A late-night brawl erupted outside a Cincinnati nightclub after the 2025 Cincinnati Music Festival, involving Black and White revelers. Onlookers recorded videos showing a group of Black people punching and stomping White people who cowered on the ground. Authorities charged seven Black people and one White man; the Black defendants face felony assault and rioting indictments that could carry decades in prison, while the White man was charged with disorderly conduct and has not been publicly named because police said he was also a victim. Viral videos fueled conservative outrage and renewed debate over policing, prosecutions, and race relations in the city.
It was certainly not the only alcohol-fueled fistfight to erupt in America that night, but a brawl outside of a popular nightclub in Cincinnati has become a national scandal in conservative circles. The violent altercation between Black and White revelers in the early morning hours of a Saturday in late July has become a test of the state of policing and race relations in a city that many say was already on edge.
The fight broke out about 3 a.m. two blocks from Paycor Stadium, the riverside home of the Cincinnati Bengals, where thousands had attended the 2025 Cincinnati Music Festival hours earlier. Onlookers took out their cellphones to record a group of Black people punching and stomping White people who cowered on the ground, according to a review of the videos of the brawl posted on social media.
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