Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge went off on social media users and the media for sharing videos of a vicious and potentially racially-motivated beating in her city last weekend.
During a press conference Monday, the city’s top cop said people sharing the clips were distorting the facts around a brutal mob melee “without context.”
The incident, which occurred Friday in the city’s downtown area, involved two white victims — a man and a woman — being savagely beaten by a group of black assailants.
Gruesome videos of the attacks quickly went viral over the weekend.
The footage showed the man being knocked to the ground, kicked, and punched in the head by multiple people.
???? BREAKING: New video shows a THIRD victim of a black mob at the Cincinnati Jazz Festival being BRUTALLY assauIted for no reason
The legacy media is SILENT, because they want to pretend black on white crime is NON-EXISTENT.
THIS BS MUST END! Stop being afraid to talk about it! pic.twitter.com/nTGo2cpZVO
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 27, 2025
When a white woman intervened to help, she was struck in the back of the head by a female attacker.
A black male then punched her in the face until she lost consciousness.
????HATE CRIMES????
White couple was singled out and sucker punched.
Then while they were on the ground they beat them.I am seeing even more reports,
At least three White males & two White females were savagely beaten by dozens of African Americans leaving the Cincinnati Music… pic.twitter.com/87HfQ5va6D— Jakey (@JacobBaker613) July 27, 2025
The beatings happened on the streets of the Democrat-run city, and police were not quick to show up to the scene.
At Monday’s press conference, Theetge said one reason for the delayed response was a lack of calls about the incident. She then lashed out at those sharing the viral videos.
“That social media post and your coverage of it distorts the content of what actually happened,” Theetge said.
NEW: Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge shames people for sharing video footage of a woman getting beaten because the video didn’t “depict the entire incident.”
She’s seriously blaming social media for this?!
The comment comes in response to video footage showing a woman… pic.twitter.com/OhNij3XX3V
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 29, 2025
She added, “Another topic I want to cover real quick, social media and journalism, and the role it plays in this incident. And yes, guys, that’s you.”
“Social media, the posts we’ve seen, does not depict this entire incident,” she said.
“That is one version of what occurred.”
“At times, social media and mainstream media — and their commentaries — are a misrepresentation of the circumstances surrounding any given event,” Theetge added.
When pressed by a reporter about what exactly was distorted, the chief responded, “It just shows one side of the equation quite frequently, without context — without factual context. And then people run with that.”
Despite multiple assailants being clearly seen in the videos, Theetge claimed the footage made it harder for her department to investigate.
Theetge was sworn in as the city’s 16th police chief in January 2023.
She is the first woman to lead the Cincinnati Police Department.
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