Oh Jesus.
This fucking sucks.
Shit.
I don’t particularly feel like getting into it now. I’m a block away from the riots. See http://enquirer.com for some of the story.
There goes the bid for the Olympics.
Yeah I’m down here too.
A kid gets shot by the police. Unfair sure. Tragic yes. Investigations need to happen. So some folks course of action? Loot the local merchants? Someone want to explain that leap in logic to me?
-Blackclaw
Silver lining in every cloud.
I wonder how truthful the reporting on CNN has been of this incident?
The reason I ask - I have CNN running non-stop here in my hotel room, and every single piece of footage shows groups of rioters that are 100.000% black. And also shows people who are 100.000% white cleaning up the wreckage of their businesses, looking in despair at their cars, or sitting in a hospital bed.
Is this really, predominantly, a black on white race riot thinly disguised as a “protest”? Because the news seems to be portraying it that way. Will any of these protesters who are vandalizing the businesses then be charged with hate crimes? (Somehow, I don’t think so. :rolleyes: )
I also saw the Mayor of Cincinnati and his statements - he sounds weak, terrified, and completely ineffective - especially given what is going on there. The news is portraying him as throwing up his hands and saying, essentially, “can’t we all just get along”?
I’m pretty sure the news is slanting this a lot, but if not - I would expect the National Guard and tanks to be in the streets.
The riot is very much race based. All of the rioters are black. White folks have been targeted by the crowds based on skin color alone. Fortunately such black on white violence is not as common as the media may be portraying it. Property damage seems to be fairly random with no thought given to who may own the property. But then again we seem to have an abundance of no thought right now. The national guard may be here soon.
There are legitimate concerns and questions that have been raised by the latest police shooting, but young gangs of thugs are taking away the perceived legitimacy of the black communities’ complaints.
For now the rioters seem to have a schedule going. The mob begins to collect between 3 and 4. Indignant calls for action till around 5. Calls by the local clergy for calm as the rampaging begins.
I am fortunate in that although the business I work for is a few blocks from the troubled areas, I haven’t been near any of the problems as they occured. One of my co-workers wasn’t so lucky as his apartment was set on fire and his car windows were smashed. He’s fine, but was unable to make it into work today. We work for a minority owned company by the way. Ah the irony…
My cousin lives in southern Indiana and claims the National Guard have already been called out. Apparently there’s a “state-of-emergency” curfew from 8pm to 6am or something. Yikes! I can’t believe this sort of thing is a big deal anymore. Run from the cops = get shot. Who doesn’t know that? The Fox network builds entire shows around it! Of course I suppose I’m jaded from living so near to Oakland, CA where this sort of thing happens frequently.
Do they know yet who shot the cop? The link just says no arrests were made. What do we know about the shooting victim, other than he was a different race than the cop?
The “See what people are saying” section of the link is extremely interesting.
Bear in mind that a lot of the property destruction is occurring in black neighborhoods. Which only contributed to people’s fear and anger.
Last night was pretty calm. The cops made about 200 arrests, of which something like 160 were for curfew violations. The National Guard hasn’t been called out, but the governor did send 75 state troopers to assist the police and sherriff.
Well, next to your local police, the CPD have killed more black males in the past few years than anywhere else in the country. Five in less than a year. 15 of the last 15 people shot by police were black. Even though I’m a honky, I’m frustrated by the apparent unwillingness of local leaders to thoroughly examine the issue of police/community relations. Hell, you shoulda seen the amount of resistance to the recent initiative in City Council to just study racial profiling within the city.
Aww crap… time for work… more to come…
VogueVixen, running from a cop is not a crime that should carry an instantaneous death penalty. Especially when the victim was only guilty of a few parking violations. Since Cincinatti has such a big history between blacks and the policy (among other thigns, 2 blacks in November were killed without provocation and the police chief has used racial slurs) the rioting seems to be in response to a system that has failed the citizens.
It’s sad that everyone here is complaining about the property damage, whites getting hurt, etc, but no one has complained about the fact that if you are black in Cincinatti, the people who are supposed to be protecting you will actually kill you with little or no reason. That truly sucks. The windows in the storefront can all be replaced, the bruises to those whites that have been hurt will heal, but nothing can bring those murdered by the police back to life.
