Joseph Deters, Joe Deters
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

By Dan Sewell, AP

An Ohio prosecutor pledged Monday help police find and prosecute those responsible for a weekend wave of gun violence.

Cincinnati police said more than 20 people were shot, four fatally, in a string of seven cases beginning early Sunday morning. Police were still investigating, but didn’t believe the shootings were connected.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said he is “alarmed, shocked and saddened” about the gun violence. The Republican also added that the violence and police response to it should silence calls to “defund” police. Such calls have been made across the country for efforts to reform policing.

“While I believe that we should police smartly and efficiently and use all of our resources in the best way possible, ‘defunding’ the police is not the answer,” Deters said in a statement.

Mayor John Cranley, a Democrat, said the city was facing “unprecedented circumstances and challenges” in fighting crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said guns are “far too prevalent” at private gatherings after bars close early under pandemic restrictions.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine again action on his “STRONG Ohio” proposals to address gun violence. Introduced last year in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Dayton, the legislation lacks the toughest measures backed gun control advocates favored, but seeks to increase and improve background checks. It has stalled in the state Legislature.

Police said the three Sunday evening shootings in Cincinnati were unrelated, and none of the three victims had life-threatening wounds. Two people were wounded in hands, and a man was shot in the back after a fight broke out at a party, police said.

Those shootings followed four gunfire outbursts early Sunday in which 18 people where shot, four fatally. In one case, 10 people were shot.

No suspect information was released immediately in any of the cases.

Police said the department would shift officers from other assignments to increase the number of uniformed officers in the affected communities and would call on federal prosecutors and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for help.

In July, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the city had experienced a rise in shootings and homicides from gun violence during the first half of the year as compared to the same time period in 2019.

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68 COMMENTS

  1. Gov. Mike DeWine (R)

    You can’t tell a book by its cover.

    Or a federal judge by its testimony.

    • If you didn’t think Mike DeWine was a creepy little RINO you’ve never seen or heard the guy. He followed in on Kasich’s coattails.

  3. Enough with the background checks. All they do is prove that a law abiding citizen is law abiding. And that should be taken for granted.

    • Any bets the victims and known associates would be prohibited from legally owning firearms in the first place?

  4. Governor Mike DeWine: “Ohio must act.”

    President Ronald Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help'”

    • “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’”

      When I was with the government, I really did “come to help”…..unless I could exact a nice little non-compliance fine. Had to mitigate the cost of me being employed.

        • “Ronnie was anitgun. So was Nixon.”

          When those two were presidents, I didn’t see the USG posing a serious threat to the nation, as in triggering an armed response to imminent tyranny. When stationed in Texas at the time of the suppression of citizens in Waco, after watching live news reporting the slaughter, I became an instant 2A absolutist, and political opponent of any attempt to regulate private ownership of “weapons of war” (or any other category of firearms).

          Times were simply different when Nixon and Reagan presided.

    • De-Funding police makes as much sense as a person who can’t swim jumping into 30 feet of water without a life jacket!

      • It’s like firing the lifeguards because one was ogling teenagers in bikinis, and then being surprised that the number of people drowning and getting injured skyrockets.

        • “It’s like firing the lifeguards because…”

          Once heard the matter put like this, “It is like throwing away your watch in order to save time.”

    • I think if it ever really Game to sweeping gun bans to the point where ownership was illegal, you wouldn’t have door to door confiscation. You would just have to wait for someone to slip up and get caught with a scary black rifle, and throw the book at him so hard it would scare the rest of the the resistors into compliance.
      I get that that saying “come and take it” sounds cool, but how many would be singing that song after some poor shmuck gets 50 years for merely owning an AR and a handful of standard capacity mags?

      • Old bastard’s like me who lived a long hard but happy life. Who know what death and sacrifice is about and seen more of it than they want to remember. As you get older you realize Death isn’t Hard. Living is Hard and Living in Fear of things makes it Harder. At the end of it all if you don’t have respect for something and a desire to be Free. It’s all been a waste.

