While me
and my fellow citizens – ‘the local vocal Active-Advocates’ - continue to strategize ways to have Councilman
Smitherman turn his moral outrage over crime into solutions that address institutional
racism, here are a few reasons that Mayor John Cranley and Councilman
Christopher Smitherman may not be able to further
their careers beyond local politics. They aren’t ready for prime time.
Cranley can’t
control his staff and Christopher can’t control his mouth
On Friday April 25 Mayor Cranley did a pointless
drive-by interview on Lincoln Ware’s radio show (1230 WDBZ the Buzz) as a
follow-up to ‘Local Vocals – Active
Advocates’ who attended a April 23 City Hall council meeting requesting that
Mayor John Cranley remove Councilman Christopher Smitherman as the chair of The
Law and Public Safety Committee, because of his recent divisive comments
regarding the African American community’s response to crime. Mayor Cranley
repeated on the radio what he told the local paper and that is: Smitherman’s
job is safe. He further went on to say that he couldn’t control what his
committee chairs say. Said Cranley, “I can’t control what he says, if I had to
remove a chair every time that they said something that I disagreed with I’d
have no committee chairs.”
Can you imagine a national politician admitting that he can’t
control one of his staff members who was speaking disparagingly about the gay
or Jewish community?
Councilman Smitherman can’t control his mouth and has become
infamous over the past few years for his negative rants about the African
American community -on conservative talk (mostly white radio) and at City
Council.
Many years before that Smitherman was infamous for his rants against
the white and Jewish community on a predominantly African American radio
station.
Politicians that can’t control their
staff’s behavior or those that can’t control their divisive tongue, don’t go
very far.
Neither Mayor
Cranley nor Smitherman seem to learn from political mistakes
During the April 9, 2001 Cincinnati riots
uprising both Cranley and Smitherman were on City Council. During that
administration Cranley was the chair of the Law & Public Safety Committee
when the uprising started, in which he
admitted in several media stories that he lost control (Google it). Instead
of listening to the citizens who packed City Hall to express concerns over
police brutality, Cranley blew the citizens off and the citizens blew up.
Smitherman, at the time posing as a
militant black man, told then Police Chief Streicher, “I’m your boss” (Google it).
Back then, like now, his words were divisive directed towards, whites and
caused a lot of backlash and hurt feelings from police officers. Prosecutor Joe
Deters subsequently led the charge to make sure Smitherman was not reelected
during the next council term.
Back to April 23, 2014 when a couple of dozen concerned
citizens attended a City Council meeting to express concerns and requested a May
10 response to the request that Councilman Smitherman be removed as the chair
of The Law and Public Safety Committee.
Mayor Cranley responded to the request immediately but not
directly to those who made the request. Here’s what he told the local paper;
Smitherman’s job is safe: "I'm not removing him. Under Smitherman's
leadership, we have added cops, rejuvenated CIRV, put a renewed focus on the
community monitors, restarted the call-ins, and added police overtime. The
entire community has embraced these action steps."
The problem with his response is
two-fold. He is once again blowing the
citizens off. It was incredibly disrespectful for him not to respond directly
to those who took a day off work, rearranged their schedules to engage Council
and let their voices be heard. It is
also a damn lie that the entire community has embraced what he calls “action
steps” when the majority of the community knows little about 4 of the 5 steps
that he named.
Perhaps Cranley should have started
his interview to the paper in this way, Fuck those activists I
appreciate the engagement and the concerns of the citizens’ who spoke, however
Smitherman’s job is safe…” Sounds like Cranley needs Judy Smith the real life,
Olivia Pope to do his public relations.
Mayor Cranley’s lack of action and
Smitherman’s reckless divisive rants proves that neither is in control or ready
for the big political stage.
(correction: Smitherman was elected in 2003 - still he made the reckless and divisive comments to Streicher while Cincinnati was in turmoil)
Both continue to
blast the last administration
It appears that
anytime there is a problem at City Hall or in the City of Cincinnati, both the
mayor and the council member have one response and that is to blame it on the
last administration of Mayor Mallory and City manager Milton Dohoney.
At what point
will the mayor and the councilman start to work for solutions and address
institutional racism, because they are now the driver’s seat?
Did the old
political Bait and Switch
Cranley baited because when he was
running for mayor he was very visible in the African American community, even
going so far as to show up at a nightclub in the hood in mom jeans. He
made so many promises to the community, including that he would always be
accessible. To date, he has been
anything but.
Crime is up
Mayor Cranley’s interview in the
paper made it appear that crime was being managed. It is not. Heroin and crack addicts still
roam the streets and Cincinnatians find out what they did the next day on the
morning news. Black men are still getting murdered and white men and women are
still leaving their babies to go commit crimes for their hourly heroin fix.
Politicians who fail to protect
tax payers from crime limited political careers.
Do your damn job John and
Christopher!
THANKS SIS. V FOR SHOWING GREAT LEADERSHIP!
FBK is an unapologetic black
writer who is not afraid to write about the ‘R’ word. She is a member of
Cincinnati’s Local Vocal Active-Activists who often keeps it real. She blogs, she writes eBooks and she is
currently juicing- on and off - so don’t
mess with her.
FBK is a combo of 3 writers - you figure it out....we're not telling.
