Vincent Clark was stopped outside a downtown nightclub in February 2001. While police were still trying to sort out a case of mistaken identity, his passenger, Terry Horton, was already on a cell phone. He was calling lawyer Ken Lawson as officers were ordering him to show his hands.

Clark called the incident a classic case of racial profiling. Horton called it police brutality. They said the cops shoved shotguns into their faces.

But the Cincinnati Office of Municipal Investigation exonerated the police. Several cops at the scene said no shotguns were anywhere near the car. They had a report that Clark's SUV contained an armed and dangerous felon. The OMI report quoted a cop who called it a "textbook stop.''

What profiling?

Never mind. Clark is one of the plaintiffs who will share an undisclosed slice of the city's $4.5 million payoff to settle racial profiling lawsuits.

So is Bomani Tyehimba. His lawsuit accusing Cincinnati police of racial profiling became the lead case in the class action threat that scared council members into a settlement. The city's lawyers said the case was weak, but council members raised the white flag.

Here's a question for the jury that will never hear this case: How could it be racial profiling if the cops couldn't see if Tyehimba was black or white when they tried to stop his windowless van for traffic violations?

Never mind. The city was in such a hurry to settle, council didn't even pause to read the details.

But everybody's happy now.

• The police are happy because 35 Cincinnati cops were facing individual lawsuits over profiling. Two were about to go to trial before a judge who had already apparently found them guilty.

In the court record, federal Judge Susan Dlott wrote that Officers Michael Miller and Brent McCurley shot Michael Carpenter "with no more justification than ... minor misdemeanors.'' She said that was "undoubtedly'' a violation of the victim's civil rights.

The cops targeted in 15 more cases were watching - and sweating bullets about getting a fair trial in Dlott's court.

We surrender

• The plaintiffs are happy. Their lawyer, Lawson, may get a third of the payoff - $1.5 million, without even going to court.

Two of the cases - Carpenter and Timothy Thomas - could have been big losses for the city. The rest hit the jackpot on bogus claims - if Clark's and Tyehimba's cases are any indication.

• The boycotters are happy. They got one of their demands without conceding a thing - as usual. And the payoff will attract more profiling lawsuits that "prove" the city is racist - even though the city denies it.

• Politicians are happy. They passed the payoff before the public had time to choke or raise an eyebrow.

Just remember: When they start talking about "healing" at City Hall, taxpayers should get ready to bleed.

When they talk about "closure," that means open your wallets.

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