Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said Saturday that Rev. Damon Lynch III went too far with a letter referring to police as rapists and killers.

        As a result, he says he no longer wants the Black United Front leader to co-chair Cincinnati Community Action Now, a race panel the mayor established after the April riots to address race relations in the city.

        “I don't want to be seen in any way as equivocal,” Mr. Luken said shortly after being sworn in. “I cannot be affiliated with a person who accuses police officers of being rapists and killers.”

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch, the senior pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine, is one of three signers of a letter meant to jump-start an economic boycott of Cincinnati. The undated letter, sent to groups planning conventions here, asks them to cancel any events in the city.

        “Police are killing, raping, planting false evidence, and along with the prosecutor and the courts, are destroying the general self-respect for black citizens,” the letter says.

        City Council members said the letter calls into question the city's continued involvement in a settlement process over a federal lawsuit accusing police of racial profiling.

        “How can they come in and say on one hand they are interested in negotiating ... and on other hand send out letters like that?” said Councilman Pat DeWine, new chairman of the law committee.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch, who filed the racial profiling lawsuit in March, was out of town Saturday. He did not return repeated messages left at his home, church and with associates who answered his cell phone in Atlanta.

        Mr. Luken said after reading the letter this week, he met with other race panel members on Friday and delivered an ultimatum. He said the Rev. Mr. Lynch must apologize to the city and the police division.

        “I told them, either he can stay and I will leave, or he can leave and I will stay,” the mayor said.

        Mr. DeWine said plaintiffs in the racial profiling suit are “game playing,” and the council should work on its own to implement a host of recommendations made by the Department of Justice after a preliminary review of the police division.

        “I don't think Damon Lynch and the Black United Front should have any part in that.”

        The lawsuit is being settled through an unprecedented collaborative effort involving residents, police officers, elected officials and lawyers for the city and the Black United Front.

        Councilman John Cranley, the outgoing law committee chairman, said Saturday that the Rev. Mr. Lynch should resign from the CAN commission and apologize.

        Mr. Cranley said the Rev. Mr. Lynch is an example of why City Council needs to take action on its own, apart from the collaborative effort.

        “He is a disgrace,” Mr. Cranley said. “How can you defend what he did?”

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