NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, July 20, 2001

At least 77 people have been shot since the Ohio city was rocked by three days of racially inflamed violence three months ago. That compares to 11 shooting victims in nine incidents in the same three month last year.

"We are losing control of our streets," Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police President Keith Fangman told the Washington Times.

Anti-police Sentiment Hurts Black Neighborhoods

Fangman said officers had retreated from black neighborhoods because of fears of charges of racism, lack of political support and low morale. Arrests in black areas have dropped 50 percent and traffic stops 60 percent since mid-April.

"The aftermath of the riots has actually been more harmful to the city than the riots themselves," Fangman told the New York Times.

However, prosecutors said they were backing officers to the full extent of the law.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen on Wednesday rejected calls for amnesty for rioters and curfew violators by groups such as Cincinnati Black United Front and religious organizations.

"When pigs fly," he said. "It ain't gonna happen."

Black leaders last weekend called for business conventions to boycott the city until economic opportunities improve for blacks. Cincinnati lost 35,000 residents between 1990 and 2000, while the black population of the city of 330,000 increased to 43 percent.

The riots erupted April 7 when a white officer killed fleeing, unarmed 19-year-old suspect Timothy Thomas, the 15th fatal police shooting of a black man since 1995.

Some blacks called the protests a "rebellion," but all but one of the shootings in the impoverished Over-the-Rhine neighborhood have been black-on-black crime.

Police formed a 60-officer violent-crimes task force to fight the inner city crime wave and Allen was expected to announced a grand jury indictment of a man in a shootout with police last week. He said criminals had sensed that police were reluctant to act.

A police lieutenant said the riots had limited discretion of officers to be proactive in black neighborhoods.

"The racial profiling forms policy went into effect in May, and a lot of officers now feel they have to articulate for every stop, and that in turn will limit stops," Lt. Ray Ruberg told the Washington Times. "What was once suspicion has turned into probable cause."

Black United Front head the Rev. Damon Lynch III said that the city was more polarized than ever and that anger was festering in black neighborhoods again.

"We're not anti-police. We're anti-bad policing," he said.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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