CPD District 1 Photo: Nick Swartsell

CPD District 1 Photo: Nick Swartsell

Activist group Cincy Moms United recently formed to help fight for racial equity. (Originally calling themselves Wall of Moms Cincy, they have updated their name to Cincy Moms United.)

In an email, the group — helmed by three women who wish to remain anonymous and act as a collective to avoid putting members at risk, they say — defines themselves as “a coalition of various backgrounds and political beliefs (except racist Trump supporters) who created this alliance to help push police reform in our community and protect protesters from police violence if need be. We advocate justice reform; public safety solutions responsive to the call type and community needs; eliminating the racist officers and practices of the Cincinnati Police force and (Fraternal Order of Police) leadership; opportunities of education and countering propaganda.”

We reached out to Cincy Moms United via email to learn more about their mission and involvement in upcoming protests.

CityBeat: I’m assuming the Wall of Moms Cincy group is an outgrowth of the Wall of Moms that originated (during the protests) in Portland. If that’s incorrect, let me know, but can you tell me a little bit about yourselves — any founders or co-founders? — and why you felt a calling to bring this movement to Cincinnati?

Cincy Moms United: We are a small coalition of moms, dads, vets, anyone who is willing to stand up to support Black lives and the collection of local groups who are the driving force in the area. The seed was planted to build a local coalition by the Wall of Moms, Dad Pods, Wall of Vets, Wall of Nurses/Docs, however, we are not directly affiliated with groups in Portland or elsewhere. The founder and organizers want no personal publicity (and) will remain anonymous for security purposes. We want to keep the focus on supporting local — Mass Action for Black Liberation and various Black and/or youth lead groups — along with national groups.

(Wall of moms in Portland had some issues that happened a few weeks back that we don’t want to be associated with. We admire how they are supporting their community)

CB: How would you sum up your mission?

CMU: Coalition-building to support Black lives locally and nationally through police policy reforms and accountability. Yes, all lives matter. No one is saying Black lives matter more. Black lives and BIPOC are simply asking for help because their lives are in danger and targeted by police more frequently. Our mission is to help shine a light on current local and national racial issues, advocate for change, and support local and national calls of action.

CB: You have two upcoming protests planned, one for Sept. 4 and one for Sept. 11. What can people expect if they want to attend either/both?

CMU: Peaceful protest! We continue (to fight against) all violence, whether it’s brutality from police or opportunist looting during a protest. Calling attention to senseless murders of Black men and women at the hands of police, police brutality. We did not organize either event; local groups asked for support.

CB: On Twitter, the post regarding Justice for Jacob Blake has a list of demands for what needs to be done to create an accountable police force. Is there anything you want to add to that list? How did you create those main points?

CMU: Cincinnati is a leader in police reforms, yet more work needs to be done. Why was the Collaborative Agreement not fully funded and staffed for so long? Why is the (Fraternal Order of Police) president obstructing updates to the agreement and policy changes? Creating new policies weeds out bad actors that reflect badly on (the Cincinnati Police Department) and our city. These are changes the FOP should fully support. We still have too much resistance from the FOP and some policing organizations.

The FBI released a report 12+ years ago about white nationalists joining the ranks of law enforcement to advance their cause. Why hasn’t anything been done in Cincinnati to address this? If anything we’ve seen an uptick of law enforcement in Cincinnati who have aligned with far right militias and racist groups, and it’s evident by social media content posted by law enforcement and the FOP. We currently have a police officer who was reported for racist behavior and he is currently suing the folks that reported him. They followed protocols for reporting set up by the Collaborative Agreement, and are protected by our constitution.

Racist behavior by cops should be reported by other cops and the community without repercussions. We call for:

  • More comprehensive hiring practices.
  • Periodic psychological evaluations during the performance review process.
  • Employment morality clauses that ensure officers represent our city at all times including on social media, with unbecoming behavior cause for termination.
  • Longer and more comprehensive training and education. Most cosmetologist have more training and education than most police officers who are trained to kill.
  • Give power back to the police chief to handle personnel matters to terminate bad actors without interference from the FOP.
  • Think outside the box, bring in experts, be open-minded to try new policing. These are issues that need to be addressed now, and in doing so we not only help the community and police relations, but also protect the good cops.

CB: I noticed that you clearly outline that calling for police accountability does not equal defunding the police. Can you tell me why that was important to include?

CMU: So many folks now think advocating for law enforcement policy changes equals eliminating policing altogether. Reallocating some police funds to support community programs that were proven effective in keeping kids off the streets, out of gangs and off drugs is also not defunding police. Funding to community programs was cut over the years recently. Now we find ourselves in pressure-cooker times with the COVID pandemic, the unemployment and housing crisis, food insecurities, families struggling to survive and we have an explosion of violence.

Adding social workers to our policing doesn’t eliminate or defund police. Officers are not trained social workers and we shouldn’t expect them to be. Our policing model should include professionals that will better service our homeless residents, mental health crises, addiction crises, etc. These policy changes are what the community needs and are simply additional tools for Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac and the CPD to utilize.

