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Before the march began, Leisure thanked the demonstrators gathered at Fountain Square for “standing up for what is right and just.”
“I pray every day. I pray my son will be the last one to die. But I don’t think he will be. They have not made any changes to ensure that this will not happen again,” she said. “Who will be the next parent to lose their child?”
The multiracial crowd made its way through the Cincinnati streets chanting, “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” Banners were carried on the edges of the crowd reading, “Amnesty! Release all prisoners from the mutha fuckin’ rebellion!” and “Stop police brutality, Shoot back!”
Willard Clark, 41, of Cincinnati, watched the protesters as he waited for a bus outside the public library. “This ain’t gonna change nothing. It’s a joke. It’s a circus,” he said, shaking his head. “What we need is a different system to live under, and this is not going to make that happen.”
As the protest passed through the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood that was the center of the April riots, many residents joined in, doubling the size of the march. Later, as the march passed the vacant lot where Thomas was shot, the procession fell silent, lowering protest signs and banners. Only the drone of a hovering police helicopter broke the silence as wreaths were laid at a makeshift memorial to the fallen youth.
Thomas, the sixth black man to be shot dead by police in Cincinnati in seven months, was killed after being pursued on outstanding traffic violation warrants. In the riots that followed the shooting, some 800 people were arrested and dozens injured by the police. Officer Roach faces trial for the shooting later this year on misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and obstructing official business. Protesters, meanwhile, face felony riot charges.
According to members of Cincinnati Anti-Racist Action, protesters are demanding that all charges against those arrested during the April uprising be dropped. Criticizing the Cincinnati Police Department for its long-standing connections to hate groups such as the National Alliance, they also demanded that Keith Fangman, head of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police, apologize to the community for his racism and alliances with white supremacists, and step down without compensation or pension.
Cheryl LaBash, 51, of Detroit, took time off from her job as a construction inspector to attend the march. She was impressed to see “tremendous unity” between the blacks and whites in the crowd. “It signifies the reality that there is and can be unity against racism and that there are many, many white people who are willing to come out to defend the black community.”
Despite the presence of riot police and mounted patrols, no arrests or disruptions were reported during the march.
After the end of the march, some 75 protesters proceeded to the Mt. Adams neighborhood on an un-permitted march, to protest the preferential treatment that this affluent area received during the April riots. The Cincinnati Radical Action Group (CRAG), which called for the Mt. Adams action, said they intended “to place active pressure on spaces and institutions of privilege.”
Some critics claim that police selectively enforced the curfew during the riots, arresting violators in the largely African American Over-the-Rhine neighborhood while ignoring those who patronized the Mt. Adams bars. Disobeying the curfew order typically carries a six-month jail sentence. The protesters blocked the intersection at St. Gregory and Hatch. About fifty officers quickly surrounded the protesters on all sides, several armed with rifles.
Police warned that arrests would be made unless protesters cleared the intersection. Arrests occurred after people had moved onto the sidewalks, when a journalist for Street Vibes began loudly criticizing the police actions. Approximately fifteen people were pulled from the sidewalk, twelve of whom were arrested.
According to one protester who would only identify himself as Fluffy, “Two or three protesters were cuffed and subdued before police used pepper spray on them, spraying it in their faces from a distance of less than a foot.”
This treatment was reminiscent of that of Roger Ownesby, an unarmed black man who was killed earlier this year, when officers thought he “looked like someone they were looking for.” Witnesses to this case reported that the officers handcuffed Roger, picked him up by his arms, and slammed his head and neck into the concrete. Reports say that chemical irritants were used, but that he died of asphyxiation of unknown causes.
When Assistant Chief Janke was asked why he ordered the arrest of nonviolent protesters on the sidewalks, he responded, “People were arrested for disorderly conduct and blocking streets.”
Protester Julia Reichert, a professor at Wright State University, said the march was an act of civil disobedience to stop traffic and draw attention to the inequalities that exist between the white upper class and blacks in Cincinnati. “Curfew violators in black neighborhoods were roughed up and hauled off to jail,” said Reichert, 54, of Yellow Springs. “But nothing happened to curfew violators in Mt. Adams.”
A solidarity action was undertaken outside of the Hamilton County Justice Center for the 12 activists arrested this weekend, and the prisoners still in jail since the April riots. At roughly 11 am on June 4, those participating in the solidarity vigils were served a legal notice ordering them to vacate the premise. They were given 30 minutes to leave the property or face possible arrest. The papers stated that no legal permit had been obtained to occupy the space, but one could be acquired pending a fourteen-day application process. The protesters complied by vacating the space, but maintained a constant vigil through various legal means, such as walking on the sidewalk around the center and remaining inside during regular business hours. They vowed to maintain this presence 24 hours a day until legal permits are acquired, until all twelve activists were released. The space had been occupied successfully for 40 hours when the notice was served.
The last of the twelve protestors arrested at Mt. Adams were released the 5th of June.
On the morning of Wednesday, June 6, one protestor was arrested and charged with trespassing for sleeping under a tree outside the Justice Center, but was released later that afternoon. That same afternoon, two other protestors were arrested for chalking “An Injury to One is An Injury to All” and other slogans on the sidewalks outside the Justice Center. One was charged with two counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief. The other chalker was charged with minor misdemeanors. They were both released the next day.
As protestors have been released from jail, reports of further brutality against those arrested in the Mount Adams action have emerged. Ora, a woman arrested, has reported head injuries and another woman reported eye injuries after the police used a chemical irritant. One of the male prisoners reported that David Mitchell, a jailed protester, was choked and shocked with a “stun gun.” Mitchell was moved to the prison infirmary, according to reports from jailed protesters.
Attorney Ken Lawson, and some of the protesters outside the jail, said that initial bonds – from $5,000 to $50,000 each -- were too high for misdemeanor charges such as disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. “The bonds were unreasonably high, especially for people engaging in a peaceful protest,” Lawson said.
Sources: Associated Press, Cincinnati Enquirer, Independent Media Center, Asheville Global Report.
Editor’s note:
All of the protestors have been freed pending new trials. Officer Stephen Roach was slapped on the wrist with only a misdemeanor indictment.