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American Morning

Cincinnati Easter Church Sermons Call for Healing

Aired April 16, 2001 - 09:06   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: Well, Cincinnatians may have been acting on those words overnight. Curfew has been in effect there since last week from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and officials there plan to decide today whether or not to lift that curfew.

CNN's Bob Franken is in Cincinnati. Let's go to him now. Bob, the curfew was eased a bit last night. How did that go?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, they're meeting right now to decide whether they want to get rid of the curfew because, in answer to your question, it went quite well. They did ease it. Instead of 8:00 p.m., it was 11:00 p.m. start.

And throughout the night, the streets were very quiet, as they normally would be on a Sunday evening. As a matter of fact, the very same streets that had erupted in violence earlier in the week after the shooting death of a 19-year-old unarmed black man at the hands of Cincinnati policeman. These streets were now very quiet, as you can see.

This is exactly the spot where, on Wednesday night, a police officer was shot and received minor injuries during the unrest that occurred that particular evening. That is what prompted the curfew to go into effect. The curfew has been extended for several days, and there has been no trouble.

There was one incident after the funeral for 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, and that occurred after the funeral services on Saturday when a women was among four who was shot by police officers who were firing the counterpart of rubber bullets, shotguns that have bean bag shells, as you can see. She was hit several times. She is still in the hospital. She is one of four who was hit, one of them a 7-year-old child.

The people who saw it say that the police officers were unprovoked, that they descended on this small group that was leaving the funeral services and fired their weapons and then jumped in their cars. City officials say that they are going to ask the FBI to investigate this, as well as the conduct of the Cincinnati Police Department.

As for the funeral service for Timothy Thomas, that was considered a pivotal point in the community. There was concern among city officials that there would be trouble that followed that. There was no particular trouble.

And now the officials are hoping that they can return to a city that is tense but normal, with the ability to get rid of the curfew that many business interests say is really harming things. Then there is going to be more pressure to act on this trouble and try and address problems of relationships between the Cincinnati Police Department and the African-American community, problems that activists say have existed for decades -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks much. Bob Franken reporting live this morning from Cincinnati -- Daryn.

KAGAN: A chance now for us to take a look at where the City of Cincinnati goes from here. We will ask a member of the Cincinnati city council.

Alicia Reece is joining us from Cincinnati. She's been on the council since 1999, and she chairs the council's social and children's services, community development and intergovernmental affairs committees. That's just to name a few. And we welcome her from Cincinnati.

Ms. Reece, good morning. Thanks for joining us today.

ALICIA REECE, CITY COUNCILWOMAN: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: As we understand it, our Bob Franken just reported that officials are meeting right now to discuss whether the curfew should go on. Of course, it's been scaled back to 11:00 p.m. But do you think it's time for the curfew to it end?

REECE: Well, certainly, curfew has made it very difficult here in the City of Cincinnati. It's certainly the mayor's decision whether the curfew continues, but I know that it has affected the city economically. So not only do we have the community who has been concerned about lifting the curfew, but we also have businesses -- big businesses who say that it's affecting their economy. Even the Cincinnati Reds is very concerned, and the owner, I understand, is meeting with the mayor, as we speak.

KAGAN: Yeah. I understand a baseball game might be on the line for the Reds. A much more serious matter for the city as a whole, though, as the city moves forward -- and, eventually, this curfew will come off whether it -- tonight or further on down the line -- how do you strike that balance of keeping calm, yet having the progress continue so people don't forget about the situation and the issues that need to be addressed?

REECE: Well, I think one of the things that's very important is that we're not asking for just calm. Calm means that we go back to business as usual, and that's -- certainly, from me talking to many people in the churches, talking to citizens, both black and white, on the streets of Cincinnati, that's not what they want.

They don't want to go back to business as usual. They want to aim for peace, peace meaning they want change, they want a new Cincinnati, which requires us as city leaders as well as our business leaders to work on real solid change and solutions.

As I've indicated to you before, I've asked for the resignation of our safety director. He resigned as of Friday. We have to now get a team together and begin to do a national search so that we can bring in the best person who can handle the diversity that exists in our city and can work on really truly police-community relations that brings the police and the community, both black and white together.

KAGAN: Ms. Reece, you've chosen to get involved and to make a difference by going on the inside, by being in the city council. You've been there, I understand, for about a year and a half. What have you learned from being on the inside that's different than just being on the outside and just being angry?

REECE: Well, I think there are a couple of things. One, that change has to come from within. As a council member for a year and a half, I have to tell you it's been very difficult with some of my colleagues who have not been willing to deal with the issues of true police-community relations, those that have attacked and tried to cut African-American social programs that deal without youth employment opportunities, those programs that deal with human relations. Those have been programs that have been on the chopping block this last year.

Economic development in African-American communities -- I have a project right now $30 million to invest in an African-American community. We have to now look at those projects as a top priority because the citizens have said they want change, they want investment in their neighborhoods, they want police-community relations, they want safety with fairness, and it has to come within, and I hope that it's a wakeup call for my colleagues to now really sit down at the table and be able to work with me and others to really bring about the change that we need here in Cincinnati so that we can to move forward.

KAGAN: Alicia Reece with the Cincinnati city council. Councilwoman, thank you for joining us this morning.

REECE: Thank you for having me.

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