Hello Cincy. Let’s do a brief news rundown, shall we?
The Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police last night voted that it would not participate in a “refresh” of the 2003 Collaborative Agreement announced in June and also passed a vote of no confidence in Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. FOP President Dan Hils says the no confidence vote comes after Assistant Prosecutor Seth Tieger’s criticism of Cincinnati Police Sgt. Shannon Heine during the second trial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing. During the trial, Tieger asked whether Heine is part of a “good old boy” network that protects police after Heine testified that Tensing’s shooting of unarmed black motorist Sam DuBose might have been justified. Hils also says that criticism from police reform activists around the Tensing trial inspired the FOP to pull out of the city’s refresh of the Collaborative, which was put in place following the 2001 shooting death of unarmed 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. That process, which will focus on revitalizing the city’s Citizen Complaint Authority and police oversight efforts, is voluntary — court oversight of the city’s police reforms ended in 2008 — but was announced to great fanfare earlier this summer.
• About 20 Tensing supporters yesterday gathered at Yeatman’s Cove to hold a prayer vigil and march across the Purple People Bridge. Black Lives Matter Cincinnati and other groups held a counter-march at the same time, drawing about 80-100 people. Organizers of the pro-Tensing rally posted a Facebook message about 20 minutes before their event’s official start time saying it had been canceled, but a small group showed up anyway. One, Dan Luken, said that the official event had been canceled due to “threats” from a group he refused to name, echoing language used by organizers on social media.
Organizers posted a screenshot of a comment thread from Facebook on the “Support Ray Tensing” page that shows one woman saying she would run a motorcycle through the crowd at the event. A minute later, another post from the same woman, hidden in the Support Ray Tensing screenshot, says “nah, I’m just playing.” The post also has comments from Black Lives Matter organizers stressing that violence at the event won’t be tolerated. Those comments are also not included in the “Support Ray Tensing” screenshot posted by Tensing rally organizers. Tensing rally organizers didn’t cite specifics in their post announcing the cancellation, saying only that they received “threats and personal attacks.” The group promises another, private rally soon.
There was no violence during yesterday’s interaction between the two groups as Tensing supporters marched across the bridge through a line of Black Lives Matter protesters. At least two brief conversations between protesters on both sides ended peacefully and somewhat amicably. The only moment of tension came after the march, when a man who came in support of Tensing briefly displayed and ran his hand along a pistol on his hip. He left after a few minutes.
• Should Tensing be able to work in law enforcement again? Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones thinks so. Jones says he’s heard Tensing is a good officer and says he would run his application the same way he would any other officer if he applied. Jones was careful to note he’s not had any conversations with Tensing on that point, but did encourage the former UC officer to sue the university to get his job back.
• OK. On to non-Tensing-related news. Keep Cincinnati Beautiful Executive Director Mary Huttlinger has resigned following discrepancies in invoicing the city discovered in May. Huttlinger was put on leave following that discovery. The city has paid KCB more than $1 million since 2015 for its blight mitigation services. The city is in the process of auditing the organization.
• Demolition on the controversial Dennison Hotel has paused after crews discovered it shares a wall with a neighboring building, Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black wrote in a memo to City Council Friday. Owners Columbia REI — controlled by powerful auto magnates the Joseph family — fought preservation activists for the right to tear down the historic 125-year-old structure. They’re currently negotiating with the owners of the building next door to come to a solution, according to Black’s memo.
• Plans for downtown’s first grocery store in decades received key approval from the city yesterday. Cincinnati’s Historic Conservation Board unanimously approved designs for an eight-story, 139-unit apartment tower, a 550-space parking garage and a two-story Kroger store, asking for very few changes.
• A former Kentucky governor and current state senator is facing calls for resignation from his own party following allegations of sexual assault. State Sen. Julian Carroll, a Democrat, was accused in a news story over the weekend of groping a man in 2005 and later stifling an investigation into that act. Carroll’s accuser, Jason Geis, says he has audio recordings of Carroll asking him to perform sexual favors. Carroll has denied the incidents happened, but his fellow Democrats in the Senate have stripped him of his leadership role as minority whip and are asking him to leave his post entirely. Carroll has been a state senator since 2005 and was governor from 1974-1979.
• As the U.S. Senate potentially prepares to vote on a measure that would repeal the Affordable Care Act today, President Donald Trump will visit Youngstown for a rally. How are Ohioans — who voted overwhelmingly for the president — reacting to plans Trump has backed to end the ACA? More than 700,000 people gained insurance in the state thanks to the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. Many of those people would lose coverage under a repeal plan being mulled in the Senate. But some in Youngstown say they still have faith that Trump will make insurance more affordable for them.
This article appears in Jul 19-26, 2017.