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Re: Riot in Over the Rhine


     Police on TV 10pm news said that crowds started
gathering again in the afternoon.  Later (after dark
I infer from the other reports) damage to store fronts
began again.  Police advise people to avoid going to
Over-the-Rhine and these other neighborhoods: western
hills (store fronts damaged at gilbert and McMillan),
Avondale, Evanston, Bond Hill.  There was film showing
police arriving at a shoe store at Findley Market area
of Over-the-Rhine but all the rioters except one were
gone; one was arrested.  A local radio reporter was there
and said that about a hundred people broke into a shoe
store and were there and cleaned it out of merchandise
for what seemed like a long time with no sign of the
police (a Tracy Chapman song comes to mind now).  The
crowd was gone by the time the police got there.

     A separate police interview said that crowds gathered
in the afternoon.  Later there were 8 instances of gun
shots in the air, one of which pierced the gasoline tank
of an ambulance.  They did not break it down by
neighborhood.

     Police videotape of the shooting a few days ago was
shown tonight.  Only a few frames show the person being
chased, and the gunshot is heard after the camera turns
away from the the chase.  The video was what a different
police car saw as it approached the scene.

     As I was writing this the 11pm news came on a
different station.  It showed more video and interviews.
It showed a peaceful March down Reading road from Swifton
Commons shopping center to Over the Rhine and downtown.
It was a peaceful march.  After the crowd got downtown
and broke up some groups became violent. There were
three reports of passengers pulled out of cars and hurt
(beaten? -- they did not specify).  They showed a report
of ministers walking through Over-the-Rhine calling for
peace and prayer.  They showed a line of ministers making
a human chain across Central Parkway to separate the
crowd from the police.  Central Parkway is the southern
boarder of Over-the-Rhine.  Long ago it was a canal going
to Dayton and even more north.  Over-the-Rhine was named
for being a German neighborhood across the canal as if it
were across the Rhine river.

     One reporter described as waves of calm and waves
of violence.  Fires and broken windows after nightfall.
Video was shown of people being shot with bean bag bullets in Walnut Hills 
in the daytime.  Reports of
people showing off guns in the Walnut Hills area.  One
police was shot but was not hurt because the bullet hit
his bullet proof vest.  He was driven to the hospital
in a police car.  Video shown of Evanston fire in a large
garbage dumpster; it looked like it was in the street but
it could have been blocking an alleyway (it was a live
video after dark).

     In a story about a fire at a 12th & Race (OtR)
grocery store they said that insurance does not pay for
civil unrest.  The reporter said that a lawyer at the
city said that they are not legally responsible for
repayment of riot damage but that they would try to help.

   11:30pm a reporter said he was walking with a line of
police in Over-the-Rhine when random gunshots began.
They took cover.  Earlier in an interview Mayor Luken
said that police cannot continue to work 12 hour shifts
so after some days there may be a need to call in the
National Guard for assistance. He said that he does not
want to call the National Guard.  So far the police are
not firing back with bullets.  A bean bag shown on
camera by the TV announcer. It is shot from a shotgun.

     It all reminds me of the Frank Zappa song from the
Freak Out album: Trouble Every Day.

     My own experience today was peaceful people.  I went
to a community center in the early evening in a generally
black area near University of Cincinnati.  If anything
people were more friendly and more careful to make eye
contact as if to emphasize that they were not pushing any
racial hatred.  The community center was closed at 8:30pm
with news that people were gathering at Eden Park (not
really very close) and they were worried of violence
spreading after dark.  On the way home I saw three police
speed by with sirens, and in the distance at Walnut Hills
I saw a flashing police light.

--Rick C
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