Showing posts with label Police-Crime-Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Police-Crime-Law. Show all posts

Saturday, March 04, 2017

Smitherman Campaign Publishes a Confidential Document Including Bank Account Number

The campaign for Cincinnati Council Member Chris Smitherman (R) published a document online that was marked confidential from a State of Ohio commission.  The document includes the image of a hand written private organization's check with the routing number and checking account number fully visible.  The marking of confidentiality was clearly visible on the bottom as excerpted below:
It is the intention of Cincinnati Blog to never violate any laws, therefore I am not publishing the full document since it is marked confidential and does include the bank account of a private organization. It is the opinion of this blog and I hope all other people that it is wrong to publish any bank account numbers as it increases the possibility of bank or check fraud.

Thursday, February 02, 2017

WCPO is Reporting 70 Arrested at OU Protest

Based on the article Ohio University officials over reacted to a peaceful event and have now invited violent protest instead of peaceful efforts. In this climate most police forces are giving protesters a chance to blow off steam when they don't do anything violent. Some thick-skulled official at OU instead wanted to make a statement. OU is not the place to do that. OU riots when the bars close early on daylight savings weekend. Myopic people far too often just make things worse.

Friday, January 06, 2017

FBI Seizes Boxes from Republican Charlie Winburn's office

In a very surprising occurrence the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized boxes from Republican Charlie Winburn's City Council Office. The Enquirer's report indicates that Winburn has no idea why they seized his boxes and appeared to deny knowing these boxes existed until the Enquirer's reporting.

What's going on here? Everyone in public office, outside of Charlie, have been quiet about this. Public officials are most often quiet when there is an investigation going on. Could this have anything to do with Winburn's possible connection to money being paid to Sam Malone?

Charlie's Rope-a-Dope game around running for Mayor is pretty clearly over.

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Hebrew Union College Sign Vandalized With Hate Symbol

More hate has come to Cincinnati. A sign at Hebrew Union Has been vandalized with a a horrible symbol of hate and ignorance.

The attached photo was posted to Facebook today from someone passing by on her way to work. This has been reported to Cincinnati police, according commence from the witness.

This makes me sick. I have seen other news reports of similar incidents from all over the county since facsist ideas and methods were used to incite hate and fear as means to motivate people to vote for Trump. When this happens two miles from where I live, the pain in my stomach gets worse. My desire to speak out against this hate grows. Make sure people know this is happening here in Cincinnati. No human being can let hate happen without speaking out, no matter who is saying this.

If you know who did this, report them to the police.

When you final read about this or listen to being talked about on the radio, don't let those dismissing this go on without a rebuke. All people from all parts of our community must come together and defeat this hate.

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

FOP Payoffs? More OT and Electronic Paperwork?

City Manager Black's has put out a loose outline of how he would spend the budget surplus. Surprisingly it has 500K for more police OT and 2 Million so cops can sit in their cruisers and do paperwork on their computers.

His plan has nothing that address's the Mayor's plan to get 10,000 kids out of poverty. So, that effort is off to the expected lack of a start.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Did City Manager Black Just Cost the City a Ton of Money?

Chris Wetterich of the Cincinnati Business Courier has an in-depth article that brings up the Cincinnati City Charter and the section of it that deals with how the City Manager is required to provide the Chief written charges and the right to have a hearing on them prior to being fired. Statements reported, and not yet denied by the City Manager or Mayor, indicate that Chief was just fired and not given a written copy of the chargers and not given the chance to have a hearing prior to being fired.

So a key element to a wrongful termination lawsuit has evidence. When you have a prescribed rule on how to fire someone and you don't follow it, you have a problem.  This is the type of problem that an employment lawyer would cringe upon hearing. When that rule is a city law, well you have mountain of a problem to overcome.

This situation could not have been more poorly handled.  It was an administrative failure.  It was a political failure.  It was a moral failure.  Cranley and Black should be ashamed.

