------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
AS MEDIA FOCUS ON NATIONAL CRISIS: JUDGE FREES CINCINNATI KILLER COP By Greg Butterfield On Sept. 26 Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ralph E. Winkler acquitted Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach of all charges. Roach, who is white, shot Timothy Thomas in the back and killed him last April 7. Thomas, a 19-year-old Black man, was unarmed. Thomas's brutal killing grabbed headlines all over the world. It sparked a three-day rebellion in Cincinnati's African American community-the largest uprising there since 1968. Eight hundred people were arrested. Cincinnati, whose population is 43 percent Black, has been called one of the country's 10 most segregated cities. Thomas was the sixth Black man killed by a white Cincinnati cop in just over a year, and the 15th since 1995. Roach's acquittal sparked renewed protests. After some youths defiantly took to the streets, the mayor imposed another curfew. Yet outside Ohio, it barely made the papers. The corporate media's attention was focused on something else: drumming up support for the Bush administration's "war against terrorism" following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. JUDGE PUTS VICTIM ON TRIAL Roach was the first Cincinnati cop to ever face trial for killing someone. Some activists contend that if not for the rebellion, and the subsequent global attention, the cop would never even have been charged. At Roach's request, there was no jury. The verdict was left entirely in Judge Winkler's hands. This is a common ploy in police brutality cases. Cops know they stand a much better chance with a judge who is part of the same apparatus of repression-the police, courts and prisons-than they do before a jury. Roach made a safe choice. But what surprised many was the lengths the judge went to justify the killer cop's actions. In his decision, Judge Winkler emphasized that Thomas had "14 outstanding warrants." "Police Officer Roach's history was unblemished until this incident," he said. "Timothy Thomas's history was not unblemished." What Winkler failed to say was that 12 of the 14 warrants were for minor traffic violations like not wearing a seat belt. These are the kinds of warrants that typically result from racial profiling of motorists. The other two warrants were for fleeing police. Obviously, Thomas's fear of the police was warranted. Timothy Thomas's 14 misdemeanor warrants greatly moved Winkler. But the fact that Officer Roach changed his story about the incident three times was "not relevant" to this judge. After the verdict was read, Thomas's mother, Angela Leisure, asked: "Why is it that officers are not responsible for their acts when other citizens are?" Leisure vowed to carry on her struggle against police brutality. She said: "My son, I wanted him to be the last. But he won't be the last. Until serious changes are made in the police department, this will happen again." Outside, dozens of demonstrators chanted, "No justice, no peace!" Later 150 people packed a City Council hearing to denounce the verdict. The Rev. Damon Lynch III said, "It was a travesty. ... Black life has no value in Cincinnati." 'NATIONAL UNITY' A LIE Consider the words of Lorenzo Komboa Ervin. He represented the Southwest Michigan Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality and the Black Autonomy International at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. On Sept. 6, he gave a report there on police brutality in the U.S. "Although the U.S. government refuses to report on the exact number of persons killed by police use of deadly force each year," Ervin said, "we have been able to document 500-1,000 cases per annum ... through the work of local grassroots groups like ours, national activist groups like the October 22nd Coalition, and others. "The USA is an outlaw nation," he continued, "a white supremacy regime, hiding under the erstwhile cloak of democracy and human rights ... while it uses its law enforcement agents to practice terrorism against the Black population and those of other racial minorities." Timothy Thomas was a victim of this sort of terrorism-the state-sponsored terrorism of police brutality that plagues communities of color across the U.S. After the U.S. Supreme Court handed George W. Bush the presidency, he and Attorney General John Ashcroft promised to take steps to end racial profiling. Last April, Ashcroft even promised a thorough federal investigation and action in the case of Timothy Thomas. But what has happened? There were no outraged speeches from the White House after Roach was acquitted. Bush didn't denounce the terrorism of the Cincinnati police. No federal troops were ordered to Ohio to capture Roach and protect the African American community from further violence. At the same time, Bush and Ashcroft have authorized the biggest act of racial profiling in memory against Arabs and other Middle Eastern people. The FBI and local police agencies have illegally detained people of Arab descent without cause. The media frenzy since Sept. 11 has encouraged hundreds of acts of racist violence against immigrants. Bush is unwilling to protect young people of color and workers from police terrorism. But he is prepared to march them off to fight a war in the Middle East. Rank-and-file enlisted soldiers are overwhelmingly from working class and poor families. Many are people of color. They have far more in common with Timothy Thomas, and with the struggling people of the Middle East, than they do with Bush or those he represents: the Big Oil barons, Wall Street bankers and military contractors who are itching for a war. The Bush government's response to Roach's acquittal-or rather, the lack of one-shows that all the patriotic hype about "national unity" is a big, ugly lie. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
