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Public commenters urge Cincinnati City Council to divest from companies tied to Israel, criticize police drone program
Summary
Multiple public commenters accused U.S. policy and private contractors of complicity in atrocities in Gaza and urged the Cincinnati City Council to divest from companies named as suppliers to the city's police drone program, including Skydio and Axon.
At a Cincinnati City Council meeting public comment period, Jonathan Norman, a public commenter, accused U.S. policies and certain technology vendors of enabling atrocities in Gaza and urged the council to divest from companies he named as vendors to the city's police drone program.
"The drone company Skydio was instrumental in Israel's genocide in Gaza," Norman said, and he also named Axon as supplying AI and software he said had been "tested and perfected in apartheid and genocide." He told the council those companies were "now the trusted partners of Cincinnati's police drone program, the largest in the Midwest," and urged council action.
Why it matters: Speakers argued procurement and investment choices at the local level are linked to broader human-rights concerns and called on the council to use its purchasing and policy influence to distance the city from firms they said were complicit in abuses. Those assertions were presented by public commenters and were not verified during the meeting.
Stanford Bull, another commenter, criticized what he described as the council's past decisions favoring wealthy interests and tied those critiques to calls for action on foreign-policy-related divestment. "In the past, city council took money out of funds and and held it to the side of apartheid," Bull said, urging elected officials to "do more" for Black and brown residents.
Iko Kimura also addressed the council during public comment, saying the U.S. continues to sell arms to states he accused of fueling violence and pointing to recent legislation in Israel he described as furthering repression. "If Palestine, free Sudan, and divest Cincinnati from genocide now," Kimura said.
No council response or formal motion to review contracts, city investments, or procurement policies was recorded during the meeting. The meeting proceeded to its business agenda after the public-comment period and concluded without a vote on any divestment-related action.
