CzEcH rEcK
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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: London
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Death of 350-Pound Man Being Investigated
Mon Dec 1, 6:30 PM ET
CINCINNATI - A 350-pound black man died after being clubbed repeatedly by police in a videotaped beating that stoked racial tensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots.
The mayor said Monday that the videotape showed that the nightstick-wielding officers were defending themselves.
The cause of Nathaniel Jones' death on Sunday was under investigation. But preliminary autopsy results showed that the 41-year-old man had an enlarged heart, and his blood contained cocaine and PCP, or "angel dust," both of which can cause bizarre or aggressive behavior, Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott said.
Black activists said Jones' death was another example of brutality by Cincinnati police. The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white officer in April 2001 set off three nights of rioting.
"How many of our people have to die before the city decides to do something about it?" said Nathaniel Livingston Jr. of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati.
The videotape from a police cruiser's camera showed two white police officers landing at least a half dozen blows with their nightsticks on Jones and tackling him, while shouting at him to put his hands behind his back. But the tape also showed Jones lunging at one of the officers.
The officers who were at the scene — five whites and one black — were placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure.
After seeing the video, Mayor Charlie Luken rejected activists' demand that he force Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. to resign.
"What I saw was a 400-pound man violently attacking a police officer in a manner that put the lives of police officers at risk," Luken said. "While the investigations will continue, there is nothing on those tapes to suggest that the police did anything wrong."
An employee at a fast-food restaurant had called 911 early Sunday to report that a man had passed out on the grass outside. Emergency personnel arrived and reported that the man was awake and "becoming a nuisance," according to police radio transmissions.
The first two officers to arrive, Baron Osterman and James Pike, were shown on the video striking Jones after he was warned to stay back. Jones then lunged at one of the two officers and knocked him down. The officers kept yelling, "Put your hands behind your back!" as they struggled to handcuff him.
They called for an ambulance when Jones appeared to be in distress. He died within minutes of arriving at the hospital, Assistant Chief Richard Janke said.
The Cincinnati chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (news - web sites) called for changes in police use of force.
"If proper procedure means that you can use that kind of force to clobber people repeatedly who are clearly disarmed, then there's something wrong with the policy," said Calvert Smith, chapter president.
Black activist groups staged an economic boycott of Cincinnati after the 2001 shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, who was wanted on charges of fleeing police. Officer Stephen Roach shot him in a dark alley and was later cleared at trial of criminal charges.
A federal investigation of that shooting, requested by the city, resulted in a 2002 agreement by the city to tighten policies regarding use of force and to improve handling of citizen complaints against the police.
Last February, a white officer chased and fatally shot a black man who was spotted running from a store that had been broken into. Police, prosecutors and a citizen review panel concluded the shooting was justified because the suspect was beating the officer with his nightstick
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Maybe if he wasn't as high as a kite on angel dust and charlie and didn't attack the cops he wouldent have gotten forcibly restrained.
__________________
True bravery is arriving home late after a night out on the beer, being
assaulted by your wife with a broom, and still having the guts to ask:
"So are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?"
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12-02-2003 04:45 PM
