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American Morning

Cincinnati in State of Emergency

Aired April 13, 2001 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Straight now to our top story this morning, the state of emergency in Cincinnati, Ohio. Residents there slept through their first night of a citywide curfew, which was enacted to help quell violent protests.

Demonstrations erupted after the fatal police shooting of a young black man. We pick up this story with our national correspondent Bob Franken, who is live in Cincinnati this morning -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Within the hour, Leon, probably in about 15 minutes, there's going to be a news conference by the mayor Charles Luken and various police officials. They will, A, assess their curfew, the sort of house arrest for the entire city of Cincinnati, which was imposed last night at 8:00 and ran until 6:00 this morning. They will also perhaps take questions on how long this, quote, "indefinite" state of emergency is going to last.

Of course, the idea here is to sort of take the wind out of the efforts to have violent confrontation with the police. As you know, there has been quite a battle going on for quite a while. The curfew of course enforced very, very strictly last night. The police swept the streets. Any time they found somebody they believe did not have an authorization to be there, was not going to or from work, they immediately arrested that person. And they started doing that right at 8:00.

Oftentimes, there is quite a bit of tension. The arrests happened almost immediately. They would check the person for warrants and the like and oftentimes would take the person into custody. And it is a misdemeanor in Ohio not to obey a curfew with up to six months imprisonment if in fact you're found guilty.

But in any case, police officials are going to will report on their success on keeping things quiet after several nights of violence. And they'll, of course, discuss how long this might last and whether other enforcement needs are going to be brought into play.

Meanwhile people from the NAACP and community relations groups are talking what happens after things do calm down. They are demanding that decades of friction between the police department and the African-American community be addressed, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much. Bob Franken reporting live this morning from Cincinnati. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com