The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Cincinnati Police Division has worked for years to adopt Community Oriented Policing. But events in recent weeks have again exposed deep fissures between cops and the community they serve - and those gaps are being filled with half-truths, hostility and misinformation.

Last week, leaders of the Black MARCHERS group accused police and prosecutors of covering up the ''truth'' about the fatal police shooting of mental patient Lorenzo Collins on Feb. 23. After reading a coroner's report on bullet wounds, they jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Collins had been shot through the back while trying to run away from 15 officers, who surrounded him after he escaped from University Hospital.

A bullet did enter his back, near the right shoulder, and exited his chest. But investigators say the trajectory was caused as he was doubled forward by a previous shot that struck him in the abdomen.

Witnesses and prosecutors who looked at the case in detail agree: Mr. Collins did not respond to commands to drop a brick; repeated attempts to subdue him with chemical spray were futile; he advanced on the officers, and two cops fired four shots.

The Black MARCHERS have made reckless accusations before, inflaming emotions without waiting for facts. Such mistakes will give many in Cincinnati the excuse they are looking for to slam shut their minds and dismiss legitimate questions about the shooting as an irresponsible plot to incite trouble.

Opinions also hardened in the black community as police marched in a show of ''unity'' with the officers who killed Mr. Collins.

Certainly there must be Cincinnati cops who have doubts about the shooting. It would be reassuring and refreshing to know that at least some officers share concerns that are troubling our city - white and black.

Instead, the Fraternal Order of Police has replied with lockstep defiance and the arrogance of authority that is unaccustomed to being questioned.

Their attitude: Unless you have faced the split-second decisions cops confront, you have no right to judge.

That's not only wrong, it's dangerous.

Cops face situations no civilian would be trained or equipped to handle. On a daily basis, they respond to crime and catastrophe with courage, compassion and quiet heroism. But real professionals also know they serve the public - and citizens have every right to question their judgment and behavior.

Nobody is trying to disarm or discredit all cops. Cincinnati has a reputation for unflinching support of law and order.

But Cincinnati also has a right to expect its police officers to be more careful in a crisis - even when confronted by a deranged mental patient who is armed with a brick.

The fatal shooting of Mr. Collins was a tragic mistake. If nobody in the Police Division will admit that, the seeds of doubt, distrust and deliberate distortion will find fertile ground.

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