      • As someone that has studied counterinsurgency and Insurgency techniques as well as taught them to other people I can give you the solution to the problem you’re describing. Any Judge that issues a sentence like you mentioned needs to be killed along with their immediate family. Once judges or prosecutors realize that their unjust actions have consequences they will be considerably less likely to engage in unjust Behavior.

        • It sounds like you’ve studied the losing side of insurgencies because you’re good at creating three more insurgents for every one you kill.

        • That’s a bit harsh. I suggest hold a trial and them have them hanged. To kill their family members would take a violent coup like the Bolsheviks did the Romanovs. You would have to do it publicly and ceremoniously lest you risk pissing off the wussies.

        • Hannibal, I taught at the school of the Americas. Do you know what that is? Counterinsurgencies are relatively easy to fight but they are very difficult to win against your own citizens. Insurgencies are also very easy to carry out at a low level because you don’t have to win, you simply have to stay alive to keep fighting. One or two attacks per year per cell like the ones I described would effectively shut down the government. If you took it one notch higher and started targeting middle management and their families at government agencies it would turn the United States on its ear. just look at what the DC snipers in the early 2000s were able to accomplish on a budget of probably under $3,000. Law enforcement officers are also not invincible. If you start killing them at home along with their families they will quit by the tens of thousands. There are always more oppressed then there are oppressors. If people are willing to fight the oppressors will run out of Warm Bodies before the oppressed do.

      • If it were so easy to legislate the problem away in sure they would have done it by now. States experiment with the bans and watch people get shot anyway. Compliance rates for registration laws are below 15 percent. Even OZ has more guns now than before 96.
        If guns were only in 2 percent of American hands it would be easy. At 33 percent or higher it’s far too late to effectively round them up.

        I think a gun banning administration would be short lived and such laws repealed. The wouldn’t do it because it was right or constitutional, it would be to stop the anarchy. They won’t get their bans and the normal way of life they want. It would be a lot darker and uncertain.

      • If someone breaks into your house to steal your gun you have a legal right to shoot hem. People would just murder the cops and the cops would resist any orders to confiscate due to fear of death and sheriffs would not enforce those orders because they are brass and the first ones to be targeted by patriot snipers.

    • There will be plenty of ANTIFA and BLM volunteers to do the dirty work. And many will have enough zeal to do the wet work too. Some will do it for the class struggle, some will do it for a share of the seized loot, and others will do for pleasure.

  6. Gangbangers around the country in Democrat cities have observed the Mayors, City Councils, and Police Depts. stand back and do nothing in the face of anarchy, arson, looting, aggravated batterys, shootings, and murder. Now if I’m a gang leader or member with an ax to grind isn’t this the perfect time to act?

    • Pretty much. Gangs dont call it target risk assesment, but that’s what they do. In response to this Ohio prosecuter, how many other equivilant ways can we reply with a “no 5h!t”

  7. The prosecutor is correct provided he really means what he says. Sentence violent criminals to long prison terms to deprive them of access to future victims. Unfortunately, he may be hamstrung by juries that won’t convict and judges that won’t give meaningful sentences.

    Another deterrent is respect by the judicial system for self defense. Certainly, investigate each case and prosecute if it’s not self defense but, when the defender has checked all the boxes (innocence, imminence, proportionality, avoidance if applicable, and reasonableness), declare the incident legal self defense and immunize the defender against criminal and civil liability.

    I’m sure there are cops who pick on minorities but I think they are the exception rather than the rule. Most of the current objections are to holding criminals responsible for their crimes. The complainers are the criminals, their friends and family.

    • The research indicates that cops are not as hard on minorities as they should be, and that this has been the case for over 3 decades.

      The appearance of disproportionate impact on minorities is due to the disproportionate involvement of minorities in crimes which results from lower IQ and poor personality traits, which results from the disgenic government programs that are destroying the African American gene pool.

