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Cincinnati Mayor Lifts Curfew
CINCINNATI, Ohio, April 16 (News Agencies) - Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken lifted the city's curfew Monday and pledged to shake up its police force and empanel a high-level commission to tackle the problems of race relations in the wake of the worst rioting here in more than 30 years.
Seeking to draw a line under the events of the past week, Luken immediately suspended the dusk-to-dawn curfew and promised to take the "historic opportunity" afforded by the crisis to mend the city's tattered race relations.
"Curfew will not exist as of today," Luken told reporters. "The state of emergency continues ... in the unlikely, and unanticipated event that it would be needed as a tool. But we don't expect that to happen."
More than 800 people were arrested here last week during three nights of rioting, and four nights of a citywide lockdown following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer, according to authorities.
City officials are still trying to tally the cost for the property damage inflicted in mostly black neighborhoods by rioters who looted stores, set fires and in some cases attacked white motorists in protests sparked by Timothy Thomas' death.
The conflagration forced the mayor to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew to quell the unrest, and drew national attention and most of the nation's most prominent black leaders to this southern Ohio city, which one called "ground zero for race relations," in the United States.
"We have been a community in crisis. Now that the disturbances have subsided, they must never occur again," Luken said Monday at a press conference, flanked by some of the city's black community leaders.
"It is time for leaders to step forward, and that is happening. Out of this crisis comes an historic opportunity for our community to make meaningful progress."
Central to Luken's proposals is a plan to shake-up Cincinnati's overwhelmingly white police force, which is distrusted by many in the minority black community, because of a string of police killings of black men - 15 since 1995.
Just last month a coalition of civil rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the city, alleging a 30-year pattern of racial profiling, or singling out suspects based on their color.
The police officers' union maintains the statistics are being taken out of context and that in most cases the shootings were justified.
"Twelve of those 15 police intervention deaths involved suspects who were armed with deadly weapons," union leader Keith Fangman told Fox News Sunday. "Of those 12 that were armed with deadly weapons, eight of them were armed with guns in which they either shot at our officers or pointed loaded guns at our officers."
In one case, the suspect killed a police officer by dragging him to death with an automobile, Fangman said.
But in a move that is bound to fuel growing rank-and-file hostility to the mayor's position on this issue, Luken pledged to eliminate all "inappropriate police violence," and hold police leadership accountable for the results of that policy Monday.
"It is essential that we do whatever it takes to ensure there is never another incident like the one last week - the killing of a person whose only crimes were the failure to pay several traffic tickets and fleeing out of fear of police," said Ross Love, a prominent local businessman and community leader at the same meeting.
Thomas, 19, who left behind a girlfriend and 3-month-old son, was wanted on 14 warrants - most for traffic violations - when Officer Steve Roach shot him in the chest.
Roach, who is on paid administrative leave pending a police inquiry and grand jury investigation, has since said he thought Thomas was reaching for a weapon when he opened fire.
Meanwhile, addressing the fall-out from the episode, Mayor Luken announced the creation of a high-level commission to look at issues of racism and economic inclusion in the city Monday.
Underlining his commitment, Luken stressed that this panel, unlike some in the past, would have real teeth, and be responsible for overseeing the implementation of its' proposals - not just the drafting of them.
The chairmen are to be announced next week.
Cincinnati's population numbers 331,000, of which 43% are black, and 54% white. However, the city is one of the most segregated in the United States.
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