By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Saying it wants to expand the 20-month-old boycott against Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Black United Front announced Tuesday that it is pulling out of the city's historic collaborative agreement.

"We have a motion that will be filed in court tomorrow (this) morning. The BUF authorizes its attorney to withdraw us as the class representative in the suit so that our efforts will not interfere with the collaborative," said Juleana Frierson, the group's chief of staff. "The front wants to devote all of its energies to the boycott."

ACLU lawyer Scott Greenwood and attorney Al Gerhardstein, who represents the front in the agreement, said the collaborative process will move forward.

"We won't miss a beat," said Gerhardstein. "The same lawyers will be representing the class, the class hasn't changed and our duty hasn't changed. We shall carry on."

Greenwood added, "I think they are making a decision, that in the long run, the entire community will benefit from. This ensures that the collaborative goes on and that the BUF can stay true to their principles."

Cincinnati attorney Ken Lawson, who also represents the front and plaintiffs involved in the racial-profiling suit brought by the ACLU and the front, said a motion would be filed today in U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott's court. Lawson said he doesn't anticipate any resistance to the withdrawal and that it would have no effect on the process that aims to reform patterns and practices within the Cincinnati Police Department and to improve police-community relations.

Black United Front leaders said implementation of the collaborative agreement signed almost a year ago has been "ridiculously slow." Frierson said city officials have continuously pointed to the BUF's boycott activities as a reason for any delays in the process. This move, she said, eliminates that excuse.

Frierson said the group plans to expand its boycott by enlisting people outside of Cincinnati to boycott businesses that are based here.

The announcement stunned most of the 600 guests at the Woman's City Club's 10th annual fund-raiser. The front had been invited by the civic group to participate in a panel discussion on the boycott and the collaborative.

The Woman's City Club's event had been targeted by boycotters, and its keynote speaker, author Barbara Ehrenreich, declined to attend because she did not want to cross a picket line. The 88-year-old philanthropic group decided to stay downtown despite boycott pressure and instead hold a community forum on the city's progress and challenges.

An hour into the program, a group of about 10 Black United Front members accompanied by Lawson entered the room, took the stage and made their announcement before a crowd that sat in stunned silence.

The decision drew a mix of reactions.

Councilman John Cranley said the collaborative process is probably better off without the front. He said many residents and city officials had a hard time stomaching a group at the collaborative table that was also costing the city money with an economic boycott.Fraternal Order of Police President Roger Webster said he was both shocked and disheartened by the decision.

"At this point I'm sorry to see them go," Webster said. "The BUF doesn't represent everybody, but they do bring a certain perspective from folks in the community that will be missed."

Councilman David Pepper, who had been entertaining introducing a motion in council to have the front kicked out of the collaborative, called this proof that even something as dramatic as the collaborative could not settle the boycott.

"I think it's too bad that they have taken this course when you have a clear path to progress that we all signed off on and that we called historic," Pepper said.

The collaborative agreement ended the racial-profiling lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Black United Front, which accused police of harassing and targeting African-Americans for decades.

It also incorporated a separate deal the city signed with the Justice Department to end a federal patterns and practices civil rights investigation of the police department launched after the April 2001 riots.

The combined agreements promise sweeping changes in police procedures, including use of force, citizen complaints and calls involving the mentally ill. They also establish an independent monitor to oversee those new procedures and a new community policing effort that the ACLU and the Black United Front were trying to put into operation.

Lawson said the decision is "a positive move" because it allows the group to get what it wants from the collaborative and focus on escalating the boycott.

Email kaldridge@enquirer.com