      Systemic racism is welfare, public housing, public education, WIC, CHIP, public health care and any and all other public social programs. These programs literally breed less intelligent people with poor personality traits.

      For all of the talk about “science” on the left, when it says something they don’t like they dismiss it as quickly as those they accuse of being science deniers.

      • Exactly right. The closest thing this country has to systemic racism is the Democratic party’s social policies and welfare schemes.

  8. Round up the criminals first then we can see if that works before we start abridging rights of the law abiding. It would be more efficient to pop them in the act of felony but we have to follow these rules. The old sage about blaming people who did nothing wrong will always apply.

    • “Round up the criminals first then we can see if that works before we start abridging rights of the law abiding. ”

      What?

      Are you crazy? Do you have any idea about how hard and dangerous that is? Just as you don’t plant wheat on concrete, you go where the planting is best; the willingly compliant. It’s safer that way. If you want the dangerous criminals rounded up, you go be first through the door. I’ll stick with the more fertile soil of law-abiding people.

        • “Well Sam, at least you’ve got some sense!”

          Of course, that is never my intent.

          Blind squirrel moment?

      • Years ago I used to see the NYSP set up their DWI task force about 8:00 on a friday night. They could stop everybody because there was a toll booth at hand. Later in the evening the group would break up, about 11:30, you don’t want to take a chance and have some drunk get out and punch you in the nose. Same thing here…don’t take a chance, go home at shift change.

        • “Later in the evening the group would break up, about 11:30, you don’t want to take a chance and have some drunk get out and punch you in the nose.”

          There ya’ go. Sensible harrassment of the compliant segment of the populace.

      • To prove Sam’s point take note of who was harrassed and held for displaying guns in St Louis area when a bunch of thugs broke through a private fence and threatened their property and that of others. Easier/more safe to bust the lawyer couple.

        • “To prove Sam’s point take note of who was harrassed and held for displaying guns in St Louis….”

          Uuuuuhhhhh, this might not be the episode to use as an endorsement of Sam’s current rant about deciding who shoud be targeted, rather than the actual culprits.

        • “Uuuuuhhhhh, this might not be the episode to use as an endorsement of Sam’s current rant about deciding who shoud be targeted, rather than the actual culprits.”

          Not trying to prove anything about you- only the point you seem to have been making:
          “Round up the criminals first then we can see if that works before we start abridging rights of the law abiding. ”
          What?
          Are you crazy? Do you have any idea about how hard and dangerous that is?”

          The prosecutor would never go after the gang breaking in, that would’ve involved, as Eric Holder once said about prosecuting some NBP members obviously intimidating voters at a polling place as Going after “my people”, which wasn’t going to happen.

          • Thanks for expanding on the point. I understand your original comment, now.

            Sometimes I get tangled up when emulating leftists/gun-grabbers for fun and profit.

      • And use of “shock and awe” tactics on the first few dozen that will make Waco and Ruby Ridge look like traffic stops.

  9. Weak minds can be ruled by Twitter.

    Prosecution means nothing when criminals are freed from their cells.

  10. There isn’t a gun violence problem,there is a criminal violence problem and the political jack wagons don’t want to face up to the facts,Eff the whole lot of them.

  11. Speaking of defunding police :

    “‘Gun-Toting’ St. Louis Lawyers Will Appear At Next Week’s Republican National Convention”

    “With the DNC snooze-fest fading in the rear view mirror already, focus now turns to the upcoming Republican National Convention that will take place next week.

    On the guest list of those attending will be none other than Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who famously took to their front lawn, guns drawn, to protect their property from a group of protesters. They are expected to express their support for President Trump during the upcoming virtual convention, according to the NY Post.

