The Hamilton County Commission Tuesday released a report on law enforcement response to the Feb. 7 neo-Nazi rally on an overpass between Lincoln Heights and Evendale.
The 50-page report (below) includes answers to questions Lincoln Heights residents have posed about the incident from representatives from Evendale, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, and other organizations.
The report mostly covers previously discussed events, including law enforcement's initial response, confrontation between the hate group and counter-protesters, the moment the neo-Nazi group left the overpass in their U-Haul and their subsequent interaction in nearby Lockland with an Evendale Police officer. The report also reveals that at least one officer indicated over dispatch radio that there seemed to be a person pointing a weapon at another person for a brief period of time during the confrontation between the hate group and counter-protesters.
During their two-hour staff meeting Tuesday, commissioners heard from Lincoln Heights Mayor Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey and other local officials. They had a number of further questions for Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey and Evendale Mayor Richard Finan about law enforcement response.
Commissioners repeated questions about the Sheriff Department's response time to the initial reports of the armed hate group; how it was determined the group was peaceful; why the hate group members weren't cited for a crime; why their information wasn't collected; why an Evendale Police officer helped one of the neo-Nazis try to retrieve his Jeep; and more.
At least one of the demonstrator's identities is known to law enforcement officials. A neo-Nazi who rented a Jeep for the demonstration filed a report with Hamilton County Sheriffs reporting vandalism of the vehicle during the incident.
Commissioner Alicia Reece pointed to more recent incidents — a man was cited for littering Sunday for distributing Ku Klux Klan propaganda in Lincoln Heights — to suggest law enforcement response hasn't deterred people spreading hate.
"Until we get this kind of thing resolved, we're going to be the welcome mat for this kind of thing," Reece said. "We want it to be very, very, very uncomfortable in this county. We don't want that kind of behavior here."
Sheriff McGuffey and Evendale Mayor Finan both said their agencies' responses were calibrated chiefly toward de-escalating the tense situation on the overpass as Lincoln Heights residents approached the armed neo-Nazis.
"I've heard about the de-escalation, and it clearly worked, because no one was shot," Commissioner Denise Driehaus said. "But there's this other piece."
Driehaus said she hoped agencies could come to a set of strategies for addressing potential future hate group demonstrations.
There are more reports coming. On Monday Evendale announced it hired an independent firm to review its police response. The Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office is also undertaking a review.
Prosecutor Connie Pillich said she has a five-person task force looking into law enforcement response and potential legal issues with the neo-Nazi's actions.
"We're not going to let things slip by the wayside," she said. "We're going to see these facts and we're going to see what we can do in terms of legal actions, freedom of speech issues, traffic citations. We're going to look at it all."
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