Evendale Police report fails to address Lincoln Heights’ concerns

By Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey, Mayor of the Village of Lincoln Heights

The report on the Evendale Police Department’s response to the February 7, 2025, Nazi demonstration is pretty much what the Village of Lincoln Heights anticipated. We expect Evendale to implement the changes recommended in the report, and we agree on the need to improve communications between our two cities.

What is missing from the report – and has been missing all along – is the complete lack of understanding of the impact of the Nazi rally on Lincoln Heights. As a predominantly African American community, a Nazi rally right on our borders is nothing short of terrifying. This is a group that has not only threatened to harm African Americans but have all too often made good on those threats. This wasn’t a demonstration against taxes or in favor of some political candidate. This was the rally of a dangerous hate group with a history of violence directed at African Americans, at the edge of a predominantly African American community. The terror associated with it didn’t just affect the Village of Lincoln Heights. Every African American in Hamilton County, in the State of Ohio and across the country felt that terror. It called up terrible memories. And made us all more determined than ever to never have it happen again.

I understand that this report only looked at policies and procedures. But what African Americans like me will never understand is why the Nazis were treated with a level of respect and familiarity rarely shown to our community. Why were the Nazis not asked to identify themselves, when the first thing an African American must do in a traffic stop is provide identification? Why were the Nazis not asked to remove their masks? Why is the Hamilton County Sheriff and Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office waiting to investigate the Nazi rally until after Evendale issued its report? Does that mean we have to wait another six months to hear from the County?

Nazis mean something different to African Americans. A Nazi rally in our neighborhood is unbelievably threatening to us. We did not see that sort of understanding on February 7. We do not see it in the Evendale report. And we are not seeing it from the Hamilton County Sheriff or Hamilton County Prosector’s Office.

We’re all for healing. But healing starts with understand. And we’re a long way from that.