Steve Jemison feels uncomfortable around some of his neighbors.

        It wasn't always that way.

        The corporate labor lawyer and father of two has lived in the same Evendale neighborhood for 15 years.

        When his son and daughter were young, Mr. Jemison coached them and others in soccer, basketball and baseball. He volunteers as a fund-raiser and chairman of a local health-care nonprofit. In a pinch he, like other neighbors, would readily help with a mowed lawn here or some elbow grease there.

        Although he's one of only 233 African-Americans in a village of 3,090, Mr. Jemison has always felt at home. Although his is one of only two minority families on the block, Mr. Jemison has viewed Evendale as an ideal setting.

        But since January, since Evendale hired police Officer Stephen Roach, Mr. Jemison has felt like a stranger.
       

Burned bridges

        Mr. Jemison is one of many who have taken sides about employing Officer Roach, who last year accidentally shot an unarmed black man in Over-the-Rhine and later resigned from Cincinnati's police force.

        Mr. Jemison and several dozen other Concerned Citizens of Evendale obtained enough signatures, more than 219, to put the hiring on a referendum, where residents could approve or disapprove. City officials rebuffed them after receiving two legal opinions saying it would be illegal to hold a public vote on such an administrative matter, but gave Officer Roach a year to clear his name or be fired.

        But the group isn't quitting. Last week it voted to sue the village to force the referendum.

        It's just one more burned bridge for Mr. Jemison.

        The campaign for Officer Roach's badge already has cost him and his family a few friendships and much peace of mind.

        “There are a lot of people treating people differently now,” he says.

        First there were the doors slammed in the faces of some petition supporters. At one city council meeting, a group of about 100 Roach supporters booed Mr. Jemison during his three-minute talk.

        Early last week, fliers from a Ku Klux Klan group appeared on some people's driveways. A letter signed by some Evendale police officers appeared in mailboxes.

        Some residents have told Mr. Jemison and family members they wish people like him would give it a rest, he says. Others have accused them of not being active enough in the community.

        He gets choked up when describing how some neighbors asked to sign the petition said Mr. Thomas deserved the bullets.

        “It could have been my son,” Mr. Jemison said in horror.

        Now he's unsure about attending the usual community and sports functions.

        To be polite, people are expected to keep their opinions about Officer Roach to themselves, Mr. Jemison said, but he has trouble doing that. He chooses not to attend.

        “They support a dishonest cop. They don't support me.”

        Last week, he said, a former city official told Mr. Jemison's wife and two other neighbors that a referendum would prove that Roach supporters will outnumber everyone else. The referendum will be defeated.

        Mr. Jemison says he can't believe that. Several times a day he vacillates between pessimism and optimism about the referendum and about his place in his hometown.

        “I never believed I was going to face this kind of racism in Evendale,” he said.

        “I have to believe that racism will not prevail over fairness. I'm positive that, over time, more of my neighbors would realize this is wrong.”

       Denise Smith Amos can be reached at 768-8395, or e-mail
       damos@enquirer.com.

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