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Photo By Sean Hughes/photopresse.com
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Rev. Jeanette Thomas Shegog (left) tries to calm a
growing crowd gathering a block from New Prospect
Baptist Church. Patricia Cooley, 40, (right side of
photo w/sunglasses, fan and microphone) was stirring
up the crowd of nearly 100.
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Lunchtime visitors to Fountain Square on April 6 encountered a noisy harangue called Black Power Rally, waged by about a half-dozen people. Nobody paid attention. The next day, a police officer shot an unarmed black man named Timothy Thomas in Over-the-Rhine.
People are talking now.
The turmoil over Thomas' death brought to Cincinnati civil-rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume.
Riots destroyed some businesses, left a sea of glass shards at others and injured protesters, police and passers-by. But people are talking now, and national attention could force Cincinnati to operate on a wound left festering too long.
People still were not talking two days after the fatal shooting -- not talking to the public, that is, even when city council's Law and Public Safety Committee was overwhelmed by a crowd of 150 people demanding answers April 9.
Kenneth Lawson, attorney for Thomas' mother, went to City Hall asking why Thomas was killed. He left without much of an answer. City administrators refused to release information such as the statement given investigators by Officer Stephen Roach after he shot Thomas.
Lawson says it is time for city leaders and police to give answers.
"They are so scared just to be honest with people they don't know what to do," Lawson says. "If the statement was taped, no matter what you tell us, it isn't going to change the evidence."
And, he says, no one wants to claim responsibility.
"That's what pissed me off Monday," Lawson says. "Everybody wanted to pass the buck."
City officials at the meeting, including City Manager John Shirey and Police Chief Thomas Streicher, claimed information about the shooting was made secret by a grand jury subpoena and could not be released. Lawson said no such secrecy was required by law.
City Councilman Jim Tarbell says there were ways to release information without compromising the investigation. Tarbell gave a sparse account at the committee meeting, saying Roach alleges he felt threatened by Thomas' reaching into his waistband at the end of a chase, in an alley near 12th and Republic streets. That small amount of information did not mollify the crowd, but it seemed to provide at least something of an explanation, accepted or not.
Tarbell has also given details of the route and the length of the chase, and the context in which it took place.
"It's well within our purview to talk about," Tarbell says, arguing details help people understand the tense situation in which the shooting took place. Speculation and lack of information, Tarbell says, could feed rumors and some people's agendas.
Councilman John Cranley says he doesn't know why council wasn't given more information to release April 9. A week later, he said council still had not been given the transcripts of the officer's statement, as is often done in high profile cases.
"Eventually it's going to be public information, so why not release it now?" Cranley asks.
'We cannot not respond'
Many black leaders agree a return to normal, with the unrest subsiding, hardly means the problem is over. Communication, they say, is sorely missing.
"Race relations in Cincinnati have been hindered, because I don't think we sat down and had open and honest dialogue with each other," says Officer Scotty Johnson, president of the Sentinels, an organization of African-American members of the Cincinnati Police Division.
The cause of the unrest is clear, according to Maxina Franzoni, a University of Cincinnati student who grew up in Over-the-Rhine.
"They realize nobody is going to go in and save us," she says. "We've got to save ourselves."
Franzoni wants the police department investigated by the FBI, arguing police have broken laws.
"They're afraid," she says. "They know they have fucked up this time."
Although she says adults are talking to young people and trying to encourage them to protest peacefully, it's hard to convey the message.
"Some of these kids are the same kids who got beat up by the police and chased by the police," Franzoni says. "When was the last time someone was protected by the Cincinnati police?"
Johnson says although some force used by police in the riots could be viewed as excessive, the police have a responsibility to make an effort to protect the public and keep the streets under control.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Police chief Thomas Streicher meets with protesters
in front of police headquarters April 14, following
Thomas' funeral.
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"We cannot not respond," he says.
Families of police officers cannot not worry.
The shooting of Officer Andrew Nogueira during rioting in Over-the-Rhine last week ended in minor injury, but major fear, according to an officer's wife. She asked not to be identified.
"It changes it from there being bottles and rocks into now, 'We really want to kill,' " the woman says.
