The uncounted groups of teen-agers and young people who ran amok at the Black Family Reunion on Saturday and Sunday did more than that. They assaulted people and damaged property. They gave Cincinnati another national and international black eye. And they endangered an event that has been a source of pride and encouragement for many African-Americans in the Tristate.

        Let's not over-react or exaggerate. The weekend's damage isn't comparable to that of the April 2001 unrest or even last May's Cinco de Mayo melee at the University of Cincinnati. So it wasn't a wilding; it was more like a community mugging.

        Nevertheless, I'm angry and embarrassed.

More than a festival

        This wasn't just any community event. The Midwest Black Family Reunion was designed to promote healthy family living among African-Americans and to showcase it to the Tristate and beyond.

        African-Americans were in the spotlight. This is what we did with it.

        The crime and confusion made us look dysfunctional, at best, like parents who can't or won't control their kids. Judging from the hundreds of unsupervised children and teens at the night functions, maybe that's an accurate portrait for some of us.

        To be fair, there were many parents who thought it OK to let their teens attend the event's free hip-hop concert, gospel performances and other functions. After all, it was supposed to be a family affair, with enough activities to keep young people out of trouble.

        But Yvonne Lundy learned differently. The Madisonville mother let her 17-year-old son, David Willis, attend without her.

        He got separated from his cousins and was attacked. Someone pounded the high school junior with brass knuckles and a gun butt. Police called her to a hospital emergency room at 1 a.m. Sunday.

        “It doesn't make sense,” she said Tuesday. “Somebody tapped him on the shoulder, and then a whole group of people bum-rushed him. ... At the emergency room, so many people also got jumped, young and old, all races, innocent people. It doesn't make any sense.”

        David is terrified, she said, but is trying to get over it. He spent Tuesday morning filling out job applications for after-school work.

        Now we as a community have to get over it, by making it less likely to happen again.

Visible solutions

        Police should plan to be more visible next year, not just at the event but at the expected routes of exit.

        Hundreds of people Saturday night left the concert about the same time. They walked to Fountain Square and Government Square to catch buses.

        The 52 officers and supervisors on duty weren't visible enough. Next year, they should add more police on horses, patrolling the streets in cars with lights going, and stationed at the transportation hubs and gathering places.

        Metro should provide direct bus service to Sawyer Point for this event. At Government Square, even without the droves of unsupervised teens, crowds awaiting already full buses are a recipe for conflicts.

        Event organizers need to restrict access only to youths accompanied by adults, and use barriers, tickets or fences to control crowd size and movement.

        Finally, the hip-hop concerts and other youth events should be held during daylight; it should be more a part of the event. Then more parents will accompany their charges and will keep the Black Family Reunion a family affair.

        E-mail damos@enquirer.com or call 768-8395.

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