LINCOLN HEIGHTS, Ohio — Leaders in Lincoln Heights have a list of demands from Evendale and Hamilton County officials and they say they're prepared to boycott the Village of Evendale until those demands are met.
Several village officials and community members spoke at a press conference Monday at noon — one hour before the Village of Evendale scheduled their own press conference to introduce the third-party firm they chose to investigate Evendale's response to the presence of neo-Nazis on a highway overpass near both Evendale and Lincoln Heights on Feb. 7.
This scheduling was not a coincidence, Lincoln Heights officials made clear.
Hear from the Lincoln Heights community members in the video below:
"The Evendale officials' disrespect of the Lincoln Heights community and its leaders, by choosing not to include Lincoln Heights leaders and elected officials in its response or its release of the videos is absolutely unacceptable," said Julian Cook, pastor in the community.
He added that Lincoln Heights does not feel Evendale has been entirely transparent with the community about its response to the neo-Nazi demonstration that happened that day — or in Evendale's own response in the days following.
Cook said residents and officials in Lincoln Heights are calling for a boycott of Evendale. Residents announced their intent to boycott the neighboring village on Feb. 17, but Monday was the first time elected officials within Lincoln Heights endorsed the boycott publicly.
Until a list of demands from Lincoln Heights can be met, the boycott will continue, Cook said:
- Lincoln Heights wants a full and transparent investigation launched into the response by Evendale, including all unedited body camera footage from every officer for the entirety of the incident. They want that investigation to be handled by an independent investigator chosen and trusted by both Evendale and Lincoln Heights.
- Leaders and residents also want support provided for those affected by the neo-Nazi demonstration, including counseling funded by Evendale for all impacted. Leaders also want Lincoln Heights residents to be able to have access to the Evendale Rec Center at a resident rate.
- Lincoln Heights also wants a comprehensive, regional plan in place for safety and accountability that lays out how communities should work together to handle and address any similar future events like the neo-Nazi demonstration.
- Leaders also demand that agencies dismiss any officers who are found to have aided the neo-Nazis in any way. Leaders said they don't care whether that's accomplished through termination or through retirement, but they want those officers gone.
Lincoln Heights Mayor Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey said she and the entire Village of Lincoln Heights support the boycott until their demands can be met.
Kinsey-Mumphrey said she and other Lincoln Heights officials have repeatedly been excluded from decisions and responses made following the neo-Nazi's appearance in the region.
"To contact us after you've reached out to, I guess it's 21CP Consultants? To contact me after you've chosen is truly a disrespect," Kinsey-Mumphrey said. "We needed to be at the table when you made that decision."
The statement was met with a chorus of "yes" from community members standing behind her, and a round of applause.
The mayor continued to say that it's not just Evendale that has excluded Lincoln Heights residents and leaders — the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office has too. On February 18, Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey held a press conference to call for harsher laws on hate speech.
It was a press conference Kinsey-Mumphrey said Lincoln Heights residents and leaders learned about from Facebook and news outlets — not the sheriff's office.
"Truly another disrespect," Kinsey-Mumphrey said. "So we're here to make it loud and clear that the village of Lincoln Heights, the elected officials and the residents will not tolerate it."
Daronce Daniels, spokesperson for Lincoln Heights' safety and watch program, said the armed residents patrolling the village stem from law enforcement's continued failure to protect communities of color from hate and those who spread it. He disputed McGuffey's use of the word "vigilante" to describe the armed patrols in Lincoln Heights and said that wasn't true.
"This is not a vigilante group, this is a response to what is needed because of what we lack right now," Daniels said.
Those patrols are how community members realized a man was throwing racist and hate speech materials of his car while driving near Lincoln Heights and Lockland on Sunday morning, Daniels said. Community members acted quickly, legally and peacefully and the man was arrested, Daniels said.
"This is what true community looks like," he said. "When your police department and when services within your own community, when your government fails you, the residents of Lincoln Heights stood up legally. They stood up on that bridge. They're standing up now, even in the midst of all the waves that we are coming through."