It would be interesting to see how many similar types of documents provided in this case by the City Manager could be produced upon request on any of the prior two police chiefs.  I believe there would be no doubt that Streicher or Craig would have some number of similar complaints.  I doubt those records would be found if requested, however, or someone might create a special power to keep them private.  Some special rule that an elected office might claim doesn't exist, but won't stop invoking.

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Is the Elder Old Guard Pushing Back Against Losing Control of the CPD?

Since Mayor John Cranley suffers from having to payback the GOP for its support, it makes sense that the Republican's newly new regained front, the FOP, would expect that he would throw logic to the wind and allow rumors to undermine the Police Chief. The old guard police officer core that stems from a big Westside/Elder connection could be itching to gain back the power of the Chief's office since it lost Streicher back in 2011.

For those of you who are newer to Cincinnati or have forgotten about the 2001 riots, please remember that the horrible police/black-community relations that existed at that point was in part due to the inability of the mostly white Westside/Elder connected leadership of the police to effectively interact with the black community of Cincinnati.

We don't need Cranley to allow that old crowd to regain the leadership of the police force.  We survived the riot once, WITH NO HELP FROM CRANLEY, we don't need him making police-community relations worse.

Monday, November 03, 2014

Details Finally Published on the Cincinnati Charter Reform in Issue 11

I am not sure how this issue could be considered fair and legal if the full text is not included on the ballot, but you can finally see the details of what is being amended or repealed from the Cincinnati City Charter Here. This wasn't posted anywhere I could locate until October 24, 2014, about 10 days before the election. Most of the changes do appear to be non-impactful, but this doesn't bode well for the organization that has been formed to make additional proposals for changes to the charter. The details need to be on the ballot and ready for the public and media to read in full well in advance of the election.

If this information was provided to the local media well before, then for shame on them for not publishing it in full and linking to it extensively.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Cranley Makes Unsupported Claims About Police Response

In Sunday's article from the Enquirer "Is it time to change shift schedules for our cops?" the paper includes Cranley's unsupported claim about police response to 911 Calls:
“Code zeros” – the police code for instances when someone calls 911 for help but no officer is available to respond – are on the rise, Cranley has said
To the Paper's credit, they prove Cranley had no support for his claim:
The city, in fact, doesn’t track code zeros, said Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, so there’s no proof they’re happening more often.
The paper then falls into the Cranley bullshit by stating there is anecdotal evidence, but no empirical evidence. We don't even get any actual anecdotes, just third-party hearsay.

Why isn't the Enquirer calling out the Mayor for making unsubstantiated claims as the basis for increasing the city budget? Instead of treating what ever comes out of his mouth as truth, why not be as analytical as the rest of the article attempts to do with the issue of police schedules? Why not question Cranley about the schedules? Why not ask him how the decision by the previous police chief affected police response? Most importantly, ask Cranley how the hell he knows what he says is true before it is repeated in the paper, even if given evidence he doesn't have actual support for what he says. Using his false claim as the lead for one's article does two things: it gives credibility to Cranley when he deserves none an it makes the Enquirer yet again look like a shill for Cranley.  I mean, look at the lead listed on this page view of the Enquirer website, it is like you are giving Cranley a pass:
Cranley's false claim is put out there as 'fact' and the portion of the article that refutes him is buried.  So I guess being a shill for Cranley is part of the job description for Enquirer.  Well, at least WCPO isn't alone in that.

Monday, February 03, 2014

How Will Cranley Pay for the 5 Million Dollars a Year?

The Enquirer buries the lead in their 'exclusive' press release from the Mayor's Office that calls for adding more cops to the tune of 5 Million dollars per year, including benefits. The one million dollars is additional up front money, but the long term cost is huge and the Mayor should not be trying to mislead the public with false numbers.

The first and last question that needs to be ask of Cranley by the rest of the media who are not in the bag for the Mayor (Enquirer), should be asking is HOW WILL CRANLEY PAY FOR THIS?

A simple question that will neither have an detailed nor sound answer. By sound, I mean one that that add up, not one based on Cranley math.

