Porkopolis

Lies, Damned Lies and Civic Awards

Someday someone will write an absorbing book and create a compelling film about a medium-sized contemporary American city whose police chief was such an embarrassment, such a complete failure of leadership that everyone privately agreed he should be fired — but he had lifelong job security because city council, for reasons unknown, refused to ever stand up to him. The name of that city is Cincinnati, and the anti-hero is Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr.

Tomorrow the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, whose convention runs through Thursday, will present Streicher with its Theodore S. Jones Award for "extraordinary service, personal integrity and leadership." They’re referring to the man who led a police department notorious for its treatment of protesters and African Americans, who presided over a deadly slowdown in police services, who used an infamous racial slur in a training class and who minimizes the city's violent crime.

To those who have had to endure Streicher's tenure as police chief, the award is silly at best and offensive at worst.

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Jymi Bolden)

Welcoming a Warmaker

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq plan to demonstrate when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a presidential candidate, arrives for a fundraiser Tuesday.

McCain supported escalation of the war long beg before the current surge.

"We can send a strong message that Ohioans don’t want this policy to continue, and we're not going to accept his visit in silence," says Ben Elmgren, an organizer with Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. "The Bush-McCain Middle East strategy has to be stopped."

Anti-war activists plan to meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the public parking lot across from Lunken Airport. Organizers will provide signs and water but recommend taking lawn chairs. For more information, contact Elmgren at 513-407-9058 or ohio2@iraqsummer.org.

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Huffingtonpost.com)

Look What Happens When Workers Organize

Ending months of negotiation, a union representing Greater Cincinnati's janitors will vote Sunday on their first-ever city-wide labor contract, which would give them higher wages, more work hours, and health insurance.

The local chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) likely will approve the contract in a ratification vote, union leaders say. If approved, the income of the majority of workers would increase by 129 percent over the course of the contract — nearly doubling their income of workers at the lowest end of the spectrum within the first 18 months alone.

NAACP Secrets and Napoleon Livingston

To quote President Nixon, let me make one thing perfectly clear: No local newspaper (not The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Herald or CityBeat) has received a copy of a much-ballyhooed 1968 policy from the NAACP's national office, according to NAACP officials.

Despite The Herald’s proclamation in a recent article that the NAACP’s Baltimore office sent it a copy, an allegation repeated as fact ad nauseam by local blogger Nate Livingston, an NAACP spokesman says that's simply incorrect.

'Justice for Janitors' Leads to Contract

More than 1,200 Cincinnati janitors have reached a tentative agreement for their first-ever city-wide union contract with the area's eight largest cleaning companies, following 11th hour negotiations to avert a strike, according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Details of the agreement, which includes gains in pay and access to health care, will be presented to janitors for ratification at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The agreement was reached after two days of contract talks between janitors and their employers that ran until nearly 2 a.m. this morning. SEIU reports.

CityBeat will have details Saturday.

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Clevelandaflcio.org)

Riding in Republican Cars

All politicians catch a certain amount of flak from the public; it's one of those jobs in which criticism is expected, just as with reporters, attorneys and debt collectors, to name a few.

But Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper and Cincinnati City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz always seem to get an extra heaping of abuse. For Pepper, he's frequently called a DINO (or Democrat In Name Only) by his critics. Ghiz gets the opposite complaint, as some people refer to her as a RINO (Republican In Name Only).

Pepper and Ghiz are friends and both are — generally speaking — conservative on fiscal issues and more liberal on social issues, which many polls indicate reflect the views of most Americans. Still, the nicknames obviously rankle the pair, and advisers have tried to help them avoid adding more fuel to the political fire.

Humiliation as Spectator Sport

A national network makes a regular feature of "busting" adults who like to talk dirty online and then agree to meet what they believe are under-age sex partners. The show is a sure hit. But once NBC hooked up with Perverted Justice, the online vigilante group, some other things were sure, too — namely suicide and litigation.

The sexual abuse of children is about as complicated a social issue as there is, and an amateur approach to catching alleged predators is almost certain to end in tragedy.

— Gregory Flannery
(Photo: Network2.tv)

Time for Annual WAIF Follies

Game playing, bad spelling and incompetence are alive and well at WAIF (88.3 FM), according to an anonymous source at the volunteer community radio station. Considering that all named sources that appear in CityBeat reports about WAIF have been banned from the station for life and/or lost their radio shows, the source preferred to remain anonymous.

A June 30 memo to all station staffers informed them of a change to the membership application deadline date. The typos and other errors are per the original:

"Last day to except (sic) membership will be Tuesday, July 31, at at 12:00 night. So that the membership cards can be processed and mailed in a timely manner for the annual membership meeting in September, any memberships received after that date will be process in the next fall membership drive."

In the Doghouse

"We are disappointed that Michael Vick has put himself in a position where a federal grand jury has returned an indictment against him." (NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy)

I wish that the name in the above statement was the one anyone who follows the world of professional sports would have expected only a week ago. I want to say this article is all about some steroid-pumped, Cro-Magnon Giant whose assault on baseball's most hallowed record has raised the ire of sports purists all across the country. However, Barry Bonds' potentially syringe-tainted road to home run 756 seems trivial in comparison to the inhumane mess that Michael Vick is embroiled in.

Oinker of the Day 7.23

When a religious organization learns that a member in a position of authority has been charged with or convicted of a crime, should it notify other members and the community at large? Why or why not?

— Margo Pierce