IndyMedia & Reuters on unprovoked shooting of Cincinnati mourners. 'Rogue Nazis'

Ohio Valley IndyMedia has many articles on all this.
http://www.ohiovalleyimc.org

In Cincinnati Ohio there are NO independent local police review boards with subpoena power. Here are quotes from the article:

\"Several witnesses said about five officers jumped out of a police cruiser a few blocks from the church where the funeral was held, opened fire from rifles loaded with the bean-bag ammunition for no apparent reason and then quickly drove off. Children Targeted By Police. The victims who suffered painful welts were a 7-year-old black girl and her 11-year-old cousin, both of Cincinnati; a 34-year-old white woman from Louisville, Kentucky; and a 50-year-old black man from Cincinnati.\"

Reuters article is after the many links.

Video, audio, text, photos, breaking news and more about the Cincinnati Ohio protests, riots, killings of 4 blacks by police since November, investigations, politics, etc.. 15 blacks killed by police since 1995. No whites. Corporate and progressive news URLs:
http://www.cincinow.com --TV 9. Video, audio, text, photos.
http://www.channelcincinnati.com --TV 5. Video, audio, text, photos.
http://www.cincynation.com --Various news sources compiled.
http://enquirer.com --Cincinnati Enquirer.
http://www.cincypost.com --Cincinnati Post.
http://www.citybeat.com --alternative weekly. Early firsthand reports.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Local/Cincinnati_Riots/ --Yahoo Full Coverage.
Check Reuters wire to watch for Cincinnati articles to show up:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/nm/?u --Top Stories - Reuters.
Check the AP wire to watch for Cincinnati articles to show up:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/ap/?u --AP text and photos.
http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/topnews/index.htm --AP text.
http://www.ohiovalleyimc.org --Ohio Valley Independent Media Center has many articles linked on the homepage. To see more, click the \"display all articles\" link at the bottom right, and then keep clicking \"display next articles.\" Post articles! Links (full URLS) in articles are made clickable.

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Sunday April 15 11:53 AM ET
Cincinnati Police, FBI Probe \'Unprovoked\' Attack
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010415/ts/crime_cincinnati_dc.html

Photos

Reuters Photo

By Bob Weston

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) and Cincinnati police will conduct separate investigations into allegations officers struck four people, including two children, with bean-bag ammunition in an unprovoked attack during a week of protests and violence, the police chief said on Sunday.

``We obviously need to determine if the police conduct was appropriate and necessary under the circumstances,\'\' Police Chief Thomas Streicher told a news conference after a night of relative calm during which police arrested 187 people for curfew violations.

Rain helped police enforce the dusk-to-dawn curfew for a third night in this racially divided Midwestern city, where hundreds have been arrested and property damages over the past week have mounted into the millions of dollars.

Police said 14 random shots and scattered rock- and bottle-throwing incidents, but no injuries, were reported. In response to diminishing violence, city officials said the curfew would be cut back to 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Sunday night.

Police firing beanbag crowd control projectiles -- akin to rubber bullets -- struck four people on Saturday shortly after the funeral of 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. Thomas\' shooting by a white police officer sparked a week of racial violence here.

Several witnesses said about five officers jumped out of a police cruiser a few blocks from the church where the funeral was held, opened fire from rifles loaded with the bean-bag ammunition for no apparent reason and then quickly drove off

Children Targeted By Police

The victims who suffered painful welts were a 7-year-old black girl and her 11-year-old cousin, both of Cincinnati; a 34-year-old white woman from Louisville, Kentucky; and a 50-year-old black man from Cincinnati.

The 7-year-old\'s mother, Demetrius Lowry, told Reuters: ``That could have started a riot right there. We weren\'t doing anything except walking to a barbecue store when this police car pulled up and the cops jumped out and started firing.\'\'

Minutes after the incident, a large police contingent arrived at a nearby intersection and brandished rifles to disperse a crowd that had congregated at the scene.

A standoff followed, but no shots were fired as clergymen and officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (news - web sites) met police to defuse the situation.

Police spokesman Lt. Ray Ruberg said police expected to issue a preliminary report within a few days.

Keith Fangman, president of the Cincinnati fraternal order of police, told Fox News Sunday the shotgun-fired bean bags are ``a less-than-lethal use of force that many departments across the country use for riot control.\'\'

Photos

Reuters Photo


``I don\'t know all the facts of this accusation. As far as I\'m concerned, it\'s not correct until an investigation is done,\'\' he said of allegations that the officers had fired without provocation. ``We\'ll see what the facts are,\'\' he said.

Speaking on the same program, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume countered that ``there was absolutely no reason to do that.\'\'

``With all due respect to Mr. Fangman, I was there,\'\' Mfume said. ``I was a block away from where this happened. ... They hit a woman and they shot two little girls with these bean bags. And these are really shotgun casings in which you have these pellets wrapped in cloth. They hurt.

``... Many of the police officers there were absolutely distraught at some of those who decided to do that,\'\' he said.

Violence Winding Down

Since the curfew went into effect on Thursday, there has been a sharp reduction in violent incidents.

Thomas, who was unarmed but running from Officer Steve Roach when he was shot on April 7, became the 15th young black crime suspect to be killed by the Cincinnati police since 1995 and the fourth since November. Roach has said he thought Thomas was reaching for a weapon.

Chief Streicher said Roach was ``emotionally devastated\'\' by the shooting and the resulting turmoil. He described the officer as a ``caring, compassionate man\'\' with an impeccable record during his four years on the 1,000-member force.

Among the speakers at his funeral was Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, who told about 500 mourners in the church that the shooting of Thomas was ``a tragedy, not only for his family, but for the state of Ohio as well.\'\'

``I pray today will be the beginning of the healing process,\'\' Taft said.

Another 500 or so people listened to the service on loudspeakers outside. They applauded the victim\'s mother and family when they left the church.

Evidence from Thomas\' shooting was to be presented on Monday to a grand jury to determine if the shooting was justifiable. The FBI and the Justice Department (news - web sites) have both opened investigations of Cincinnati police practices.


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Earlier Stories
Cincinnati Police Probe Alleged Officers\' Attack (April 15)
Three Hurt in Cincinnati After Suspect\'s Funeral (April 14)
Prosperity And Blight Collide in Cincinnati Unrest (April 14)
Cincinnati Shooting Victim Mourned by Hundreds (April 14)
Cincinnati Arrests Soar As Police Brace for Funeral (April 14)
Cincinnati Worried About Crowds at Youth\'s Funeral (April 14)

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end of Reuters article.

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\'a band of rogue Nazis roaming around Cinci\'
by Keith Fangman.

Here is a quote from an April 14 Cincinnati Enquirer article:
http://enquirer.com/editions/2001/04/14/loc_police_not_nazis.html

\"Cincinnati\'s police union leader blasted city officials Friday, saying their statements have helped promote an unfair national image of local officers. The city\'s officers are not \'a band of rogue Nazis roaming around Cincinnati hunting black men,\' said Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police.\"

I guess technically he is right. They believe in equal-opportunity abuse at times. White women mixing with black men also merit their roaming, drive-by hunting tactics. And if young girls are near the cross-hairs, then they go ahead and shoot anyway. Multiple times for even better effect.

And if it can be done in terroristic ways through random drive-by shootings of peaceful people, all the better. Better for maintaining fear and terror.