Lincoln Heights, Ohio – almost every morning during the last month, Jay has woken up before dawn to drive through the streets of Lincoln Heights, patrolling buse stops in the neighborhood to make sure the children arrive at school safely.
“We have a very tight community, so all our children know us,” he said.
But for anyone outside the community, Jay’s presence could be a mystery. He wears a face that covers along with tactical vests, and Jay is not his real name, which he asked not to use to avoid harassment of hate groups.
He is a member of the Lincoln Heights Safety and Watch program, an initiative that began shortly after February 7, when a neo-Nazi group that agitates swastika flags and shouted racial insults demonstrated in a high passage of roads just at the edge of this black-black community about 30 minutes north of Cincinnati.
Evendale officers, which limits Lincoln Heights, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office responded that day. No arrests were made, and Evendale Police officers did not eliminate any names or identification information of members of the neo -Nazi group, according to the mayor’s office. The Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the incident to see if criminal charges could be presented.
In a statement, the mayor of Evendale, Richard Finan, said that the emphasis of the officers in the decallation “resulted in the resolution of the incident without injuries to any of the people involved, passers -by or agents of the law. During this evolution scene, protecting life had priority over immediate identification.” The Evendale Police Department was the first to respond to the incident, which took place on a bridge that unites Evendale with Lincoln Heights.
But to Daronce Daniels, the spokesman for the security and surveillance group, the police response was as alarming as the neo -Nazi appearance, causing residents to feel that they would not be protected if another hatred group visited their city.
“They have been very clear that if it happens again, they will allow it to happen again, that their hands are tied,” Daniels said.
Lincoln Heights residents said the police response to the incident was insufficient, which caused Daniels and other members of the Heights movement, an existing organization of empowerment of the community, devised the security and surveillance program, which includes armed volunteers with tactical equipment and facial coatings. Some of the same volunteers who helped the mentor of young people through the movement of heights are now being carried out armed patrols. Ohio’s state law allows anyone to legally have a weapon to open transport without permission.
“I’ve never felt safer as a black man in my community than at this time,” Daniels said. “These are my friends. These are my cousins, my brothers, my sisters, my aunts. “
The owner of the local business Eric Ruffin was approached in his car by the neo -Nazi group when he returned home of a working meeting.
He said he supports the application of the law, but that its management of the demonstration of February 7 does not attest to the fact that it will protect it in the future. For that reason, he says that he is proud of the neighborhood security and surveillance program, although he wants not to be necessary.
“What I don’t understand is how I can be here in the United States in 2025 and someone can walk to my window with a swastika and have weapons and call me the N-Word clock and the application of the law,” said Ruffin.
“We don’t want to become what we hate. You know, we do not want to become a group of people who walk feeling that we have a reason in the United States to have to protect ourselves. That is what the Nazis want. “
The town of Lincoln Heights formed in 1923 for black families that escaped from the south, and incorporated in 1946 as the “first autonomous African-American community north of the Mason-Dixon line,” according to the city’s website. However, residents say that the community has been disregarded by local municipalities, and their police department dissolved in 2014, according to Cincinnati Enquirer, leaving it under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Hamilton County.
For many security and surveillance volunteers, that story plays a role in their decision to add their daily duties as parents and workers.
“It is something that our grandparents and our great -grandmothers began. So we will make sure that this story remains intact, ”said a volunteer, who asked to remain anonymity for fear of reprisals of hate groups.
The patio signs that said “we support Lincoln Heights Safety & Watch” are dotted throughout the city, and you can see the members of the community greeting the security volunteers and observing the volunteers while they were on guard near the local elementary school on Tuesday morning.
Chantelle Phillips said he saw the neo -Nazi rally on social networks as it happened. She said that the neighborhood protection group is more proactive than the officers of the Hamilton County Sheriff, whose jurisdiction includes Lincoln Heights.
“I feel it’s now safer,” said Phillips. “I know that my son can walk home and be fine.”
The Hamilton County Sheriff, Charmaine McGuffey, is now asking the Ohio State Legislature to approve laws that make illegal use a mask “with the purpose of intimidation” while opening. She said that this measure would have given her officers more maneuvering margin to make arrests during the neo -Nazi demonstration.
In an interview with NBC News, he defended the response of his officers on February 7, but said he understands why Lincoln Heights residents are concerned about their safety. Even so, he is concerned that an armed confrontation between the residents of the neighborhood and another group of hate can lead to a dangerous situation.
“They feel they need to assemble their residents, and are allowed,” McGuffey said. “At some point, we will probably face a very dangerous situation that we are trained to handle. But the unknown is, who is more armed? How many youth are standing with a gun in your hand? I cannot be more emphatic that this problem in which we are integrated, and the way in which people react and act with open transport with open transport are directly related to the inaction of legislators who say they support the police, who say they support families and order, and do not. “
