Cop busts black drug dealer. Drug dealer resists and gets hurt or killed. Protesters cry “racism.” Cop is put on trial and even if he's exonerated, his career is toast.

        That Cliffs Notes version of the continuing Cincinnati saga explains why crime is filling the streets like a backed-up storm drain.

        At a recent Avondale rally to support cops, the police brass insisted all cops do their jobs 100 percent. The citizens who share sidewalks with crime rolled their eyes in disbelief.

        Cincinnati's open secret is that since the April 2001 riots over the killing of a black suspect by a cop, this city has the lite law enforcement that protesters demanded.

        The ugly results are visible in the law-free zone on Burnet Avenue in Avondale and on corners where brazen broad-daylight drug dealers operate in Over-the-Rhine. Prostitution, shootings and murders are off the charts.

        And the dope boys are getting bolder, moving into quiet family neighborhoods.

        Since three women told about gunshots, threats, rats, crack-heads and a steady parade of drug traffic on their blocks in Madisonville, others are pleading for more cops and tougher cops.

        • “Why can't the police do anything?” asked Karen Leavitt, who lives near Erie Avenue in Madisonville. “While we are for the most part surrounded by wonderful, caring neighbors, we live across the street from a blatant drug dealer. Over the last year, he has progressed from furtive drug deals to constant traffic. Cars pull up day and night and make no pretense any longer about their business. My neighbor has called the police 57 times.”

        She says the cops tell her to just hold tight.

        “What are we holding tight for? Are we waiting for someone else to get shot?”

        • Christina Dawes says she hears gunshots “close to nightly” in the Madisonville home she remodeled at a cost of $30,000. She has been insulted by racist slurs from black drug dealers.

        “There were two white girls who nearly backed into my car because they were so busy flagging down a drug dealer. I yelled at them, "You need to buy your crack in someone else's neighborhood.' ”

        • Shirley Hayes lived on dead-end Dunning Street. She moved to Amelia in May to save her sanity and maybe her life.

        “I was getting threatened. I had rocks thrown through the windows in my dining room twice. When I would go outside, they would say, "Get back in there, white -----.' ”

        Some neighbors say the District 2 police commander blows off their complaints. He did not return my calls asking for comment.

        Last week, City Councilman Jim Tarbell visited the Madisonville neighborhood.

        “I was stunned by the behavior I witnessed during my visit” on a Sunday afternoon, he wrote in a letter to the police, health department and members of council. “There were crowds of 30-40 youths gathered on what has heretofore been a quiet residential corner.

        There is simply no excuse for the city to allow a condition like this to exist,” Mr. Tarbell said.

        He's right.

        I don't blame cops who refuse to stick their heads in the noose by busting drug criminals. But Cincinnati needs to demand better law enforcement — and back up the cops when they do the job right.

        E-mail: pbronson@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/bronson

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