Norwood PD responds to email calling it 'cowards'

An email calling the Norwood Police Department "cowardly" for its investigation into an August beating at a church festival led to an impassioned response by an officer and has generated a lot of conversation on social media.

The email, which was not signed, lambasted officers and claimed racial fears got the juvenile suspects lesser charges.

"I am appalled that you are not charging these black kids with a hate crime for attacking this white kid. It's obvious this was racially motivated and a hate crime. Your Dept. must be afraid of blacks," the person wrote.

"Why not just set them free(?) If I were a police officer in Norwood I'd hide my face in shame."

Norwood's response: "We are not ashamed of the job we do. We enforce the laws as they are written, without prejudice."

Police have said a video shot outside the Holy Trinity Church Parish festival shows a group of minors attempting to instigate a fight with a boy near the intersection of Drex and Moeller avenues.

"It appears a large group is trying to egg-on a fight. The victim doesn't appear to want to participate. After 30 seconds, someone starts punching him and basically said, 'OK, then I'll fight him.' Then, a mob mentality sets in," said police Lt. Ron Murphy. "The fight was only 3 to 5 seconds, but it was very scary to watch."

The victim complained of a headache the next day, but received no visible injuries and did not go to the hospital, Murphy said. Police later arrested five minors, between the ages of 13 and 14, and charged them with misdemeanor assault.

But the email suggests Norwood police did not seek hate crime charges because they are afraid of potential black protesters.

Department officials posted the email, and an emotional response to it, on Facebook Tuesday morning. By noon Wednesday, the post received 466 likes, 66 shares and 85 comments.

In his response to the email, Murphy said many are confused about hate crime law in Ohio. There are five crimes where ethnic intimidation can be added to lengthen sentencing, Murphy said. Assault, he said, is not one of them.

"The term hate crime sounds great, but it’s not an Ohio law," he told The Enquirer Wednesday.

A great majority of the comments online praised Murphy for his eloquent response, which he said was embarrassing.

"There wasn’t anything courageous about it, I was just schooling him on Ohio law," he said.

Murphy, a 20-year veteran of the Norwood Police Department, said he needed to respond because he never received a direct email as "nasty" as this one before.

"In this case there is no evidence that the crime was committed because of race," Murphy's response states. "Just because the suspects were all black and the victim was white, that is not sufficient evidence to prove a 'hate crime.' "

Murphy went on to defend the department, calling officers there the "antithesis of cowardly."

"They are willing to put their lives on the line at any given moment. We are more than willing to show our faces in public because we are extremely proud of our work and our process," he said.

The responses poured in:

"Well said. I am proud of Norwood and our police department," one said.

"People who haven't lived in the world of law enforcement have no idea what officers face or the actual laws that they enforce," another wrote.

Some remained unconvinced.

"Even though I respect the Norwood Police Department I do feel like the sheets have been pulled over their head'," one said. "Open your eyes, if it mooo's it's got to be a cow."

"I wonder whose kids will be targeted next?" another wrote.

Norwood police have watched the video multiple times, but do not own a copy of it and said they could not provide it to The Enquirer.