The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 10

A10 TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2001 Chronology The mayor i 'n 3 "WW Chance of re-election might be enhanced The Cincinnati EnquirerMICHAEL E. KEATING Robin Washington of Corryville caught Mayor Charlie Luken walking near Findlay Market on Monday and shared some encouraging words. Behind the mayor, Leader Furniture remains boarded up from earlier riots. off vandals and looters. "City Hall and the police, they need to listen to the people," 35-year-old neighborhood resident Stefan Cot-tingham told Mr.

Luken. "This whole neighborhood could explode. People are angry-" Mr. Cottingham said having the mayor walk the neighborhood was "OK, but it's a little late. He should have come before it got out of control, Now, he's just out of place here.

You can put a cat in the oven, but that don't make it a biscuit." Still, Mr. Cottingham said he would "probably" vote for Mr. Luken, "because he seems to be trying." Carole Eubanks, an office worker in Over-the-Rhine who followed Mr. Luken on his Elm Street walk Monday, said she could support him in the mayor's race. "It's a difficult job," Ms.

Eubanks said. "He's done as well as you can expect." And, the fact is, even if voters like Ms. Eubanks were dissatisfied with Mr. Luken's performance, they wouldn't have much of an alternative. There is no Republican candidate for mayor.

Nor is there a candidate with the backing of the Charter Committee, Cincinnati's third political party. There is no law-and-order conservative running at him from the right, nor an African-American who has stepped forward to give black Cincinnatians angry over the city's response to the rioting an alternative. Opponents sense opening The Republican Party is polling Cincinnati voters to see whether the events of the past month tarnished Mr. Luken's reputation and to match him up against potential challengers; several well-known black political leaders are said to be considering a challenge to Mr. Luken, but the efforts, so far, have been invisible to the average voter.

But there is still time. The filing deadline for But opposition party senses an opportunity By Howard Wilkinson The Cincinnati Enquirer Take nearly any major American city and imagine, in an election year, a week of rioting and violence, stemming from a deep-seated belief that relations between the races are poisonous. The mayor, one might think, would be in a world of political trouble. But not Charlie Luken. Not yet, anyway.

The Democratic incumbent mayor who wants to become the first directly elected Cincinnati mayor in over 75 years has, as a mayoral candidate, weathered the storm that erupted a month ago when 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, an unarmed black man, was shot to death by a Cincinnati police officer in an Over-the-Rhine alley. To this date, he has no major-party opponent and only one independent opponent a little-known Madi-sonville man named Bill Brodberger who has never run for public office before. "It doesn't seem that in the local arena there are peer-sized competitors, cither by experience or ki.i said former Democratic councilman Tyrone Yates. "They may be out there, but they haven't come forward." Monday afternoon, as the city braced for word on whether Cincinnati police Officer Stephen Roach would be indicted in the Thomas shooting, the mayor walked up and down Elm Street, snaking hands with people sitting on stoops and popping into storefront businesses, the way a candidate for public office often does. But this was no campaign visit.

Mr. Luken passed by businesses where owners were hurriedly boarding their store windows to ward Media response April 7, 2 20 a.m. Cincinnati Officer Steve Roach, who had been pursuing 19-year-old Timothy Thomas in Over-the-Rhine, shoots the unarmed African-American at 13th and Republic streets. Mr. Thomas is declared dead at 3 02 a.m.

He is the 15th African-American to die in the custody of Cincinnati police since 1995. April 9 A group of citizens takes over a City Council committee meeting, demanding to know why Mr. Thomas was shot. That night, protesters break City Hall windows and gather outside police headquarters on Ezzard Charles Drive. AprllO Civil unrest turns violent; a large crowd of protesters overturns planters, hot dog stands, breaks windows and pulls several white motorists from their cars and assaults them.

April Random violence arson, assault, looting, property destruction and shooting -unfolds from Over-the-Rhine to Norwood. A Cincinnati police officer is shot, but his belt buckle deflects the bullet and he is not injured. A Justice Department team arrives in the city to investigate if it should launch a civil-rights investigation into the "patterns and practices" of Cincinnati's police division. April 12 Mayor Charlie Luken declares a state of emergency and announces a citywide curfew beginning at 8 p.m. It ends after four nights, with calm restored.

