Cincinnati’s Failure to Confront Crime

The Cycle of Unpunished Crime in Cincinnati Continues

I live in downtown Cincinnati. About a mile from where that couple was brutally attacked last week.

I'm not hopeful for justice for those attacked. I don't think the city has the stomach for it.

Why do I say this?

Two years ago, my truck was vandalized right outside my home.

My neighbors had security footage of the incident. It occurred on a Saturday evening.

I have the security camera footage. Four juveniles spent about thirty minutes trying to break into my truck.

They tried to break my windshield with a large rock for half an hour.

I got all four of their faces on security footage. Clear as a bell. Easily identifiable.

A friend from church worked at a youth ministry in Over the Rhine, an inner city neighborhood nearby.

He looked at the footage & recognized three of them. He knew their names and addresses. So he went to the house of one kid and confronted him.

The kid admitted he did it.

The damage was extensive. My truck was in the shop for three months and it cost over $9,000 to repair.

The police dept assigned the case to a detective. I called the detective and gave him the names of three kids. I also had phone numbers and addresses for two of them.

Only one kid got arrested, even though there were four kids that could be easily identified from surveillance footage and I gave them three names and two addresses/phone numbers.

After a few months went by, I finally received this notice in the mail.

The judge ruled he was not competent to stand trial.

Case dismissed.

These kinds of things happen ALL THE TIME in my neighborhood.

Some people just leave their cars unlocked so kids won't smash their windows.

We've gotten used to having people get into our minivan and steal stuff out of it.

These kids have no accountability. They get bolder with time. They rarely face consequences for their actions.

I'm sure the people involved in the attack downtown last week thought they could do this with their friends recording it and no one would care.

That's why I'm not hopeful for justice in this case. Perhaps federal pressure will make it different this time, but I've seen how much crime people can commit with impunity.

Until Cincinnati gets serious about holding people accountable, these crimes will continue.