The other questions that could asked: Why can't the same programs be achieved with restructuring of the existing force? How many long term police officers are going to retire and put us back at the same level?  How much input did the FOP have on this?  Will the city seek changes to the FOP's contract to help assure that any police officer hired who fails at their job can be fired?

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Quimbob: Is John Cranley Even Lying to Himself ?

Quimbob at Blogging Isn't Cool asked the question: Is John Cranley Even Lying to Himself? I think it is clear he is lying to someone.

The question I have is: What is he NOT lying about?

Does Cranley know who leaked the Duke lawsuit memo? Can he honestly answer that question? Or is better to ask Will he? What makes all of this relevant is that he has partially answered that question by publicly denying it was someone on his staff, but no one asked him that.

Monday, December 09, 2013

Speaking of Old Cincinnati: Peter Bronson is Writing Again

I'm not a regular reader of Cincy Magazine, but they appear to have brought in Peter Bronson, former columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, to write a hatchet job feature on new Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell.  In this article you get basically everything one expects from Peter Bronson, defend the police when they are Republican and/or Elder graduates, but attack them when they are Democrats.

When Bronson wrote for the Enquirer he was a shill for the Cincinnati police union and except when the FOP turned against John Kasich's union busting efforts, Bronson is back carrying their water.  I'd like to know how many of Bronson's sources are or have connections to the local candidates for CPD chief that didn't get the job.  I'm betting all of them.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Did the FOP Endorsement of Sam Malone Stem From Familiarity?

I was thinking why in the world would Sam Malone get an endorsement for City Council from the FOP? Could they have been confused as to why they recognized him?
His arrest record for child abuse wouldn't have anything to do with it?

If you are wondering what I am talking about and don't remember things that happened 8 years ago, here's my blog post on Malone's arrest for beating his son with a belt.  I'm wondering how many FOP members actually knew this.  If they did and don't care, then I wonder how many of them also beat their kids with belts.  Then I wonder why people are not more concerned with Cincinnati Police brutality more often.

Also, No, Republicans, I don't care that Malone was 'acquitted.'  He admitted to beating his son with a belt, so what ever technicality exists, if Malone did this to anyone other than his son, and didn't appear in front of a Republican Judge, he would have been found guilty of assault.

The fact that the police union endorsed him is an insult to victims of crime everywhere.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

John Cranley is Soft on Crime

Somewhere along his educational path John Cranley, candidate for Cincinnati Mayor, must have just confused taxes with penalties for breaking the law.  If not, he seems to want to let people break the law without being held accountable.  That's not much of a law and order thing to do.

In an Enquirer article about the parking deal, Cranley was quick to call enforcement of parking ordinances (aka LAWS) as a "tax increase."
"Critics, however, say the numbers show the private operators will aggressively issue parking tickets to meet their revenue projections.

“We’re talking about a massive increase in tickets for decades,” John Cranley, who is running for mayor, said Saturday. “It’s a 100 percent hidden tax increase on the citizens of Cincinnati.”"
Every time John pays his income takes, does he really think he violated the law?

It is not a surprise John is talking like a Republican, where he plays word games with the truth. He'll have Westside Republicans thinking that it is their 'God' given right to park free where ever they want.  It's 'free' to park at Walmart, after all.  Those massive parking lots just grew out the ground naturally, waiting for a big box store to be built around it.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Obama Yard Signs Burned in Green Township

The Cincinnati Herald is reporting multiple incidents where Obama yard signs were burned while they sat in the front yards of Obama supporters.

The undertones of racism to these incidents can not be denied. Burning anything in someone's front yard is obviously based on the KKK, assuming otherwise is ignorant.  It is sad that this likely will not get the coverage it should. WCPO has as story as well.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Scary Things Come Close to Happening, Even in Cincinnati

Law enforcement did their jobs, but how easily could this good police work turned into epic tragedy?