April 13 Under pressure from some city council members, Kent Ryan steps down as the city's public safety director. He cites health reasons. April 14 Mr. Thomas is buried. An investigation is launched after six Cincinnati SWAT officers are accused by witnesses of shooting beanbags into a peaceful crowd at Liberty and Elm streets after Mr.

Thomas' funeral. April 16 The six officers, said to be emotionally devastated by being under criminal investigation from the FBI, are put on paid leave for two weeks. (Alt are now back to work.) Apritt Two of four people hit by beanbags in the April 14 incident after Mr. Thomas' funeral file a civil lawsuit seeking at least $2 million. Hay 2 City Manager John Shirey, criticized by some city council members for his handling of the unrest and riots, agrees to resign effective Dec.

1. May 3 A Hamilton County grand jury begins hearing evidence in the case of Mr. Thomas' shooting. Monday Grand jury returns charges of negligent homicide and obstructing official business, both misdemeanors, against Officer Roach. Earlier in the day, the U.S Justice Department announced a formal investigation into whether Cincinnati police have used a pattern of excessive force that has violated the civil rights of residents.

getting a little sense now of what the new mayor system will be like." The Hamilton County Republican Party is hoping that people will not like what they see. The polling being done by the Republicans now goes far beyond asking voters how they view Mr. Luken. It asks too about their feelings toward political figures such as former Democratic mayors Roxanne Quails and Dwight Tillery and some of the Republican politicians the party has tried and so far failed to get to run for mayor, such as Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, former councilman Charles Winburn and Councilman Phil Heimlich.

County GOP Vice Chairman Chip Gerhardt said he is convinced that a Republican candidate for mayor could win by saying that the Democrats have been in charge for more than a decade and haven't done a very good job of managing the city's problems. "You could point to the record on convention center expansion, riverfront development, neighborhood development," Mr. Gerhardt said." "There are any number of issues you could run on." The good news for the Republicans, Mr. Gerhardt said, is that the unrest of the past month may have caused voters "to take a second look at the people who are leading them." "It's a delicate balancing act for us," Mr. Gerhardt said.

"You don't want to politicize what's been going on in this city recently, but you want voters to stop and take said and every picture put on the air, "so as not to overly hype a situation that's obviously sensitive," said Jon La-whead, Channel 19 general manager. Since April 10, the first night of violence, Channel 5 has demonstrated restraint by not airing video of angry people confronting videogra-pher Mike Miller. He ran back to his WLWT news van, where he was injured when someone smashed the driver's window with a bottle. "We had video and chose not to show it. I didn't want The Rev.

Damon LYNCH Ross 1 ry 'if mayoral candidates is June 28, and events could dictate whether another candidate emerges. "Most people in politics feel like the other shoe hasn't hit the floor yet," said Gene Beaupre, a Xavier University political science professor who has worked in City Hall. "Nobody knows how this is going to turn out." In the weeks since declaring a state of emergency and imposing a citywide curfew that quelled the rioting, Mr. Luken has been unquestionably the focal point of activity at City Hall. "I had to step up," said Mr.

Luken, who was mayor in the 1980s and returned to council two years ago. "I don't mean to sound noble about this, but I haven't had time to think about the politics of what has happened," Mr. Luken said. "I didn't have any choice but to act." The public criticisms of Mr. Luken hau: run the gamut: that he did not act quickly enough after the Thomas shooting to calm emotions; that he was too quick to conclude that 15 deaths of black men by police actions over six years points to a problem in the police division; that it took two nights of widespread destruction and rioting for Mr.

Luken to step in and declare a curfew. But after the violence died down, the mayor took a series of actions aimed at healing the racial tensions and, some say, at solidifying his position as the city's undisputed political leader. He announced he would Channels 5 and 9 canceled the 6:30 p.m. network news to broadcast indictment reaction and other local news until 7 p.m. WKRC-TV (Channel 12) carried Dan Rather's CBS Evening News, which included a report from Cincinnati on the indictments.

