CINCINNATI, Ohio — Protests across the state have continued throughout the weekend, including here in Cincinnati. And that is why Mayor John Cranley has decided to extend the curfew and make it citywide. 

The curfew is moving up to 9 p.m. now— an hour earlier than it started on Saturday night. Mayor Cranley made that announcement Sunday afternoon, saying it will still run until 6 a.m. and as of right now, it will be in effect again on Monday night as well.

“We hope that we don’t need to extend it beyond Tuesday morning, but for the reasons that we saw such a professional, sensitive and good outcome relative to what we saw around the country, I think it is one of the tools that has helped us get there,” said Cranley.

Still, the Queen City is dealing with its share of violence. Protesters damaged businesses in the Clifton area Saturday night. One police officer was also shot at. More than 100 people were arrested. But police believe that the earlier curfew will pay dividends.

“Obviously it’s a challenge to enforce the entire city,” said Eliot Isaac, Cincinnati chief of police. “The areas that we’re having problems with obviously will be our priority.”
 
And although Isaac isn’t in support of violent protests, he is in support of justice for George Floyd.

“We support the prosecution of the officers involved in that and we support professional and good policing.”

Cincinnati Councilman Jeff Pastor, who has been very vocal about protests going on in Cincinnati, says destroying the city is not the answer. 
 
“I believe that as opposed to marching and protesting, which has its place, right? I think we can use those energies, in my opinion, to develop our communities, to police our communities and to strengthen ourselves so that we don’t have these kinds of interactions," said Pastor.

Pastor says he's  working on putting together a group of all ages to help bring this destruction to an end and create unity in the city. 

“We really want to get to the bottom of the situation and we are planning to start meeting on a weekly basis with some sort of demonstrable actions that are going to take place.”