Peter Bronson, author of Behind the Lines: The Untold Stories of the Cincinnati Riots, sends in the following —

Unlike most of the media reports about the Cincinnati riots of April, 2001, the Nov. 25 New York Times story by Christopher Maag got an important detail right. The riots were not “triggered” by the shooting of an unarmed black man by a Cincinnati Police officer, as reported so often. The violence did not begin until the Monday after the accidental shooting early on Saturday morning, April 7.

However, Maas says the looting, gunshots, arson, rock-throwing and beatings began when a “protest march two days later devolved into riots.” Not quite. The damage and lawlessness began – ironically enough -- in a meeting of the Law and Public Safety Committee at City Hall on April 9, then spread to Police Headquarters a few blocks away.

I’d also quibble with the headline's claim that “Life Breathes Anew in Riot-Scarred Area.” True, there are energetic and generous philanthropic efforts to revitalize the neighborhood named Over-the-Rhine by German immigrants who crossed the “little Rhine” Erie Canal to work downtown. But the new life for Cincinnati is shadowed by the daily stories of new deaths from the city’s record homicide rates.

Politicians appeased the mob by blaming the cops; the cops slowed down because they had no political backup to do their jobs properly; and the crime cancer metastasized.

Cincinnati will probably set a homicide record this year. Downtown businesses cherished for decades, such as the five-star Maisonette, have closed, as suburban residents refuse to come downtown.

A new City Council appears to “get it” after being pressured by frightened neighborhoods to hire more cops. And it was aggressive police sweeps in Over-the-Rhine, more than investment, that gave the neighborhood new optimism.

The leaders who are investing in Over-the-Rhine deserve credit for beginning a long overdue turnaround for a neighborhood that seems to have more social services and drug dealers than residents. If only Cincinnati had invested more support in its police in the weeks, months and years after April 2001, the city would be healthier and safer today.