Cincinnati: Mayor declares state of emergency

Cincinnati’s mayor has declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew amid the worst outbreak of racial violence in the Ohio city since the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr in 1968.

Mayor Charles Luken acted yesterday, the fourth day of rioting over the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer.

‘‘Despite the best efforts of the good citizens of our city, the violence on our streets is uncontrolled and it runs rampant,’’ Luken said. ‘‘The time has come to deal with this seriously. The message is that the violence must stop.’’

Only people going to and from work in this city of 331,000 will be allowed on the streets between 8pm and 6am, the mayor said.

Governor Bob Taft ordered the state Highway Patrol to assist Cincinnati police, and the mayor said he may ask Taft to send in the National Guard.

As of last night 86 people had been arrested in the looting, arson, vandalism, assaults and other violence in mostly black sections of Cincinnati. More than 60 people have been injured, including at least 25 taken to hospitals, police said.

The violence is Cincinnati’s most sustained racial unrest since the rioting prompted by the assassination of King, the black civil rights leader of the 1960s.

Tensions exploded after the shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, on Saturday. Since 1995, 15 black men have died at the hands of Cincinnati police, four of them since November. However, in most of those incidents, the men first shot at or threatened police officers.

Black activists said they had been warning city officials for two years that problems were coming because police were harassing blacks.

Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, urged calm during a speech before 300 people at a Baptist church.

‘‘Everybody is angry. I’m angry, but anger has its place,’’ he said. ‘‘We want the world to see we are respectful in our anger.’’

However, some of the young people in the audience urged more protests, mocking calls for peace and prayer.

President George W Bush called Attorney General John Ashcroft to discuss ways the Government could restore calm.

Luken, a Democrat, acknowledged a ‘‘real problem with race relations’’ but said he had to separate that from the need to quell violence.

The curfew halted night-time taxi service and forced cancellation of some Easter weekend events, including a Good Friday tradition in which Roman Catholics climb the hillside steps of Immaculata Church after midnight and pause on each step to pray.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which alleged in a lawsuit filed last month that Cincinnati police had illegally targeted blacks for 30 years, expressed concern about the indefinite curfew.

‘‘We don’t like the fact that we have to declare a curfew,’’ Luken said. ‘‘For 99.9% of the citizens of our city a curfew is completely unnecessary. We ask our citizens to bear with us.’’

On Wednesday, rioters broke windows, looted stores and assaulted at least one white motorist, who was dragged from her car. Others in the neighbourhood came to the woman’s aid.

A police officer was shot, but his gun belt buckle caught the bullet and he suffered only cuts and a bruise, the mayor said. No arrest was made in the shooting.

Thomas was killed as he fled Stephen Roach, an officer trying to arrest him over misdemeanour and motoring offences. Roach, 27, has been placed on leave. He has not commented, but his union said he feared for his life during the encounter.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Michael Allen said he would probably present the case to a grand jury next week. The US Justice Department and the US attorney’s office in Cincinnati have joined the FBI in a civil rights investigation.