Move over, Murder City. Detroit had 42 homicides last year. Cincinnati has passed 55 already this year.

Families grieve. Cops investigate. But most are depressingly routine: Young black guy killed by young black guy. Drug related.

Cincinnati is at the tipping point. Murders are up about 50 percent since the 2001 riots. Each new killing tilts us closer to "Crime-innati." The city is leaking families like a flat tire. Suburbanites avoid downtown the way wagon trains avoided Indian country. We will soon be able to see Detroit without leaving Cincinnati.

Nearly 75 percent of the victims are black. Yet we hear nothing from the boycotters who are so quick to blame racism when a criminal gets killed by police.

But there are protests.

Listen to Carrie Johnson, a black woman who is president of the Over-the-Rhine Community Council: "There's a gunshot every night and every day our kids try and go to school. The corners are littered with trash and drug dealers. There are lots of prostitutes and druggies around our schools, and our churches as well. It's disgusting."

The neighborhood leaders I have talked to in Over-the-Rhine, Avondale, Westwood, Madisonville and dozens of other crime-infested communities don't see a race problem. They see a crime problem. And they want the opposite of what the boycotters demand. They want more law enforcement.

Victims `get it'

Councilman David Pepper gets it. He targeted crime before he was a victim. But since he was abducted at gunpoint by two young black men who made him withdraw money from an ATM three weeks ago, he said, "I understand when citizens talk about this."

He was there on Oct. 24 when Mrs. Johnson and 30 neighbors met at St. Francis Seraph school on Liberty to demand enforcement of a drug-free zone around schools and churches. Mr. Pepper agrees.

"It's so easy, the dealers don't even have to hide," he said.

If drug-free zones push the pushers to another corner, "Then it's up to the next person in the next neighborhood to do the job to keep them moving," Mrs. Johnson said.

Mr. Pepper also suggests:

• Better surveillance by off-duty cops, retired officers and civilian volunteers.

• Use of state laws to shut down crack houses and drug-thug bars.

• Volunteer lawyers donating time to help neighborhoods fight crime.

Pick a side

The neighborhoods want more cops. And they want leaders who support the ones we have. Until the cops get civilian back-up, we're only one killed suspect away from the expressway to Detroit.

"We have always taken it for granted that we are a safe city, that we are not like other cities yet," Mr. Pepper said. "But if we sense we are losing that luxury, we need to fight like crazy to keep it."

"The people are on board," Mrs. Johnson said. "We are fed up to our necks with it."

Cincinnati is at the tipping point. We all need to choose the right side and lean on it hard to restore balance.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.