At 2:13 in the morning of 7 April 2001, just after the bars closed, two officers of the Cincinnati police spotted a man wanted on 14 criminal charges walking down Vine Street. When the man saw the police, he ran. It wasn't the first time he'd run from police, either. This man had successfully evaded arrest by running away on two previous occasions.
The two officers chased him south on Vine, east on 13th Street, south on Jackson Street, then west on 12th Street. More police joined the chase as word of it spread. One of them, Officer Steve Roach, saw the suspect jump over a fence. Officer Roach left his squad car, chased the fleeing man a ways, and then fired his weapon, bringing the fugitive down with a fatal wound.
I would like to add, the officer fired his weapon AFTER noting that the man fleeing had reached for his pants (apparently to pull his oversized pants up while running. How was the Police officer able to determine whether or not this fugitive was reaching for a weapon or not?
After the riot, the "strong" Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken started spewing apologies to the Blacks for the shooting of a petty Black criminal who had gambled a third time on his fast feet and lost. If he had any apologies for the White people who suffered at Black rioters' hands while the police were huddled at City Hall, I haven't heard about it. When this mighty mayor was prompted by state officials to request a Justice Department investigation of police conduct, he leaped to throw Officer Roach to the federals. He probably welcomed the relief it gave him from the dilemma, on the one hand, of angering the Blacks with a recognition that Officer Roach had done nothing wrong or, on the other hand, of angering his police with an improper (and too obviously political) reprimand. That is, letting the federal government decide what to do with Officer Roach gave Mayor Luken a way to evade responsibility. Some tough guy, huh?
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
CINCINNATI — The coroner said Wednesday that a struggle with police was the primary cause in the death of a 350-pound black man whose scuffle with officers outside a fast-food restaurant has prompted outcry among black activists in Cincinnati.
Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott said Nathaniel Jones (search),41, suffered from an enlarged heart, obesity and had intoxicating levels of cocaine, PCP and methanol in his blood.
Parrott said the death will be ruled a homicide, but added that such a ruling "should not be interpreted as implying inappropriate behavior or the use of excessive force by police."
I will add here that by watching the videos of this experience, the man was repreatedly told to get down on the ground, but did not obey the police. He actually stood to fight with the officers.
Jones' death certificate will list a cause of death as an irregular heart beat because of a stress reaction from the violent struggle, Parrott said.
Activists say Jones' death was another example of brutality by Cincinnati police against blacks in a city that was rocked by race riots two years ago.
Jones died Sunday after being taken into custody in the parking lot of a White Castle restaurant. A police cruiser video camera showed Jones lunge at officers, who repeatedly hit him with metal nightsticks
during the struggle.
this sort of thing is Pete-Repeat all over America.
Is that kind of like thinking a tyrant is threatening your country with WMD? And after you act to disarm him, it turns out you can't find any weapons. Does that change the fact that you felt threatened at the time you acted?
Funny how the liberals always take the side of the "victim" and AFTER THE FACT insinuate that the policeman should have known the perp was unarmed all along.