CBS' Jim Axelrod showed video of boarded-up Over-the-Rhine businesses and declared that "downtown looks like a hurricane is coming." While CBS and CNN replayed file footage of last month's street mobs for the -A- form a race relations commission to explore the deep-seated roots of racial tension housing, employment, education and police-community relations and come up with a solid plan to address them. The next week, Mr. Luken named the leaders of the commission. High-profile actions On Thursday, he hired former city manager Sylvester Murray, the only black to have held that post, as the commission's consultant and the mayor's "special counsel." The mayor also is arranging to have business and foundations foot the bill for the commission. And, last week, Mr.

Luken helped engineer the resignation, effective Dec. 1, of City Manager John Shirey, who had apparently lost council's confidence long ago and was a lightning rod for criticism from black Cincinnatians angry over the police shootings. All these actions, purposefully or not, sent a powerful message to Mr. Luken's potential political opponents: He was in charge. "Charlie's stock probably went up," Mr.

Beaupre said. It probably also gave Cincinnatians a taste of what it might be like if they elect Mr. Luken mayor this fall, under the new system where the mayor will have more power, including initiating the hiring and firing of the city manager and veto power over council legislation. "We had a state of emergency and, yes, I did have more authority than I normally would," Mr. Luken said.

"Maybe now people are national audience, Cincinnati stations refrained. Elbert Tucker, Channel 12 news director, ordered his producers to limit use of file video of the unrest. "We know our use of that (video) could result in some feelings being stirred up again," Mr. Tucker said. "We don't want to run video for video sake.

But if it's needed, we'll use it." Pat Casey, WXIX-TV (Channel 19) news director, issued a memo to staffers asking them to pay "extreme attention" to every word 4 i i a look at their leaders." Mr. Luken's political foes believe that the most likely scenario in which he could lose is if there were three or more candidates in the Sept. 1 1 mayoral primary. The top two finishers would run against each other in the fall. If a black Democrat Mr.

Tillery, the former mayor, is the most often mentioned -were to run along with a conservative white Republican, Mr. Luken might see a desertion of the black voters who have supported him in the past, along with the more conservative white voters to whom Luken is a good political name. Black dissatisfaction The Rev. James W. Jones, first vice president of the Baptist Ministers Conference, said he has heard "considerable dissatisfaction" among African-Americans about the mayor and said he would not be surprised if a black challenger emerges.

"I can't say now who that would be," the Rev. Mr. Jones said. "But it's only healthy that there is some competition. It would be idiotic to have a mayor's race with one candidate.

Before the civil unrest, the Rev. Mr. Jones said, there was a feeling in black political circles that Mr. Luken's election this fall was inevitable, "that he was untouchable and that the downtown crowd had stacked the deck." Now, he said, "there is a rethinking. It is a matter of who will have the guts and wherewithal to step up." to inflame the situation in any way," Mr.

Jobe said. The attack on Mr. Miller prompted news organizations including the Enquirer to adopt a buddy system. Photographers and reporters were sent in pairs. "I think we were all a little naive the first time out," said Ward Bushee, Enquirer editor and vice president.

One Enquirer photographer was struck by rubber bullets last month; another was jostled and kicked by three men after Timothy Thomas' funeral April 14. LOVE Tom CODY I Tom Cody, executive I vice president for legal i and human resources at Federated I Department Stores has a long record of community involve-i ment. He chairs the I Greater Cincinnati I Chamber of I Commerce Board. As a co-chair of the I mayor's race commis-i sion, he pledges action: "We have to i put together concrete actionable plans that i can move our commu-I nity forward." i Local stations cover violence without inflaming it John Kiesewetter The Cincinnati Enquirer Cincinnati newsrooms prepared for possible civil unrest after Monday's grand jury announcement by reviewing lessons learned during last month's street violence. "After the last incident, we're going to be more careful," said Ken Jobe, WLWT (Channel 5) news director, referring to the violence that erupted after a Cincinnati police officer shot an unarmed man, Timothy Thom KEY PLAYERS IN THE THOMAS-ROACH INCIDENT i i i i i 7 1 as, 19, early on April 7.

