
The video shows what appears to be a struggle between Miller and the police. In the affidavit, police said Miller "used his elbows to prevent officers from handcuffing him."
"Collin was flailing his body and also kicked officers before being placed in handcuffs and placed in cruiser," the affidavit says.
Maxon Agosta with UC's Young Democratic Socialists of America said they are working with Miller, giving him "as many resources as (he) needs to go through (his) arraignment ... especially with this unjust arrest."
