Was the attack at the Cincinnati Jazz Festival racially motivated? New details here.

Image for article: Was the attack at the Cincinnati Jazz Festival racially motivated? New details here.

Joel Abbott

Jul 28, 2025

On Saturday night, a white man and woman were brutally assaulted by a predominantly black crowd in Cincinnati, and a clip of the white woman being sucker punched by a black man went viral:

[Warning: OBVIOUSLY THIS IS VIOLENT]

There seem to have been several other white men who were attacked by the black crowd, as seen in this screenshot:

And in this corresponding video:

According to the local police union, arrests have been made in the incident.

[President of Cincinnati's Fraternal Order of Police, Ken] Kober emphasized that investigators are working tirelessly to apprehend those responsible.

'These investigators have been working around the clock to identify everybody that's involved, to be able to locate those people, to be able to interview them, to be able to get a true picture of exactly what occurred,' he said.

It's not entirely clear what led to the savage beatdown. The attack took place at the Cincinnati Jazz Festival, a predominantly black event in a city that is almost 40% black.

Some reports from black social media users said a group of white men approached a group of black men and hurled slurs, which led to a slap, which led to all-out war.

In the above video, the white man in the center (who appears to be the same one in the longer video where the woman gets knocked out cold) is in a boxing stance with a black man. The two circle each other on their toes without making contact, then someone says something and the 1 v. 1 fight seems to come to a pause.

The men in this video are the same that were curb-stomped just a few moments later.

The first example of physical contact I can find is where the white guy in the middle slaps his black opponent in the face.

Because the story went viral, Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon made a statement indicating that the DOJ would provide oversight to make sure Cincinnati PD does not sweep the incident under the rug due to bad optics.

While we do not have any more information about what led to the fight, or if the white guy really was the instigator, let me give you a piece of advice.

  • You aren't a victim if you decide to fight someone on the street, especially when that someone has two dozen buddies looking for a fun time. No court is going to hear an argument of self defense when you didn't retreat from the situation and are seen making the first blow.

  • TL;DR Version: Don't do stupid things in stupid places at stupid times with stupid people.

I'll update this story if we get any more details about what actually happened. All the victims didn't require an ambulance to make it to the hospital and appear to be doing fine.


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