Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Cincinnati protests June 1-3. Coalition of TABD and police brutality activists.
Repression, racism and poverty. Coalition for a Humane Economy (TABD protest organizers) and Black United Front organize upcoming Cincinnati protests June 1 - 3. Civilian versus corporate control of police.
All links herein are clickable here, too:
http://ohiovalleyimc.org/cgi-bin/imc.pl?where=display&article=263
The alternative free weekly, CityBeat, distributes tens of thousands of newspapers weekly throughout greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
The May 3 issue of CityBeat has an article (farther below) about upcoming Cincinnati protests June 1, 2, 3 in response to the police killings, police riots, and corporate-police rule.
From the CityBeat article below:
\"For months, CHE -- which organized demonstrations against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue [TABD] last fall -- has nurtured closer relationships with the Black United Front. Now the two groups are joining forces for three days of protests and a massive march the first weekend of June. ... A statement by the Coalition for a Humane Economy (CHE), the nonviolent movement led by Sister Alice Gerdeman, captures the level of anger about what city officials call \'police-community relations.\' \'We are indeed in a state of emergency, but it is an emergency of repression, racism and poverty,\' says a statement issued by CHE.\"
The TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) protests last November coincided with the severe escalations of police killings of blacks, police brutality against TABD demonstraters, and ironically against TABD and other protesters against police brutality. Roger Owensby was asphyxiated by police November 7. 3 more blacks have been killed by police since then.
The vast majority of the over 50 TABD arrests occured the last day of the TABD events at a rally against police brutality that went to the [in]Justice Center jail. Nearly all the TABD arrestees (as reported by CityBeat) that contested their arrests eventually won their cases. The police at other anti-unfair-trade events such as in Seattle, Washington DC, etc. illegally arrested and brutalized hundreds of demonstraters and passersby. Beanbag rounds (filled with metal pellets) used at TABD events broke car windows!
A recent newspaper article points out the disproportionate number of killings by police in Cincinnati compared to other cities. Especially killings of blacks.
The corporate Republicrat mayor, Charlie Luken, a conservative Democrat, ridiculed TABD protesters, complaints of TABD police brutality, and lauded the Cincinnati police, in spite of the many violations of civil rights by police during TABD events
The police are for the most part OUT-OF-CONTROL of civilian authority. There are few US cities with local INDEPENDENT police review boards with SUBPOENA POWERS. The Cincinnati mayor, city manager, and safety director seem powerless to control the police. The police chief himself killed an unarmed suspect in 1980. Who reviewed that killing? Why should anybody trust local prosecutors who often have to depend mostly on internal police investigations? It is ridiculous to let the police investigate themselves. Duh!!!! A jury is rarely allowed to hear any of these cases of police killings. Witnesses and evidence are ignored. Local (often Republican) prosecutors decide what to show juries, grand juries, who to subpoena, etc..
The police chief must be picked from within the Cincinnati police. So, it is a self-regenerating, self-protecting culture of police violence and the blue wall of silence. There seem to be few role models in the police ranks of officers who know how to defuse dangerous situations, rather than to inflame them. They seem to \"shoot first, and ask questions later.\" As witnessed by the many injurious shootings of beanbag rounds and rubber bullets, often unjustified, during TABD events, and during the aftermath of the Timothy Thomas killing. The police put themselves at times, unnecessarily in positions of danger, that eventually require shooting to extricate themselves, as when they reach inside running cars. So this inbred local police culture not only breeds violence, but incompetence.
The white police union leader Keith Fangman made racist statements after the riots, as reported by newspapers. Fangman, spouts off his far-right beliefs regularly on local AM race-baiting, hate radio, stations. The Akron Beacon Journal published a few of the many racist statements of host Bill Cunningham of WLW 700 AM, a 50,000 watt clear-channel AM station that can be heard at times in 38 states.
After the Timothy Thomas killing and unrest, some black police officers have laudably apologized for the racism of the Cincinnati police in its dealings with black citizens.
When will some white police officers apologize? Are words more courageous than bullets?
==============================
volume 7, issue 24; May 3 - May 9, 2001.
http://www.citybeat.com/current/unrest.shtml
Burning Questions.
Can You Hear the Footsteps Coming?
