Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Third Day Passes in Cincinnati Without Serious Violence

Aired April 15, 2001 - 08:13   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the third night of a curfew has ended without serious violence on the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio. That follows yesterday's funeral for a young black man shot dead by a white policeman.

CNN's Bob Franken joins us from Cincinnati with the latest. I know you've been up late, Bob, and the cameras were out there.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The cameras were out there and what we saw is what we've seen for the last couple of nights, Kyra, that is to say, streets that were desolate. It looked like a ghost town except for the convoys of police cars that patrolled the streets. These were police cars that were supposed to, in fact, see to it that the streets were kept clear.

What you're seeing right now, however, is an incident that occurred after the funeral. This was when a young woman was shot by police who were using pellets that have bean bags in them. They're designed not to do anything but hurt the person. But witnesses say that the police scooped down on a small group of people who were leaving the funeral unprovoked and fired the shotgun pellets and then sped away in their cars. And now city officials say that they're going to have the FBI come in and try and investigate that incident.

As I said, the streets were kept clear throughout the evening by police who, in fact, arrested anybody who was on the street who did not have authority to do so. And so for the third straight night there was an absence of any of the violence.

They were concerned that this could be a day where there were problems. There had been a funeral service for 19-year-old Timothy Thomas. He was the unarmed black youth who was shot and killed by a policeman a week earlier. That incident provoked racial violence for several days in the city of Cincinnati before the curfew was lifted.

Now, Cincinnati officials say they will assess after today, Easter Sunday, whether they need to continue the curfew or take a chance that the passions that had caused this to occur have settled down just a little bit and that the city could go back to its normal existence. However, those who were, in fact, involved in trying to do community relations efforts to stop the violence say that they have to continue to push the city to correct the underlying problems, problems they say which are decades of hostility between the Cincinnati Police Department and the African-American community. The city is under pressure now to finally address those problems, but first the city officials say they want to see if Cincinnati can get back to normal -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob Franken, thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com