Calm in Cincinnati allows reflection on race relations

Cincinnati police arrest a man for a curfew violation on Thursday

Riots over fatal shooting of black man quelled by curfew

In this story: NAACP president comes to town 'When is deadly use of force justifiable?' 'Sense of relief' after quiet night RELATED STORIES, SITES

CINCINNATI, Ohio (CNN) -- Wary Cincinnati residents ventured out early Friday at the end of an overnight curfew that quieted nearly a week of violence sparked by a fatal police shooting.

Police made more than 200 arrests, most for violations of the curfew imposed after four violent days left parts of the city looking like a war zone.

VIDEO CNN's Bob Franken was out on the streets during the first night of curfews Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) NAACP President Kweisi Mfume speaks on the police shooting of a black man in Cincinnati Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   RESOURCES ChannelCincinnati.com   • Curfew To Continue Friday   • Video: Prayer service Read Mayor Luken's emergency proclamation (FindLaw) (PDF)   ALSO NAACP leader urges calm in Cincinnati   MESSAGE BOARD Cincinnati violence

"We had sporadic incidents," said Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas Streicher at a Friday news conference. "The most serious ... was a delicatessen that was set afire last night, causing approximately $100,000 damage. There were no injuries."

Streicher said police made 153 arrests for curfew violations overnight and 63 for non-curfew violations.

Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken declared a state of emergency on Thursday, setting up the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. But he pointedly separated the violence from the incident that sparked it -- the shooting the death of Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old African-American shot by a white police officer on Saturday.

Thomas was unarmed, and was the fifth African-American man to die since September while being pursued or taken into custody by Cincinnati police officers. Fifteen African-American men have been killed by police in the city since 1995.

A Hamilton County grand jury is investigating the shooting, as is the FBI, looking for possible civil rights violations.

In Washington, President George W. Bush told Attorney General John Ashcroft to help calm the Ohio city, and the Justice Department sent two senior officials to serve as mediators between community leaders and city leaders.

Ashcroft said Friday the Justice Department is evaluating a request from Luken to review the city's police department.

The officer who shot Thomas, Steve Roach, has been placed on administrative leave.

NAACP president comes to town

Troubled race relations have long boiled below the surface in Cincinnati, sometimes breaking out explosively.

"We used to be called a great place to raise your kids," said New Prospect Baptist Church Pastor Damon Lynch. "Nobody says that anymore. We're a small, little river town that's afraid to face its real issues. And race is our main issue."

Timothy Thomas was fatally shot Saturday, April 7, as he ran from a police officer trying to arrest him on 14 warrants

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume -- who called on Ashcroft to order a full investigation into Thomas' death -- arrived in Cincinnati to meet with city officials and attend a town hall meeting sponsored by the NAACP at New Friendship Baptist Church to discuss the shooting.

"We say never again, never again, to this kind of violence," Mfume told the crowd.

Cincinnati officials don't disagree that the city is a troubled one.

"No matter how you look at it, we've got a problem that we've got to address and we're going to address," City Councilman John Cranley told CNN on Friday.

Cranley said, however, that the issues weren't as straightforward as some of the protesters tried to paint them.

"The numbers are bad," he said. "A lot of those times the officers were being fired upon, but the fact is that the African-American community has good reason to be frustrated."

Alicia Reese, an African-American colleague of Cranley's on the city council, said that the city's problems certainly weren't unknown.

"Unfortunately, the only time we are serious about reacting is when an incident happens," she said.

'When is deadly use of force justifiable?'

Under those conditions, Timothy Thomas' death sparked the dry timber of the city's race relations.

Thomas was wanted on 14 misdemeanor warrants: three for driving with an expired license, four for seat belt violations, five for driving without a driver's license and two for obstruction of official business.

Police block a street in Cincinnati on Tuesday where people roamed the area breaking windows in a protest over the police shooting of an unarmed black man

In an interview with CNN, Mfume said the warrants did not excuse the shooting.

"This is a young man who didn't have a record. He had warrants on him for not wearing a seat belt and things of that nature," he said. "And the question becomes: When is the deadly use of force justifiable?"

Streicher said the department concluded its own investigation Wednesday but declined to reveal its conclusions. He said a police videotape subpoenaed by the Hamilton County prosecutor showed the officer's approach of the suspect and the shooting.

"So we have a pretty good understanding of what actually did occur," he said, but would not say if Thomas made any threatening gesture toward the officer.

But, he said, the number of African-American deaths at the hands of his officers is "of great concern to us as an agency."

"It's also a great concern to the community here," he said.

'Sense of relief' after quiet night

But the issue of Thomas and race relations in the city were secondary to stopping the violence, city officials said on Thursday.

Cranley, speaking to CNN with a quiet street behind him, said that the curfew had been imposed "with a heavy heart." But, he said, "all of us feel a sense of relief and some sense that we're moving forward after no violence occurred last night."

Weary police officers got reinforcements from state police.

"We appealed to the governor of the state of Ohio for some further assistance simply because this has gone on for so long, and our resources are being stretched," Streicher said.

The mayor's office said it could still ask Gov. Bob Taft to send in National Guard troops if violence breaks out again.

In a statement, Taft appealed to the residents of Cincinnati to work together to restore order.

"What we need now is a cooling-off period to give the criminal justice process time to go forward and to establish channels of communication and dialogue to bridge the gap between the Cincinnati community and law enforcement authorities," he said.

The FBI opened a preliminary investigation in the case Tuesday, and civil rights investigations are pending on two other recent cases in which African-American men were killed by police.

CNN Correspondent Brian Palmer contributed to this report.

FBI looking into Cincinnati police shooting
April 12, 2001
Cincinnati mayor declares state of emergency
April 11, 2001
Protesters loot, set fires in Cincinnati
April 10, 2001

Cincinnati Police Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft

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