CB: Is there anything additional you want readers to know about Wall of Moms Cincy?

CMU: Help us build a coalition to unite Cincinnati and assist local groups. Protesting not required. We are also trying to find solution to help folks vote. Join us to shine a light and find solutions focused on our community needs. Our goal is to build a coalition that will also include advocating for changes in policing models in all Cincinnati neighborhoods, townships and county sheriffs. Vaginas are not required, neither is motherhood. All are welcome: moms, dads, aunts, uncles, grams and paps, vets, doctors, lawyers, artist, unemployed.

On Friday, Sept. 4, the group participated in a protest hosted by The Collective and Cincinnati For Justice. Taking place 6-9 p.m. at the Cincinnati Police Department’s District 1 headquarters at 310 Ezzard Charles Drive, the rally called for:

  • Justice for Jacob Blake, who is paralyzed after Kenosha, Wisconsin police shot him seven times in the back, and Breonna Taylor, the Louisville EMT who was shot by police while they were serving a no-knock warrant on her apartment;
  • To honor others lost to police brutality including Melvin Murray, Dontez O’Neal, Paul Gaston, Sam DuBose, Quandavier Hicks, Roger Owensby Jr. and Timothy Thomas;
  • To reopen all other cases of police brutality;
  • And to call for the sentencing of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is facing charges for allegedly killing two people and injuring a third with a rifle during a protest over Blake’s shooting in Kenosha.

On Friday, Sept. 11 — the date of a pretrial hearing for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police office charged with the death of George Floyd after kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes — they said they are helping another group promote a rally to support Black lives. The planned protest will meet at Cincinnati City Hall at 801 Plum St. downtown and also function as a call to charge Louisville officers Jonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Get more info about Cincy Moms United on Twitter @WallofMomsCincy and facebook.com/wom.cincy, or email cincymomsunited@protonmail.com.

Editor’s Note: Since our original email interview, this story has been updated to reflect The Collective and Cincinnati For Justice organized the Sept. 4 rally, as well as the name change from Wall of Moms Cincy to Cincy Moms United. Cincy Moms United has also issued a statement regarding concern from local activist groups about their legitimacy and involvement with the above events after we reached out to them for further comment. Their statement is below:

Three women are driving this bus, and we have no face of the group. We are a collective. There will be no doxxing of our people, we have safety in numbers. We are not willing to put people at risk when we already have racist along with the “woke” kids attacking us. 

Let’s Recap: We are a coalition of various backgrounds and political beliefs (except racist Trump supporters) who created this alliance to help push police reform in our community and protect protesters from police violence if need be. We advocate justice reform; public safety solutions responsive to the call type and community needs; eliminating the racist officers and practices of the Cincinnati Police force and FOP leadership; opportunities of education and countering propaganda.

Originally we did start as Wall of Moms to serve as a barrier between the police and protestors if needed. Do we need a Wall of Moms in Cincinnati like Portland to protect protestors? Not at the moment, therefore our name was changed to Cincy Moms United a few weeks ago. Protests and rallies are just one piece of the puzzle. We agreed to promote the 2 events focused on Black lives brutalized and killed by cop plus advocate for reform. In our response to you at CityBeat, we stated we are promoting events from local groups. We did not state we organized the events. What we did wrong was not explicitly state the organizer of the 1st rally. We named MA4BL and others as local groups we support.  The group for the 2nd event requested anonymity. With violence seen recently from white nationalist groups and militias, and even from law enforcement retaliating against protestors, once again we refuse to compromise safety.

We did NOT seek out events, it wasn’t our mission as a collective of moms, dads and others. Mayor Cranley and City Hall needs pressure to DO SOMETHING besides giving CPD even more money.  While several of us stopped by the event, we didn’t gather en masse for several reasons we won’t discuss publicly at the moment.

CityBeat asked that we defend ourselves from the pushback that arose after the fact. We refuse to feed the beast of division, attack or bring any negativity to another social justice group. Racist institutions win if we are divided. There was no pushback until after the fact. We believe in the value of multifaceted approaches to complex issues, solutions inside and outside the system to change the system of institutional racism. Allies sometimes show their entitlement or dismiss Black voices. That’s the complex issue of allyship! Be helpful, demand equality and fairness guaranteed by our constitutional rights without harming the voices you support or others in the same fight. 

Going Forward: As an informal coalition with no formal organization we didn’t have enough checks in place, and quite frankly we didn’t think it was needed when we are on the same team fighting the same fight. From this point forward we’ll limit and thoroughly vet “formal” associations, define expectations of our participation, communication and messaging. We apologize if there was mixed messaging that may have been sent. 

Keep up the good, necessary trouble while trudging along the road to equality. Listen or watch Who We Are: a Chronicle of Racism in America by Jeffery Robinson, ACLU lawyer. Unite and support local groups in the same fight despite any minor policy differences. Support Mass Action for Black Liberation, the local changemakers, heart and soul of the Collaborative Agreement. 

Human rights > political purity test. 

#BlackLivesMatter #BlackVoicesMatter #BlackWomenMatter #Unity

This article appears in The Meaning of Monuments.

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