Cincy's Police Chief Placed On Leave Following Probe
The video was shocking. A white couple, minding their own business, was brutally assaulted in broad daylight on the streets of Cincinnati. The woman lay unconscious on the pavement, her face bloodied and still. It was the kind of footage that goes viral for obvious reasons—because it speaks to the fraying seams of public safety and the hard questions no one wants to ask.
But rather than address the violence, Cincinnati Police Chief Terri Theetge used her platform to scold the media. Not the perpetrators. Not the crime itself. The media—for doing what the public depends on them to do: report. It was tone-deaf at best, a dereliction at worst. And now, months later, the fallout is exactly what many suspected was coming.
Cincinnati Police Chief Terri Theetge criticizes social media and mainstream media for misrepresenting the Cincinnati assaults due to a lack of "factual context"...
It's hard to dispute footage of people getting beaten by a mob.pic.twitter.com/JsF4QodB6q
— MRCTV (@mrctv) July 29, 2025
Chief Theetge has been placed on paid administrative leave amid an internal investigation into her leadership—or, rather, the glaring lack of it. The city tried to dress it up in soft language, calling it a move to ensure “stability at the command level.” But let’s not play semantics here. The department is facing serious public safety challenges, and the chief is out of the picture. That doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Adding another layer to this already volatile story is a newly filed lawsuit by Cincinnati police officers accusing the department of workplace discrimination against white males. That’s not a rogue complaint—that’s a legal battle now underway, and it casts a long shadow over how the department has been managed under Theetge’s tenure.
If this all sounds like the inevitable implosion of a department driven more by optics than outcomes, that’s because it is. The public doesn’t need platitudes about “community trust.” They need accountability. They need leadership. And they certainly need a police department that doesn’t prioritize public relations spin over the safety of its residents.
FATIGUE: Cincinnati Police Chief Terri Theetge justified the release of the ringleader of the black mob that attacked and almost killed a male tourist and a single mother on $400 bond because he was a victim of a bartender who overserved him during the jazz festival. pic.twitter.com/2xaCWeEcpD
— @amuse (@amuse) July 30, 2025
City Manager Sheryl Long’s statement insists public safety is the administration’s “top priority.” If that’s true, then this isn’t just a suspension—it’s a reckoning. One that’s long overdue.
The city has now installed Assistant Chief Adam Hennie as interim chief, hoping to stabilize the situation. Time will tell whether this is a turning point or a temporary pause in a deeper decline. But one thing is certain: what happened in July wasn’t just a violent act caught on camera. It was a test of leadership. And Chief Theetge failed it.