By Gregory Flannery
Oh, won\'t you come to Cincinnati in the springtime, when blossoms are bursting and breezes are blowing and the streets are crying out for justice? Won\'t you come with your plastic-bucket drums and your fists raised skyward and your chants of peace and liberty?
Is momentum not on our side? Is it not right to gather in common cause? Is our outrage not ready to sweep away the culture of apathy that has too long held us down?
\"Massive militant nonviolence\" is the call for June 1, 2 and 3. That\'s when progressive forces -- black, white, liberal, radical and religious -- hope a national march on Cincinnati will shake this city out of the stupor of complacency.
The people organizing the campaign are serious, and they stand poised to press a cause that will not be satisfied by summer job programs, new task forces on race or initiatives to eliminate graffiti and litter.
\"I think we need to not let the heat up -- maybe not in terms of riots, but keep the pressure on the city,\" says Henderson Kirkland, long active in the West End Community Council. \"Freedom is not free. The conditions are still there that could spark unrest. It\'s really demeaning to us to think they can buy us off for a few dollars. This is not over by a long shot. These kids are no longer willing to say, \'You can kill us and we\'ll talk about it next time.\' \"
Kirkland is no kid. He\'s 62 years old. And he\'s angry.
The churches and the unions, too, are ready to act. A statement by the Coalition for a Humane Economy (CHE), the nonviolent movement led by Sister Alice Gerdeman, captures the level of anger about what city officials call \"police-community relations.\"
\"We are indeed in a state of emergency, but it is an emergency of repression, racism and poverty,\" says a statement issued by CHE. \"A relentless progression of murders of black men by police during apprehension or once in custody has proven beyond doubt that a deliberate policy is being implemented with predictable consequences. The murder of Timothy Thomas was the last straw.\"
For months, CHE -- which organized demonstrations against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue last fall -- has nurtured closer relationships with the Black United Front. Now the two groups are joining forces for three days of protests and a massive march the first weekend of June.
\"Economic practices in this city result in segregation and then lead to a police force that thinks about \'us and them,\' \" says CHE spokesman Heather Zoller. \"It builds fear and encourages repression.\"
Susan Knight, a CHE organizer, was visible in supporting African-American demonstrations and rallies last month.
\"There has been kind of a break in activists along racial lines,\" Knight says. \"We need to come together and outline our common ground. Our issues are the same issues.\"
That coming together has begun, according to Jackie Shropshire, another longtime West End activist.
\"The solidarity has already been accomplished,\" Shropshire says. \"We\'re not going to accept a Band-Aid on this situation. I am not condoning violence or destruction of property. But now that we have the eye of the world, the thing to do is attack in a peaceful way.\"
A mass march, like civil disobedience, is a tool, with a limited purpose, and not to be used for every task. Justice is a system of relationships, requiring more than marches.
\"We\'re building relationships so we can work together,\" Gerdeman says. \"This is not an image-of-Cincinnati problem. This is a human problem.\"
But sometimes the marching must come first. People must be heard. If the city\'s response to last month\'s unrest is more of what already came before, perhaps a national march will force the city to make real change.
\"City authorities clamped on a curfew and called emphatically for restoration of peace and lawfulness on the part of outraged citizens,\" CHE says, \"but offered no hint of self-criticism or fundamental change on the part of the lawless police department and city management.\"
Oh, won\'t you come to Cincinnati in the springtime, when black and white take to the streets and demand change?
--------------------------------
BURNING QUESTIONS is our weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
E-mail Gregory Flannery
gflannery [at] citybeat.com
============================
--- end of CityBeat article
============================
Video, audio, text, photos, breaking news and more about the Cincinnati Ohio protests, riots, killings of 4 blacks (one by asphyxiation) by police since November, investigations, politics, racial profiling, police brutality, beanbag hospitalizations, 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/current/unrest.shtml --alternative weekly.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Local/Cincinnati_Riots/ --Yahoo Full Coverage.
Check AP and Reuters wires. Watch for Cincinnati articles to show up:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/nm/?u --Top Stories - Reuters.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/ap/?u --AP text and photos.
http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/topnews/index.htm --AP text.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/index.html -- Off The Wire. Raw news.
http://www.ohiovalleyimc.org --Ohio Valley Independent Media Center has many Cincinnati Unrest articles on the homepage and/or in the archives. 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.
