Vice President JD Vance condemned fighters captured in a viral video and called on law enforcement to “throw their a**es in prison.”
Vance was in Canton, Ohio, on Monday to visit Metallus’s steel plant in the area. During his remarks, the vice president answered a question from a reporter regarding an apparent fight that broke out in Vance’s hometown of Cincinnati.
Video has circulated online of at least two people being singled out and attacked on Friday. The two victims appear to be knocked unconscious in the video as a crowd gathers around to beat a man until he falls to the ground and continues to kick him, and then beat another woman who is knocked unconscious by a single punch from a man.
Vance admitted he didn’t know the full context of the clip or how the fight started.
“But the one part that I saw that was really gruesome is you had a grown man who sucker punched a middle-aged woman,” Vance said. “And where I come from, at least, when you have a grown man who sucker punches a middle-aged woman … that person ought to go to jail for a very long time. Frankly, he’s lucky there weren’t some better people around because they would have handled it themselves.”
Cincinnati Police Chief Terri Theetge confirmed her department is investigating the fight, which, according to her, started following a verbal altercation.
“I hope every single one of those people who engage in violence is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and they will be. They will be so long as law enforcement in the state of Ohio takes their job seriously,” Vance said.
“The only way to destroy that street violence is [to] take the thugs who engage in that violence and throw their a**es in prison,” Vance added.
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In a statement Saturday, Theetge expressed “complete disgust” at seeing the video and condemned the “cruel and absolutely unacceptable” behavior.
Police have yet to make arrests regarding the fight. Theetge recommended that anyone with information call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.