Smitherman - Round Up The Usual Suspects

Christopher Smitherman wants more cops on the streets of Cincinnati and stricter enforcement of the law. While a major number of people arrested in Cincinnati are black and many people wail about the disproportionate number of blacks incarcerated, Smitherman pays this no mind.

We’ll deal with a little blowback from people in the community who have a little more liberal perspective, this committee supports you, chief. I want your officers to know this committee supports you.

Of course it might just be Smitherman kissing some union butt, who knows?
Smitherman's term as president of the Cincinnati NAACP hasn't seen a great drop in black criminal activity or black victimization. Between his 'advancement' agenda & fellow councilman Winburn's jobs, jobs jobs agenda, black poverty in Cincinnati has only worsened.
The chief of police, Jeffery Blackwell, wants to replace officers lost to attrition over the last few years which would put Cincinnati back to having a lot of police per citizen. More than some comparable cities. He also wants to utilize technology better.

We are desperately short of officers. Additionally, we need to improve our technology platform.

Unfortunately, Smitherman spearheaded a campaign to outlaw technology that could free up highly skilled officers from fairly mundane tasks. He cited the racist deployment of monitoring devices as a reason. Deployment would have been handled by the police, of course, so does Smitherman support the police or believe they are racist? Who does Smitherman think his stepped up police efforts are going to snare?

More at the Fishwarp.