=============================
http://ohiovalleyimc.org/cgi-bin/imc.pl?where=display&article=263
The alternative free weekly, CityBeat, distributes tens of thousands of newspapers weekly throughout greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
The May 3 issue of CityBeat has an article (farther below) about upcoming Cincinnati protests June 1, 2, 3 in response to the police killings, police riots, and corporate-police rule.
From the CityBeat article below:
\"For months, CHE -- which organized demonstrations against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue [TABD] last fall -- has nurtured closer relationships with the Black United Front. Now the two groups are joining forces for three days of protests and a massive march the first weekend of June. ... A statement by the Coalition for a Humane Economy (CHE), the nonviolent movement led by Sister Alice Gerdeman, captures the level of anger about what city officials call \'police-community relations.\' \'We are indeed in a state of emergency, but it is an emergency of repression, racism and poverty,\' says a statement issued by CHE.\"
The TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) protests last November coincided with the severe escalations of police killings of blacks, police brutality against TABD demonstraters, and ironically against TABD and other protesters against police brutality. Roger Owensby was asphyxiated by police November 7. 3 more blacks have been killed by police since then.
The vast majority of the over 50 TABD arrests occured the last day of the TABD events at a rally against police brutality that went to the [in]Justice Center jail. Nearly all the TABD arrestees (as reported by CityBeat) that contested their arrests eventually won their cases. The police at other anti-unfair-trade events such as in Seattle, Washington DC, etc. illegally arrested and brutalized hundreds of demonstraters and passersby. Beanbag rounds (filled with metal pellets) used at TABD events broke car windows!
A recent newspaper article points out the disproportionate number of killings by police in Cincinnati compared to other cities. Especially killings of blacks.
The corporate Republicrat mayor, Charlie Luken, a conservative Democrat, ridiculed TABD protesters, complaints of TABD police brutality, and lauded the Cincinnati police, in spite of the many violations of civil rights by police during TABD events
The police are for the most part OUT-OF-CONTROL of civilian authority. There are few US cities with local INDEPENDENT police review boards with SUBPOENA POWERS. The Cincinnati mayor, city manager, and safety director seem powerless to control the police. The police chief himself killed an unarmed suspect in 1980. Who reviewed that killing? Why should anybody trust local prosecutors who often have to depend mostly on internal police investigations? It is ridiculous to let the police investigate themselves. Duh!!!! A jury is rarely allowed to hear any of these cases of police killings. Witnesses and evidence are ignored. Local (often Republican) prosecutors decide what to show juries, grand juries, who to subpoena, etc..
The police chief must be picked from within the Cincinnati police. So, it is a self-regenerating, self-protecting culture of police violence and the blue wall of silence. There seem to be few role models in the police ranks of officers who know how to defuse dangerous situations, rather than to inflame them. They seem to \"shoot first, and ask questions later.\" As witnessed by the many injurious shootings of beanbag rounds and rubber bullets, often unjustified, during TABD events, and during the aftermath of the Timothy Thomas killing. The police put themselves at times, unnecessarily in positions of danger, that eventually require shooting to extricate themselves, as when they reach inside running cars. So this inbred local police culture not only breeds violence, but incompetence.
The white police union leader Keith Fangman made racist statements after the riots, as reported by newspapers. Fangman, spouts off his far-right beliefs regularly on local AM race-baiting, hate radio, stations. The Akron Beacon Journal published a few of the many racist statements of host Bill Cunningham of WLW 700 AM, a 50,000 watt clear-channel AM station that can be heard at times in 38 states.
After the Timothy Thomas killing and unrest, some black police officers have laudably apologized for the racism of the Cincinnati police in its dealings with black citizens.
When will some white police officers apologize? Are words more courageous than bullets?
==============================
volume 7, issue 24; May 3 - May 9, 2001.
http://www.citybeat.com/current/unrest.shtml
Burning Questions.
Can You Hear the Footsteps Coming?
By Gregory Flannery
Oh, won\'t you come to Cincinnati in the springtime, when blossoms are bursting and breezes are blowing and the streets are crying out for justice? Won\'t you come with your plastic-bucket drums and your fists raised skyward and your chants of peace and liberty?
