Yes
UCAN Page 7
‘The Soloist’ Page 7
STREETVIBES
$1
M a y 2 0 0 9 • I s s u e 1 5 4 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
Legal Backfire Making sex offenders homeless doesn’t protect anyone By Gregory Flannery Editor
A Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy stands guard outside the Pogue Rehabilition Center along with a VOA administrator while a protest occurs on the street. Meanwhile, inside the Pogue Center, staff (pictured in the doorway) and clients enjoy a pizza party and movie night. Photo by Aimie Willhoite.
Earl Smith reports to the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office every day to provide his address, which is really no address. He’s one of about 50 homeless sex offenders living downtown. Earl Smith isn’t his real name; he doesn’t want publicity. His photo is already on the sex offenders’ list on the sheriff’s web site, and that’s a problem for him. He can’t get a job, and that’s a problem for everyone else. “I have two options,” he says. “I can either kill myself or I can commit another crime so I can get locked up. At least I’d have meals and some shelter. This winter was so bad I seriously thought about it.” Smith doesn’t want pity. Most people wouldn’t give pity if they heard his story. What
he wants and isn’t able to find the Drop Inn Center banned is a way to earn a living and Smith; it’s too close to the a place to live. Even the place new School for the Creative of last resort for homeless and Performing Arts. people, the Residency “I can either kill Drop Inn restrictions and myself or I can Center, public registries won’t let aim to protect commit another him in. children from crime so I can get “I can’t locked up. At least being sexually go in there abused. But a I’d have meals and growing body and get some shelter. This a meal,” of research inSmith says. dicates that winter was so bad “I can’t get the laws don’t I seriously thought medical. I about it.” - Earl Smith achieve their can’t use goals and are the bathpotentially makroom. I’m not allowed in the ing the public less safe. building.” The reason isn’t hard to understand: Desperate people do desperate things. ‘Gone too far’ Smith was locked up on Former sex offenders aren’t a registration violation last allowed to live wherever they fall. His truck and camper want. Homes near schools, were impounded. The judge day care centers, public pools dismissed the charge he was and parks are off limits under arrested on. But he’d been state and city laws. That’s why
The X Mayors to the Rescue
See Backfire, p. 5
Battling the forces of reaction to save Cincinnati’s image By David Heitfield Contributing Writer First came the X-Men, a Stan Lee Marvel comic in which Professor Xavier gave mutants super powers to prove that they can be heroes, too. Then came Robert Smigel's X Presidents, a Saturday Night Live cartoon about former presidents turned super crime fighters, with such classic one-liners as “I have lusted in my heart – to kick your ass!” (Jimmy Carter) and “Just say 'No' – to pissing me off!” (Ronald Reagan). So on Tax Day, through some miracle of metaphysical irony, Xavier University – presumably no relation to Professor Xavier, but one can never be sure – brought together the X Mayors, eight former mayors of Cincinnati, including Jerry Springer, who has dedicated his life to prov-
ing that mutants can be heroes, too. Despite the local media's usual half-assed attempts to create audiencearousing controversy – the Enquirer covered the event as essentially a fight between Springer and Roxanne Qualls over the “image” of Cincinnati, while Channel 5 began several post-commercial segments Jerry Springer weighs in on Cincinnati’s image. with pre-taped Photo courtesy of Xavier University. horseshit from the don't know who to hold acracially androgyWhose side are you on? countable.” He also said in a nous Ken Blackwell, includlater segment, which seemed ing a dire warning that acceptDwight Tillery set the stage, directed intentionally at the ing federal stimulus money as it were, by first throwing largely older, white audience could turn us all into drug addicts – the X Mayors had a out the D-word – diversity in attendance, that African few interesting things to say – while alluding to a certain Americans are afraid to come sense of powerlessness among downtown. about the region’s issues. denizens, because “people Qualls summed it up nice-
ly: “Diversity is a defining element of being a 21st-century city,” insisting that it was a choice Cincinnati would have to make between staying a 19th-century city or attracting youth and jobs. Springer added that the mixed message didn't work. We can't say, “Come to Ohio, come to the region, come to Cincinnati” one day, and the next day add, “ but not if you're gay.” Showing off her political skills, Qualls was emphatic that such messages came from those folks who are “forces of reaction” and not conservatism. She was probably thinking about a sign on Fountain Square earlier in the day that defined a “liberal” as “a person so open-minded their (sic) brain fell out,” which was right next to “Impeach Obama
See Mayors, p. 5