So yes, this thing is a big deal. Thank god we don’t live in a world where the police can do this sort of thing and the people just shrug it off.
I’m in Cincinnati too. I don’t live or work in downtown proper, but I do live in Northside (an area close enough to downtown to be considered part of the City of Cincinnati).
My neighborhood has been very quite during the entire riotous (rioting?) period. We were under the 8pm-6am curfew last night.
I beleive the property damage and looting is pretty random. It is in a largely black area and many of the business are minority owned. I beleve the person on person violence is largely black on white violence.
The mayor is fairly weak but this has a lot to do with Cincinnati’s City Government in that it is designed that way. The mayor is not elected separately but is simply the City Council top vote getter. I beleive he is pretty limited in what he can and can’t do (without the rest of the council). Not that he couldn’t be a better public speaker to at least overcome this perception. However, he doesn’t usually have to speak to a national audience.
And let me just add that I second what Avumede said.
Cincinnati is a racist city. There always seems to be racial tension floating around. Much of the racism is covert but there are some obvious racism as well (like the police chief’s racial slurs).
Thank God. I was worried about Shake It! records.
Of course when I say “there are some” I mean “there is some.”
Why riot in your own neigborhood? What does this accomplish? There was a problem here in New York between a portion of our Jewish community and the police. Just like in Cinci, a crowd gathered and was soon whipped into a frenzy. What had, by then, grown into an angry mob, armed themselves with bottles and bricks then stormed directly to the local police station.
Yet I don’t want to be accused of stating rioters ever actually use logic.
When rage explodes on the streets like this, it is never pretty.
I was once surprised when I found out that Jerry Springer had once been mayor of Cincinatti.
I shouldn’t have been.
Perhaps they should call in Springer to calm things down with his goon security guys.
voguevixen Don’t be dissin my hood 
In Oakland we just recently had an undercover cop, shot and killed by rookie patrol cops. The undercover had just caught a cat thief but the rookies seeing this black guy with a gun shot and killed him. The family of the cop is suing the city.
We also have the Rough Riders here: These guys were like the Rampart mob down in LA. Beating suspects planting evidence and the like. They’re been fired and are facing serious charges. At least our DA is not putting up with crap like that. But we’ve had some unrmed black men being shot down by police too.
Uh…excuse me? Another Oakland resident checking in here urging you to not spread further misinformation about my town.
Actually, Oakland has never really had any major riots. Despite shocking levels of police brutality and poverty in the 1960s, it was one of the few urban centers to not explode into riots. People cite a level of political awareness (this is the home of the Black Panthers, after all) as a reason for the calm. After the Rodney King verdict in 1992, there was rioting in “urbane” San Francisco and many other cities across the country but none in Oakland.
The only significan disturbances I can even recall are: a major protest at a draft center in the late 1960s (with mostly white activists) and a confrontation with police at Festival at the Lake in the mid-1990s that resulted in a few store-front windows being broken. Nothing resembling a riot at all. I’ve probably personally seen more broken windows in Berkeley than have actually been broken in Oakland over the past 11 years of my residence here.
I love Oakland and am proud to live here. For some reason (could it be the current assault of gentrification?), this comment really pissed me off. And since we’re in the Pit, I feel I can speak freely.
If you don’t know, shut the fuck up. Don’t make stories up because you will be called on them. And if you don’t respect where you live, feel free to leave anytime.
Um, hapa? Voguevixen was referring to black men being shot by cops in Oakland, not riots.
I don’t know if vv is right, but if you’re going to yell at her, do it for the right reason.
Sua
hapXL? voguevixen’s Oakland statement was in regard to police brutality and cops shooting people a little too frequently.
If those statements are also in error (although you also indicated a certain level of police brutality), feel free to bash. However, there has been no assertion that riots are common in Oakland.
Correction to my post
please replace “cat” with “car” Though cat does make it sound more interesting.
:::shakes hands with **HapaXL **, before hijacking:::
Where in Oakland do you reside?
I live around the corner from the Mills College.
Tomndebb having reread voguevixen’s post, I agree, I also read it out of context.