|
Cincinnati Police officers have repeatedly stopped African-American men for phantom traffic violations, then unjustifiably searched them for drugs. Officers use abusive language to provoke responses that leads to chargeable offenses, photograph innocent civilians during stops in order to track their behavior and are rewarded for the number of arrests — not for work that promotes police-community relations.
Those are some of the allegations in a motion filed March 14 in U.S. District Court. The motion, filed by three attorneys, seeks to make a two-year-old lawsuit over police misconduct into a class action suit. The amendment seeks to put Cincinnati Police under a court order, or consent decree, forcing changes in internal investigations and boosting data collection on traffic stops and other contacts.
The original lawsuit, filed by Bond Hill resident Bomani Tyehimba, accuses an officer of unjustifiably pulling a gun on him during a February 1999 traffic stop.
At a press conference March 14, attorneys Ken Lawson, Alphonse Gerhardstein and Scott Greenwood stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the steps surrounding the flagpole in front of City Hall. Next to the lawyers were members of the Black United Front (BUF), the citizens group that protested restaurant closings during the Coors Light Festival and Ujima Cinci-Bration.
The legal team offered the Cincinnati Police what sounded like an ultimatum: Cooperate on a proposal for mediation of racial complaints, or lose in court. Greenwood said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which he represents, has filed 16 racial profiling cases across the country.
"Not one of those cases has been lost," Greenwood says.
Broken promises
In 1998, Gerhardstein settled a lawsuit on behalf of blacks alleging police misconduct. The Department of Justice, the police and the city agreed to assemble a database of complaints, lawsuits and other police problems to better monitor officer conduct. Although the idea was supported by the city administration, it was never put into practice, Gerhardstein says.
Assistant City Solicitor Richard Ganulin says he's reviewing the motion filed last week.
"The case raises some legitimate public policy questions," Ganulin says.
But Ganulin says he isn't sure a lawsuit is the best way to answer those questions.
Ganulin says he isn't familiar with the details of the database agreement or whether it's been implemented. But there's a difference between proving certain officers abused their power — something Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas Streicher has admitted — and proving the department or the city has allowed the abuses to continue systematically, Ganulin says.
But the city isn't the only player whose numbers are unclear. Ask how many members Black United Front has, and spokesman Juleana Frierson refuses to say.
"It's not public information," Frierson says.
The motion for a class action suit cites alleged discrimination dating back to 1967. During race riots that year, the motion says, Cincinnati Police charged whites with loitering but arrested blacks on the more serious charge of rioting.
That kind of history is only relevant if it relates to how the division works today, Ganulin says. The police division has had many changes in policy, hiring and training in the past 30 years, he says.
Assuming there is a problem with profiling or general police misconduct, recent history seems to indicate a system that holds few officers accountable. Lt. Ray Ruberg, spokesman for the Cincinnati Police, says the division has never determined an officer stopped a driver primarily because of race.
The motion cites a CityBeat analysis of more than 141,000 traffic citations by Cincinnati Police between March 1999 and December 2000 (see "Moving Violations," issue of March 8-14). The analysis found blacks get significantly more tickets for non-moving violations than whites — driving without a license, driving without a seat-belt and driving without proof of insurance. Blacks received 79 percent of all of jaywalking citations during the same period.
The lawyers are pushing heavily for more data collection. Greenwood says data programs elsewhere have discouraged profiling and other police misconduct.
"We need to know what the extent of the problem is," Greenwood says.
The lawsuit has three main goals: to put cases of apparent profiling on the record, to show the police violated citizens' rights and to prove the police discriminated against racial minorities.
Gerhardstein hopes the police division will cooperate with a proposed mediation process, which could be finished in June. The lawyers suggest hiring Jay Rothman, a mediator who helped settle the Confederate flag dispute in South Carolina.
But if the police division and city resist mediation, Gerhardstein says, the legal team won't quit until it receives a court order or the case is dismissed.
"We're ready to fight it to the end," he says. "We need to have a set of promises that are enforceable."
Residents demand action
The same day the motion was filed, more than 100 people filled the Hirsch Recreation Center gym in Avondale for a public hearing on racial profiling. The hearing wasn't quite the listening forum envisioned by its chair, City Councilman John Cranley.
At times, citizens turned the tables and asked questions of Cranley, other council members and City Manager John Shirey. What were they really going to do about profiling, some asked. Or was this another attempt to create the appearance of taking action? City leaders, sometimes looking uncomfortable, had few answers.
The hearing began with Councilmembers Minette Cooper, Alicia Reece and Paul Booth talking about their interest in addressing racial profiling.
A series of residents presented their stories, which ranged from an officer slamming a young black male on a car hood and pepper spraying him, to a young black female cited for trespassing in front of her grandmother's house.
Roscoe Fultz, a member of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and Cincinnati Park Board, said the problem goes beyond the Cincinnati Police. Fultz was about to use his special parking pass last August; it allows him to park in police spots. But as he was backing into a space in front of the Hamilton County Board of Elections, a county sheriff's deputy told him he couldn't park there.
Fultz drove away, but the deputy followed. When Fultz pulled over to ask why the deputy was following him, the deputy cited him for illegal parking. The charge was later dismissed.
William Franklin of Lincoln Heights, a retired General Electric engineer, said there's a lot of fear out there.
"People who are afraid of you will hurt you," Franklin said.
The level of distrust reached a peak when Herb Smith, a sociology professor and talk show host on WCIN (1480-AM), asked why the city is talking about picking a white University of Cincinnati criminology professor to study patterns in police behavior. Plenty of qualified black professors could do the work, Smith said. Most of the crowd applauded in agreement. Cranley and Booth said no one has been selected; the city will open the job to public bidding.
Rev. James W. Jones, first vice president of the Baptist Ministers Conference, said too often bad cops are only sent to training instead of really being disciplined.
"We got bad cops," Jones said. "Bad cops must lose their jobs. Training has been the whipping boy and the cop-out."
The hearing ended with relatives of young black men killed by Cincinnati Police shouting, "You guys didn't say nothing!" and "You're trying to pacify us!"
Lawson says the next move is up to the city.
"We're not in a fighting position right now," he says. "But if they don't want to do the right thing, then we'll fight." ©
