Cincy reaction not like ‘Ferguson ... Baltimore’

So what did Cincinnati learn from Ferguson and Baltimore? Or even its own recent past?

The results are mixed. No violence has broken out nor any arrests made in the wake of Wednesday’s indictment and arrest of a former University of Cincinnati police officer on a murder charge. That officer shot and killed an unarmed motorist during a routine traffic stop earlier this month.

While there has been one major rally in support of the dead man’s family and to protest police brutality in general, it went off peacefully with Cincinnati police keeping a respectful distance as they ushered participants through the city.

That’s a far cry from the scenes in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, following the deaths of unarmed black men during police-involved incidents. And even a much different sight than seen Cincinnati in 2001, when civil unrest broke out following the shooting of an unarmed black man in Over-the-Rhine by Cincinnati police.

“This is night and day different than it was in 2001,” said Charlie Luken, who was mayor of Cincinnati that year. “I clearly believe that the lessons learned in Cincinnati due to what happened then are showing themselves today.”

Said Rev. Bobby Hilton of Word of Deliverance Church in Forest Park: “I don’t believe Ferguson got this. I don’t believe Baltimore got this. Cincinnati did.”

Yet some black leaders say they are still being left out of the process. Many believe more needs to be done. And all say there are no guarantees if former UC police officer Ray Tensing is found not guilty.

Those on the front lines of Cincinnati’s last major racial flashpoint say that the collaborative agreement that changed police tactics needs to be revisited. That decree between civic leaders, Cincinnati police and the Justice Department mandating changes in the local police department and policing policies and techniques was signed after the 2001 unrest. A federal court stopped overseeing the agreement in 2008, although several provisions are still in place.

Those leaders also point out that Cincinnati officers were also indicted in the police shooting of Timothy Thomas in 2001, only to be eventually acquitted.

“What we didn’t have then that we appear to have now is a sense of transparency ... but we can’t help but wonder if that’s because this was a UCPD officer and not a Cincinnati police officer,” said Rev. Damon Lynch III, pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Roselawn, who led the protest group the Cincinnati Black United Front in 2001 and was a lead negotiator for the collaborative agreement.

“In light of this, we need to go back through that collaborative decree and read that document carefully and make sure CPD is doing their job as well,” Lynch said Thursday at a press conference hosted by several area pastors.

Luken, who has served as a mentor at times to current Mayor John Cranley, said he has spoken with Cranley briefly, but not at length about the situation nor has he given specific advice. He said the reaction and ongoing talks between city officials and black leaders are “light years ahead of where we were.”

“What this will show is the true strength of the collaborative agreement,” Luken said. “While we always said that it wouldn’t necessarily prevent things like this from ever happening, we did feel like it was a national model on how to handle them when they did. And now this is the biggest test of that since 2001.”

Cincinnati city officials said they had reached out to many in the black community to help allay any harsh reactions ahead of time leading up to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deter’s announcement of the murder charges. But those at Thursday’s press conference, including Lynch, said they had not been contacted by City Hall ahead of time.

“One of the things I want to stress about the relationships that we have forged is that they were not put in place to keep people calm when things go wrong,” said Rev. Gene Ellington, senior pastor at Consolation Baptist Church in College Hill. “That’s not our role and that’s not the nature of our relationship.

“When injustice occurs, you will see the same righteous indignation, at least from me.”

One national expert said that Deters’ quick turnaround with the grand jury helped keep calm, as did his willingness to keep everyone informed of the progress. Even his angry tone at the press conference to announce the charges worked to positive effect.

“Too often, prosecutors are hesitant to bring charges and hesitant to call the facts the facts,” said Chelsea Parsons, vice president for guns and crime policy for the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank. “We saw him act quickly and without hedging, treating this case from the beginning for what it is – murder.”

Parsons, unaware that some black leaders in Cincinnati felt left out of pre-indictment discussions, also credited city leaders with being willing to work behind the scenes with community activists leading up to the announcement to help quell potential violence. That, she said, was in stark contrast to Ferguson, where police rolled out heavy equipment including tanks and riot gear once violence started. Observers say that helped inflame an already tense situation instead of deescalating it.

Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell was front and center during the Black Lives Matter rally Wednesday, Parsons noted. Ferguson and St. Louis County police were never visible alongside protesters or even in the media until well after the unrest started and an outside officer from the Missouri State Police showed up to help centralize the message.

“That is a much better approach than the ones attempted in other cities to anticipate and meet discontent with arming up officers to prepare for civic battle,” Parsons said.

Another national expert on police-community relations said that while it was probably much easier for Deters to indict a UC officer as compared to a Cincinnati Police Department officer, it still sent a strong message to the community.

Christi Griffin, founder and president of the St. Louis-based The Ethics Project, said that the real test will be to see whether there is the political will to actually convict Tensing of murder.

“After what happened (Wednesday), I would be very surprised to see anyone really acting out ... but all that could change if they come back without a conviction,” Griffin said.

That message was reiterated Thursday by a veteran of the Baltimore unrest, who said that Cincinnati’s current passive state could be over quickly, saying even charges brought by a Maryland state attorney Marilyn Mosby against Baltimore police officers may not be enough to keep things quiet there.

“It’s no different than what Baltimore did with the attorney. She did what she did, but it’s still not enough for Baltimore,” said Reverend Westley West, founder and pastor of the Baltimore-based Faith Empowered Ministries who was in Cincinnati Thursday. “Just like those charges are not enough for Cincinnati. We want convictions. Everybody wants convictions.”

Enquirer reporter Hannah Sparling contributed.