    Recall, the St. Louis couple made headlines in June for displaying firearms in front of their home as a group of BLM activists marched towards the Mayor’s house. They were later charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon and fourth-degree assault.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/st-louis-gun-toting-lawyers-will-appear-next-weeks-republican-national-convention

  13. It is obvious the Ohio governor is a RINO and the text makes me wonder about the DA is also.

    This should be a lesson to voters in all states. Pay attention to the background of candidates. Democrats are signing up leftist candidates for offices but registered as republicans. They campaign as a conservative but in office show their true colors.

    Anyone with a party change in their background should be viewed with suspicion.

    Hopefully the people of Ohio will get rid of the governor and mayor of Sin-cinatti too but that is a faint hope. Large cities trend democrat (communist party USA) and weekend nights demonstrate their game.

    Soft on crime, release criminals with no bond, enable and encourage riots, burn and pillage.

    Be Prepared !

  14. Until one can identify and refer to the problem by its correct terminology, one will never solve the problem. It’s not “Gun Violence”. It’s “Defective Citizen Violence.” But, then, the whole issue….Gun Violence/Defective Citizen Violence…. is merely a Useful Tool for the anti-America, pro-Socilaist, One Worlders to achieve their agendas. There is no intent or benefit in the Lefty circles to solve that issue….it’s a tool.

    And, I’m all for Police Reform, as soon as we solve the need for Defective Citizen Reform. I’m pretty certain that the Police Reform issue would be mostly self resolving if the Defective Citizen Reform issue were resolved first. I see the police under a form of PTSD after being in potentially mortal work place danger every shift for 10, 20, 30 years. Way more stress than any military member who is under stress for maybe 12 months and then away from that stress for years in many cases. Police deal with society’s scum every shift…….typically with a common brand identifier……like the Nike Swoosh, the Ford blue oval. Audi interlocking rings…..police encounter the brand identifier of skin color, dialect, dress, attitude. Wonder why police often develop a negative attitude and performance toward that brand identifier…….that might represent a very real danger to kill or injure an officer at any contact. If a citizen doesn’t like the implications of their brand……change your damn brand. You created it. Quit trotting your brand identifier out on the evening news for negative reasons. Start being seen as a positive brand. Start supporting and working with the police to stamp out those Defective Citizens that destroy your brand. It’s not about skin color…….merely a segment of brand identifier. It’s what is between one’s ears and in one’s heart…..and one’s brand.

    • Lets face it, the police deal with the criminals and law breakers on a constant basis. Life like this is bound to have a toll and make cops tainted. Dealing with the scum of the earth is demoralizing.

  16. “No suspect information was released immediately in any of the cases.”

    DU huh. If you will not do the time, why not do the crime. The Cincinnati Ohio police were not doing an exemplary job of solving homicides and arresting murderers even before the riots. Now that BLM radicals are running rampant because the fecal brained politicians are pandering to them, the criminals are confident that the police have zero chance of solving a murder.

    Think of it as evolution in action.

    Now popping popcorn.

  17. “Skyrocketing” is not what is going on with violence in this country. It takes some very loose and creative imagineering to cook up a “skyrocketing” crime wave for any classification, in any place.

    Only some silly people are talking seriously (makes no sense, I know) about De funding the police. Won’t happen. Maybe a bit of it here and there, but on the whole, nationwide, this is not going to take place.

    Some of the large police agencies could do to trim some fat in their budgets and turn that money to a more useful pursuit. Focused enforcement and prosecution on repeat offenders and gang leaders.

    Put money into NGO’s that get results:
    https://cvg.org/

  18. “Government agency is not doing well! We demand that their budgets get cut!”
    (6 months later)
    “Government agency is doing worse! We demand their budgets get cut!”

    There is no difference between “defund the police” advocates and “abolish police” advocates except that one is more honest than the other.

  20. You guys ever been on the job?. We used to joke about the three rules of law enforcement. #1 Solve no crime before overtime. #2 Never pass up a chance to use the restroom while on duty. #3 Payday is every other Friday. I know it sounds stupid, but the longer you work it becomes a simple truth.

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