I'm also surprised this story is not getting more play, nationally. I would surmise the man's intent at running the security checkpoint was not clear, so the media isn't make this out to be a bigger deal than it was. I have to wonder why the ATF is involved and why a federal complaint was sealed on this case. Maybe that is normal procedure, and getting it unsealed is also routine, but it all leads to more questions that a professional journalist should be investigating.

UPDATE: The AP story on HuffPost has far more details than the Enquirer story. Yeah to Erlanger police for catching this guy!

Thursday, August 02, 2012

When did they become the Cincinnati Inquirer?

I understand that the Cincinnati Enquirer is changing to a tabloid size print edition, but when are they changing their name to the Cincinnati Inquirer? They might as well do that if they are going to print crap like this story about Council member Chris Seelbach.

This story has no point. It is reporting gossip from the comments from the online news article and then tries to link that to facts to point to no conclusion, but to embarrass someone who was just the victim of a crime. Seelbach was disorientated and had a broken foot and 'people' are 'upset' he mentioned he was a member of council a few times to the 911 operator. Gee, maybe the man who attacked him was doing so because he was a member of council, the first openly gay council member. Did that fact run across the reporter's mind? Instead they sought to trace

To top it off, they got a quote from Mark Miller. Seriously, the lone guy who allegedly lives in Hyde Park from COAST is a relevant source for this story? How? Please, someone tell me what caused the reporter to reach into a big pile of irrelevant sources and pulled out Mark Miller's name. If the Enquirer wants to play the tawdrily game it is playing, I hope they asked Miller where he was Monday Night. Instead they gave a political foe of Seelbach the chance to gloat and make fun of him for being the victim of a crime. That sounds like the COAST I know, too bad the Report is either ignorant of COAST or shares the desire to allow COAST's gossip to make it to print. His point wasn't even valid, he was comparing this to Laketa Cole incident where she was with a person being ticketed. Seelbach was clearly the victim of a crime, he did nothing wrong. Miller is trying to damage him and the Enqurier, and the reporters, let him take a shot. There didn't appear to be an editor around to stop this either.

Also, why did they story include a sentence that mentioned where Miller lived? They quoted another people, but didn't state where they lived. What was the relevance? Is it actually true that he lives in Hyde Park?

Finally, they Enquirer again created another false equivalency. The only way to find any sense in this story is to view it as reporting an online flame war. The Enquirer got juicey quotes from both political sides and falsely feels they reported a fair and balanced story. The problem is that this isn't a political story. This is a crime story. Why not write about the crime? Write about what the police know or don't know. We don't need to have stories about Facebook comments. We really could use some news stories that would require the reporters to leave the newsroom.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

More News The Enquirer Missed

A nationally known group of Catholic nuns is touring the nation holding events to promote their view that the House Republicans Budget (the Ryan Budget) is wrong and goes against Catholic teaching. For a newspaper that does not miss a beat covering Catholic related events, the Enquirer didn't appear to cover either the Nun's rally held on Fountain Square on Sunday or the event outside House Speaker's Boehner's West Chester office on Monday.

Instead, police news upstart FOX19 covered the story.

Not even a few photos of the nuns? Come on, if nothing else nuns are great in photos. It wouldn't have to do with ignoring an issue that conflicts with local Catholic Republicans?

Interesting Video From Ann Louise Inn Supporters



I generally agree with letting the Ann Louise continue to function and W&S's actions have not be good. I am concerned with the rhetoric used, however. I don't think it will work attacking W&S like this. I think it would be better to counter the lies of the W&S management with direct truth, not political style web commercials. This is still an interesting video.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Where is the Mug Shot?

When I read about someone being arrested by the Cincinnati Police Department, I usually see a mug shot of them.  When I read about a Cincinnati police officer being arrested on charge of attacking his girlfriend, I was surprised not to see his photograph with the article.

Why would there not be a photo? Was it left out on purpose by the Enquirer? Did the police department not make it available? Is it a timing issue? Am I missing a simple fact that would explain why police officers are treated more kindly when they are arrested for allegedly beating up their girlfriends? By kindly I mean not having their photo attached to a newspaper story describing their arrest.