|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Cincinnati Anti-Brutality Vigil Endures |
Current rating: 0 |
by Letter to CityBeat
(No verified email address) |
14 Jun 2001
|
Cincinnati -
Porkopolis Curly tales of the city
Edited By Gregory Flannery |
Remember Gandhi's aphorism? "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
In Cincinnati, it works this way: First they lock you out of the bathrooms. Then they take away your homemade drums. Then they arrest you.
The little band of protesters against police violence manning a vigil at the Hamilton County Justice Center have won a lot of respect just by their persistence. Encamped in front of the jail since June 2, they have endured every rain shower and petty harassment Mother Nature and Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. could throw at them.
The sheriff's office started closing the rest rooms at the Justice Center at night because of graffiti, says Steve Barnett, spokesman for the sheriff.
"Of course, we can't say the protesters are doing it," he says.
The sheriff's office can, however, say the protesters have used sidewalk chalk for political messages. Two were arrested for defacing public property. One of them, Amanda McIlwain, 17, went right back to the sidewalk, resuming her protest, after her mother drove from Shelbyville, Ky., to spring her from jail.
Shocking Behavior Inside the Jail
Expect very soon a lawsuit over alleged mistreatment -- the protesters call it "torture" -- of Streetvibes reporter David Mitchell. Charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in Mount Adams, Mitchell was subjected to use of a stun gun -- deputies call it a "stun device" -- while in the jail.
Spokesman Barnett said deputies applied the electrical shock to Mitchell because he was uncooperative when deputies were moving him from one part of the jail to another.
"He wouldn't do what he was told," Barnett said. "He refused to comply. He refused to go with them. They had to struggle with him."
After a deputy was bruised during the struggle, deputies used the stun gun "to help get (Mitchell) in handcuffs," Barnett said.
Does anyone think Cincinnati City Council understands the problem yet? A week after police used chemical spray on nonviolent protesters in Mount Adams, along comes Councilman Pat DeWine complaining about the behavior of -- you guessed it -- angry citizens at meetings. DeWine has given the matter lots of thought, proposing rules "to protect the rights of citizens to speak freely." The rules would cover city council meetings. Peaceful protesters roughed up by police, it seems, are still on their own.
It's a Holy Noise, This One
At least one group of churches is praising the protesters who have taken to the streets since early April. The United Church of Christ, Assembly of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, went so far as to issue a statement saying the protesters have had to fill in where the churches have neglected to act.
"We confess our silence, as we rely upon the usual list of protesters to move the city government by speaking the truth to power," the statement says. "We have been complicit by our silence and have relied upon half truths and military tactics to 'keep the peace' rather than standing alongside our brothers and sisters who do choose to speak out and act nonviolently and justly."
The protests against Cincinnati Police have growing support from churches. More than 50 people from St. John's Unitarian Church participated June 2 in the March for Justice. St. Mark Catholic Church and eight ministers from Protestant churches endorsed the march. |
See also:
http://ohiovalleyimc.org/cgi-bin/imc.pl?where=display&article=574
|
|
More From Cincy- Darius: A Cincinnati Inmate |
by Sean Marquis
lesmarquis (nospam) ziplip.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
14 Jun 2001
|
June 14 - We had been talking with our friends and other inmates at the Justice Center through the use of a dry-erase board. They would write letters on the glass of their windows with their fingers and we would confirm what they wrote by writing it on our board. We would ask/answer questions by writing on the board and holding it up for them to see and wait for an acknowledgement.
We talked to guys like Troy who are in for driving with suspended liscences and get put in lock-down for talking in the chow hall, guys like Gerry who got the crap kicked out of him when he was arrested and guys like Darius.
Within one or two days Darius became kinda of like everyone's little brother. We all wanted to help him and spent a lot of time talking with him (sometimes late into the night). In talking with so many other people inside the Justice Center, it's pretty apparent that his story is not unique but his is the one we all became most familiar with.
Darius is 19 years-old. He never knew his father and when he was 6 years-old his mother was murdered. He and his two sisters were then split up and sent to different foster homes and he bounced around among several foster homes before going out on hs own. He has one pretty close friend (Christine) who comes to visit him and that's about it, no other friends or family to speak of.
He was arrested for gun possession and brought into the Justice Center. The charge also served as a parole violation (another gun charge) (black on black violence is rampant in Cincinnati, though I tell him carrying a gun is asking for trouble and he may at times agree, I'm not living what he's living) so he was looking at some possible real time in jail. He was put in a cell with a busted, backed-up toilet for two weeks, this drove him a bit nuts and he smashed three windows inside the Justice Center in order to get out of that cell. It worked. He got put in lock-down and then charged with three counts of vandalism (one count for each window). To make matters more aggravating the gun charge he was brought in on has subsequently been dropped, so the original reason for him being there no longer exists, but he's stuck in there now purely on the vandalism charges.
We've made several attempts to contact his parole officer (calls and messages have gone unanswered) and Darius can't remeber when the last time he saw a lawyer was. He's been getting jerked around in the courtroom as well. He had a court date two days ago and a group of us went to give him support. He was on the docket but his case was never called. We asked the clerk why and were told that Darius was indicted on the vandalism charges last week and that his case was moved to a different court. He was never notified about any of this and the docket and clerk records did not reflect this.
He has another court date tomorrow, he's on the docket and many of us plan on going and giving him support, we hope it's not just another jerk around. A jail called The Justice Center where stories like this are common, is a glaring example as to how much we Americans are lying to and fooling ourselves.
**Names have been changed. |