News directors and editors said their top priority Monday was putting the news in perspective, and assuring the safety of reporters and photographers covering community reaction to the indictments. Officer Stephen Roach was indicted Monday on two misdemeanor charges. The 6 p.m. announcement by Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen was carried live by Channels 5, 9, 12 and 19, CNN and Ohio News Network. Mike ALLEN A former street cop with the Cincinnati Police Division and a former Municipal Court judge, Mr.

Allen has held his position as prosecutor since early 1999. He is known as a strict law-and-order man and has said that some of the offenses committed during the riots may be subject to "hate crimes" prosecu- tion. He had harsh words for critics of police immediately after the incident. The came first mayor more this in slowly passions national rsr i t- I I--. Timothy THOMAS Angela LEISURE Stephen ROACH Tom STREICHER i Sylvester MURRAY At the helm of the i Cincinnati Police i Division for just over I two years, the chief, i 47, followed his dad into police work just I as Officer Roach did.

He says he welcomes the scrutiny of his i agency following the I death of Mr. Thomas and 14 other African- Americans in con-j frontations with his i officers since 1995, and he promises I change. Charlie LUKEN unrest and violence that struck Cincinnati last month just as the Democratic mayor was organizing his campaign to become the directly elected of Cincinnati in than 75 years fall. Mr. Luken -who returned to council 1999 after a nine-year absence -was the target of criticism for moving too to quell rising when the media spotlight was thrown on the city in April.

Mr. Love, the president and CEO of Cincinnati-based Blue Chip Broadcasting, i has avoided the lime-I light for years. But he stepped up in the i wake of the civil unrest that followed the shooting death of Timothy Thomas. As the pointman of the mayor's newly formed race panel, Cincinnati Community Action Now, Mr. Love will play i a key role in trying to I bring about healing and a sense of equali-i ty in Cincinnati.

I Mr. Murray, the only African-American city i manager in Cincinnati history, was named last week as special i counsel for Mayor Charlie Luken's race commission Cincinnati Community Action Now. His job: Help the panel identify problem areas and counsel leaders on the best problem-solving I approaches. Mr. Murray i will be paid $1,400 a day plus expenses to I work exclusively with i the panel that Mr.

Luken organized after I the riots. Mr. Thomas, 19, moved to Cincinnati from Chicago in 1997 when his mother, I Angela Leisure, i brought him and his siblings here because she thought it would i be safer. He lived in Over-the-Rhine with his girlfriend, Monique I Wilcox, and their now I 4-month-old son, I Tywon. He was wanted I on 14 misdemeanors, i 12 of them for out- I standing traffic tickets, when he ran from police officers April 7.

4 Mrs. Leisure, 34, of Golf Manor, was a mother with six children ages 17 to 5 when she moved to Evanston in 1997 from Chicago. Then her second-oldest, Timothy, was fatally shot by a Cincinnati police officer on April 7 behind an abandoned building in Over-the-Rhine. Amid the glaring spotlight of intense national news, she appealed unsuccessfully for calm. Riots followed.

She said she now finds her strength in prayer. A recently married, 27-year-old, second- I generation cop who colleagues including Chief Tom Streicher say is a solid officer with a good reputation. He grew up in I Oxford, graduating in i 1992 from Talawanda High School, where he I excelled on the foot- I ball field. He fired one I shot into the left side of Timothy Thomas' I chest. He did not know he was chasing a man wanted only on I misdemeanors.

I I The Rev. Lynch is sen-! ior pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-I Rhine. He is also the i leader of Black United i Front, a local civil I rights group, and one of three co-chairs of I Mr. Luken's race rela- tions panel. During the i civil unrest last month, the Rev.

Mr. Lynch helped restore calm, He turned heads last i week when he urged fellow clergy to par-i ticipate in civil disobe-i dience should the i grand jury return with-I out an indictment..