After a tense night of listening to her police scanner, she recalls her feelings as shots were fired throughout the city.
"This is out-of-control anarchy," she said. "There's a lot of anonymity and I think people feel pretty bold in a crowd."
She believes lack of communication is a big problem, and may be the only thing to help fix the situation that the city is in.
"I think the police department does a terrible job of public relations," she says, suggesting professional help should be sought.
Although some believe city officials lax in overseeing the police department, officers feel undervalued, the woman said.
"It's a tough job," she says. "I think police officers -- black and white -- feel under-appreciated. I feel like our city leadership has let them down in a way. Cops are not out looking to hurt people. The last thing any cop wants to do is get into a struggle or fire a weapon."
That view might seem obvious to the families of police officers, but many black Cincinnatians believe it inaccurate, and their proof is their experience.
Thomas' death offers a look at what is going on in the city, according to Lawson, one of three attorneys pressing a lawsuit against the city over racial profiling.
"I think the profiling complaint talks about it," he says. "The goal in that is to change the way the police division interacts with the African-American community and the excessive force being used by the police."
Now that the issue has national attention, Lawson believes it is time for protesters to back away from confrontation and sit down to talk. Then, he says, must come action.
"Empty promises and soothing speeches about better race relations ... has never led anywhere," Lawson says.
Uneasy dialogue
Unrest has been building, according to Sister Alice Gerdeman, coordinator of the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Over-the-Rhine, at least since November -- when Roger Owensby died of suffocation in police custody.
"It's been happening since the last time, when we had the Owensby case," Gerdeman says.
During peaceful demonstrations after Owensby died, Gerdeman says, she sensed an element of frustration among the crowd.
"Clearly there was anger and resentment and rightful upset about the things that have been happening," she says.
Two officers have since been indicted in connection with Owensby's death.
She believes many people are reacting in pain to what occurred. Systemic racism in the city has to end, she says.
"I think a lot will depend on listening carefully to people in the black community and the white community so we can bring everyone together for the dialogue that we need to have," Gerdeman says.
That dialogue will not be easy, as shown by several television appearances last week by Keith Fangman, president of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police. When Sharpton and Fangman met on a morning show on WXIX Channel 19, Fangman said Cincinnati had problems with black on black violence, and many citizens would like it addressed.
Last week's riots caught one longtime African-American businessman by surprise when he became a target of violence. Harold Waller has owned the Ideal Medical Center building for 42 years in Walnut Hills. Rioters broke three windows there last week.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Rev. Damon Lynch, spokesman for Black United Front
(left), consults with a police officer during unrest in
Over-the-Rhine.
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"I was rather surprised," Waller says. "I've been here 42 years, and I figured we knew everyone."
Waller, who is black, believes a group of youngsters caused the damage at random, and they might not have been from the neighborhood.
Waller says that the vandalism will not make him move.
"If I go, it will be for retirement, not because of this," he says.
The riots in Cincinnati illustrated a nationwide problem. Perhaps Cincinnati can help the nation find a solution, according to Mayor Charlie Luken.
"Cincinnati has an opportunity to become a leader in the nation in making important changes," Luken says.
Luken says a diverse, high level commission is being chartered to address issues of racism and economic inclusion in Cincinnati.
Tarbell sees the disturbances as a mixed blessing. Although he estimates property and business owners have sustained losses of at least $1 million, attention might finally be given to a neighborhood in need of business and job opportunities, Tarbell says.
Furthermore, Lawson says, the disturbances raised young people's awareness.
That is an essential development, according to Ross Love, owner and president of Blue Chip Broadcasting, which owns the city's two highest-profile black radio stations.
"These are smart people and they have not received the respect they deserve -- not just from the police, but from the broader community," Love says.
One of those young people, Derrick Blassingame of Avondale, believes there is much to be done. Blassingame, 14, says he walked through the streets following the upheavals and recorded the destruction he saw.
"The police were so intimidating," he says.
Blassingame wants to set up a Teen Leadership Council in Cincinnati for conferences, youth forums and mentorships.
The city's administration is taking steps to assist businesses damaged in the unrest. The Department of Neighborhood Services will offer assistance to eligible homeowners whose homes were damaged.©