Is momentum not on our side? Is it not right to gather in common cause? Is our outrage not ready to sweep away the culture of apathy that has too long held us down?
\"Massive militant nonviolence\" is the call for June 1, 2 and 3. That\'s when progressive forces -- black, white, liberal, radical and religious -- hope a national march on Cincinnati will shake this city out of the stupor of complacency.
The people organizing the campaign are serious, and they stand poised to press a cause that will not be satisfied by summer job programs, new task forces on race or initiatives to eliminate graffiti and litter.
\"I think we need to not let the heat up -- maybe not in terms of riots, but keep the pressure on the city,\" says Henderson Kirkland, long active in the West End Community Council. \"Freedom is not free. The conditions are still there that could spark unrest. It\'s really demeaning to us to think they can buy us off for a few dollars. This is not over by a long shot. These kids are no longer willing to say, \'You can kill us and we\'ll talk about it next time.\' \"
Kirkland is no kid. He\'s 62 years old. And he\'s angry.
The churches and the unions, too, are ready to act. A statement by the Coalition for a Humane Economy (CHE), the nonviolent movement led by Sister Alice Gerdeman, captures the level of anger about what city officials call \"police-community relations.\"
\"We are indeed in a state of emergency, but it is an emergency of repression, racism and poverty,\" says a statement issued by CHE. \"A relentless progression of murders of black men by police during apprehension or once in custody has proven beyond doubt that a deliberate policy is being implemented with predictable consequences. The murder of Timothy Thomas was the last straw.\"
For months, CHE -- which organized demonstrations against the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue last fall -- has nurtured closer relationships with the Black United Front. Now the two groups are joining forces for three days of protests and a massive march the first weekend of June.
\"Economic practices in this city result in segregation and then lead to a police force that thinks about \'us and them,\' \" says CHE spokesman Heather Zoller. \"It builds fear and encourages repression.\"
Susan Knight, a CHE organizer, was visible in supporting African-American demonstrations and rallies last month.
\"There has been kind of a break in activists along racial lines,\" Knight says. \"We need to come together and outline our common ground. Our issues are the same issues.\"
That coming together has begun, according to Jackie Shropshire, another longtime West End activist.
\"The solidarity has already been accomplished,\" Shropshire says. \"We\'re not going to accept a Band-Aid on this situation. I am not condoning violence or destruction of property. But now that we have the eye of the world, the thing to do is attack in a peaceful way.\"
A mass march, like civil disobedience, is a tool, with a limited purpose, and not to be used for every task. Justice is a system of relationships, requiring more than marches.
\"We\'re building relationships so we can work together,\" Gerdeman says. \"This is not an image-of-Cincinnati problem. This is a human problem.\"
But sometimes the marching must come first. People must be heard. If the city\'s response to last month\'s unrest is more of what already came before, perhaps a national march will force the city to make real change.
\"City authorities clamped on a curfew and called emphatically for restoration of peace and lawfulness on the part of outraged citizens,\" CHE says, \"but offered no hint of self-criticism or fundamental change on the part of the lawless police department and city management.\"
Oh, won\'t you come to Cincinnati in the springtime, when black and white take to the streets and demand change?
--------------------------------
BURNING QUESTIONS is our weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
E-mail Gregory Flannery
gflannery [at] citybeat.com
============================
--- end of CityBeat article
============================
Video, audio, text, photos, breaking news and more about the Cincinnati Ohio protests, riots, killings of 4 blacks (one by asphyxiation) by police since November, investigations, politics, racial profiling, police brutality, beanbag hospitalizations, 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/current/unrest.shtml --alternative weekly.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Local/Cincinnati_Riots/ --Yahoo Full Coverage.
Check AP and Reuters wires. Watch for Cincinnati articles to show up:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/nm/?u --Top Stories - Reuters.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/ap/?u --AP text and photos.
http://www.newsday.com/ap/text/topnews/index.htm --AP text.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/index.html -- Off The Wire. Raw news.
http://www.ohiovalleyimc.org --Ohio Valley Independent Media Center has many Cincinnati Unrest articles on the homepage and/or in the archives. 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.
=============================
For more information:
http://www.ohiovalleyimc.org
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$210.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network