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Photo By Matt Borgerding
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Angela Leisure, mother of Timothy Thomas,
addresses a June 2 rally at Fountain Square. Holding
an umbrella for her is Baldémar Velasquez of the
Farm Labor Organizing Committee.
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Suhith Wickrema picked up a pile of posters featuring a photograph of Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach and the words, "Wanted for Murder." Without asking who owns the literature, he threw them in a garbage can.
"That is not Rev. Lynch's spirit," Wickrema said.
Even when more than 1,000 marchers prepare to gather for a protest, some of the most interesting events are behind closed doors -- and some are secret.
As Wickrema and other protest organizers finished planning June 1 at New Prospect Baptist Church, a few blocks away, at the Drop-Inn Center, an anti-authoritarian bloc was meeting, planning to commit civil disobedience in Mount Adams. The group had been saying for weeks it would strike in Hyde Park, a bit of misinformation intended to keep the police guessing.
The movement that started last year with the formation of Black United Front (BUF) and Coalition for a Humane Economy (CHE) has made important improvements in organization and discipline. During the march June 2, for example, the protesters practiced complete silence at one point, with the only sound on the streets the whirring of a police helicopter overhead. That kind of symbolism can be just as powerful as noisy slogans but takes a lot of cooperation.
It worked. Even the anarchists and black-bloc protesters -- no fans of some of the less confrontational methodology espoused by CHE -- stood in silence.
Indeed respect for the African-American community in Cincinnati seemed the strongest unifying theme of a march that included elderly women and latter-day communists carrying red flags. The "spokescouncil" meeting of the anti-authoritarian bloc ruled out taking direct action in Over-the-Rhine, saying they did not want to cause further suffering for black residents already victimized by police violence and racism. Instead the radicals decided to go to Mount Adams, a predominantly white neighborhood.
Since its first public protests last year, against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue, CHE has emphasized educational programs to complement its street demonstrations. In a series of teach-ins leading up to the June 2 march, speakers analyzed social and economic factors that have led to strained relations between police and African Americans. (See "Will Free Trade Make Us All Rich, Happy and Good-Looking, Too?" on page 15)
The teach-in at New Prospect showed BUF and CHE are cultivating new leadership in their campaign against police violence. But sometimes the smallest details still seem to go untended. Speakers remained in their chairs, instead of standing, so their effectiveness depended on the acoustics of a church simultaneously holding two teach-ins.
A woman told participants they shouldn't wait for findings from Cincinnati Community Action Now, the new race-relations commission launched by Mayor Charlie Luken. Instead, she said, protesters should launch their own independent commission to do research and make recommendations.
Several participants in the teach-in called for work to organize more Cincinnati workers in labor unions. Several unions endorsed the March for Justice.
Larry Jost, who teaches philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, said the disparate groups of churches, unions and other community organizations concerned about civil rights must find areas of agreement.
"We have to think of ourselves as having to unite in common struggle," Jost said. "The power structure wants us to be separate, to not look at identity of interests."
Dan La Botz of CHE told the teach-in the coalition that has formed around the issue of police violence and racism in Cincinnati can be pivotal in changing the city.
"I've lived in this city for 13 years," La Botz said. "This is the best moment I have lived in this city. We're undermining the power structure. Luken is looking and saying, 'Now they're marching against me? Now the African Americans are marching against me?'
"We have to build this coalition. This is going to be a tricky thing, keeping a positive attitude, keeping respect for each other's political differences. African Americans, for example, have a different political culture than the political culture that gays and lesbians have."
In his remarks at Fountain Square the next day, La Botz drew loud approval from the crowd when he called for action from City Hall.
"How can Thomas Streicher still be the chief of police?" La Botz said. "How has Mayor Luken failed to ask for his resignation?"
Officer Stephen Roach, indicted for negligent homicide and obstructing official business, should have resigned from the police force as a matter of conscience, La Botz suggested.
City Councilman John Cranley visited Laurel Park for McCrackin Day, the terminus of the March for Justice, but he didn't march with the protesters to get there. He attended Mac Day because he supports the groups sponsoring it, he said.
"The groups by and large are people I support, whether it's Stonewall or AVOC or anti-death penalty groups," Cranley said.
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Photo By Matt Borgerding
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A rally packs Fountain Square before the March for
Justice, a protest against Cincinnati Police violence
and racism.
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Cranley's presence reinforces comments by Karen Carter, a speaker at the previous evening's teach-in
"If you believe the city council members watching TV care about your 5,000 marchers -- or 500,000 marchers -- they don't give a damn about anything but how many registered voters there are," she said.
To that end, volunteers registered protesters on Fountain Square to vote.
Carter's assessment might have been a bit too limited. Votes are not the only commodity that concerns city officials. Court-ordered damages for civil-rights violations are another. Since November, 30 people have filed suit for alleged police brutality during protests in Cincinnati.
Attorney Kenneth Lawson, who filed a lawsuit in federal court, accusing the city of racial profiling, said his reason for attending the rally is simple.
"I am here for the same reason everyone else is here -- to see that justice is done in the city and the police killing stops," Lawson said. "I just want to see it stop."©
