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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Standing doesn't constitute obstructing official
business, says Kenneth Lawson.
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Hamilton County Municipal Judge Nadine Allen last week stopped just short of saying a crime victim deserved what she got. Her remarks in a domestic violence case Sept. 18 drew a few gasps from observers and provoked the victim, a teenage girl, to tears. Allen found Thabit Shakir guilty of domestic violence for slapping his granddaughter and bloodying her lip. But all the judge's empathy went to the offender.
"She may have deserved it," Allen said. "A well placed backhand can be a good thing."
After the sentencing, a victims' advocate from the prosecutor's office comforted the girl as she wept in the hallway. The advocate declined comment on Allen's remarks.
Allen sentenced Shakir to probation, ordered him to attend anger management classes and fined him $50 and court costs.
Documentary filmmaker Barbara Wolf stood trial last week, six months after she was arrested during a protest against the invasion of Iraq. Now she has to wait five weeks for a verdict. Allen took under consideration a motion to dismiss the charge of obstructing official business; she'll either throw it out or resume the trial Oct. 28.
Wolf was one of five people arrested for standing in a crosswalk on Fifth Street downtown during rush hour March 20. One has been acquitted, prosecutors dropped charges against a second and an informal hearing in juvenile court disposed of charges against a third.
The only peace protester so far convicted, Michael McCleese, has refused to pay the $50 fine and court costs imposed by Allen. She issued a capias for his arrest Sept. 23.
In opening remarks, defense attorney Kenneth Lawson said Wolf didn't commit the crime with which she's charged.
"The purpose of standing in the street was to protest the war, not to hamper or impede any police officer or anyone else," Lawson said. "Doing nothing is not obstructing official business."
Procter & Gamble was the target of two separate protests on the same day last week. In addition to an animal-rights protest (see Abuse Claims Dog P&G;, page 16), union leaders gathered to demand P&G; chairman John Pepper yield to striking workers' demands at Yale University. A member of Yale's board of trustees, Pepper had recommended raising the university president's pension to 75 percent of his annual salary. The day after the protest at P&G;, Yale reached a contract with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.
A Sobering Encounter With the Mayor
Mayor Charlie Luken was temporarily detained at the entrance to the Oktoberfest Zinzinnati hospitality area late in the afternoon Sept. 20. He apparently lacked the necessary "golden ticket" -- a VIP pass that grants access to free beer and munchies. The longtime volunteer staffing the checkpoint was presumably following instructions: no pass, no admission. But a member of the Downtown Council quickly rectified the situation, and soon the mayor was quaffing free brew with friends. No word yet on the status of the volunteer.
The Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Cincinnati Inc. are promoting a practical way to draw people downtown: child care. The two groups are working with Oak Tree Montessori on a program called "Night Owls." Beginning Nov. 7, the Central Parkway school will offer child care Friday and Saturday nights. The purpose is not only to get adults to patronize arts and entertainment events but to acclimate their children as well, according to Sarah Basch, development director at Oak Tree.
"The whole idea is to encourage people to come back to Over-the-Rhine and downtown," Basch says. "It's child care, but it's also somewhere fun for the kids to go, to give them the excitement of going downtown that previous generations had."
You know a city's image has taken hold when it becomes part of a party game. Richard Woolf of Stand4Democracy recently got a reminder of what the rest of the world hears about Cincinnati.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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AFL-CIO secretary Dan Radford (left) protests outside
P&G; headquarters Sept. 18.
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"I was playing the new 20th Anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit with some friends a couple of weeks ago," Woolf says, "when this question came up, under the news category: What Ohio city did NAACP President Kweisi Mfume call 'ground zero' in race relations, in 2001?"
The answer, of course, is Cincinnati.
"Of all the items that could have been used as a trivia question about Cincinnati, the makers of this game thought the best one to put was something about the poor race relations," Woolf says.
Porkopolis TIP LINES: 513-665-4700 (ext. 138) or pork@citybeat.com
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