Just Don't Say, 'Shoot! I Know You'
Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach needs to make a living just like the rest of us, but working night shifts at the Skyline Chili on Ludlow Avenue would seem the last thing he'd want to do. No, Roach isn't topping coneys with onions and cheese; he's working the door. The restaurant often is filled to capacity on weekend nights, and a police officer mans the door, locking it when the room gets too full.
With Roach's easily recognizable mug -- he's the cop who shot and killed Timothy Thomas -- not to mention his nametag, late night duty with the UC drunks is sure to elicit some comments.
She's baaaaaack! Perennial candidate Marilyn Hyland is about to officially announce her intention to run for the Hamilton County Commission seat being vacated by Tom Neyer Jr. She says she'd like the Democratic Party's endorsement to run against presumed GOP candidate Phil Heimlich but picked up both Democrat and Independent petitions just in case. Her first fundraiser is already planned: a "Ribs, Roast and Rock & Roll" event Jan. 5 in Indian Hill.
Timing Isn't Everything
For Christmas, would someone please buy the Black United Front (BUF) an appointment book? The BUF called a press conference for Dec. 3, when the Rev. Damon Lynch III was supposed to respond to his dismissal as co-chair of Cincinnati Community Action Now (CAN) for criticizing the Cincinnati Police Division. But Lynch didn't show. Not to worry. Next day BUF called another press conference, this one for Dec. 5. But within hours Lynch canceled it due to "personal matters."
Child molesters. Heroin addicts. Bank robbers. Philandering TV news anchors. What do they all have in common? They're allowed to participate in CAN. Lynch is the one and only person in all the world whom Mayor Charlie Luken has seen fit to forbid. Not only did Lynch lose his title -- he's evidently barred from even attending meetings.
"You are hereby dismissed from further involvement of any kind with Cincinnati Community Action Now," Luken wrote Dec. 3.
The timing of Luken's terse letter announcing Lynch's dismissal was great fun. He ousted Lynch just hours before CAN issued a press release about dialogue between cops and ministers. The statement even quoted its erstwhile co-chair.
"I am encouraged by the continuing dialogue taking place in our community," Lynch said.
Ethics Is as Ethics Does
Everybody knocks TV news. But here's an example of getting it right. The I-Team at WCPO-TV (Channel 9) has produced a documentary, Visions of Vine Street. Get this: Channel 9 is broadcasting the documentary in prime time, without commercials. The one-hour special by reporter Laure Quinlivan and photographer Rod Griola airs at 8 p.m. Thursday.
Xavier University has named Paul Fiorelli director of its new Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Fiorelli might do well to pick up a copy of a Dec. 10 resolution by the Student Senate, calling on XU to follow Catholic social teaching and protect the right of contract workers on campus to organize unions. The Cincinnati Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice has tried to get XU to help campus cafeteria workers get a contract from Sodexho Corp (see The Pope Wants a Union issue of Nov. 15-20).
Police Chief Tom Streicher addressed city council's Law and Public Safety Committee on Dec. 11. At the committee's request, he brought copies of a report on the use of force and policies on police dogs and chemical irritant. The committee got copies. But when a city clerk asked Capt. James Whalen for copies for the media, he told her she'd have to ask the lieutenant in the audience. A stack of copies sat unused on a table next to Whalen, while a council aide made copies for reporters. To the police, it seems, public records aren't even public when they're sitting in plain view.
