Yesterday, the mayor of Cincinnati ended a five-day curfew in his city that followed in the wake of three days of riots over the police shooting of an unarmed Black man, Timothy Thomas. Thomas, nineteen, was wanted on fourteen warrants for misdemeanors and traffic violations. He was fleeing police officer Steve Roach when the officer opened fire, killing Thomas. A peaceful protest march led by Cincinnati clergy from the Black community turned violent on Tuesday as police confronted marchers -- a confrontation that apparently began with police seeking to discipline verbally abusive protestors and that quickly escalated to rioting and looting. The rioting continued for three days with hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries. The curfew seems to have been effective in restoring order, but the Black community is still demanding answers as to why Thomas and fourteen other African-American males have been killed by Cincinnati police in the last five years (no White suspects have been killed by the force in the same time period). A grand jury will meet today to consider whether charges will be brought against Roach. Meanwhile, both the FBI and the Justice Department have initiated investigations.
Comments