Death of 400-Pound Man Being Investigated By JOHN NOLAN, Associated Press Writer CINCINNATI - A 400-pound black man died after being struck repeatedly by police wielding metal nightsticks, and the mayor said Monday a videotape showed that the officers were defending themselves. The cause of death was under investigation. Black activists say the death Sunday of Nathaniel Jones, 41, was another example of brutality involving Cincinnati police. The fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer in April 2001 prompted three nights of rioting in the city. "How many of our people have to die before the city decides to do something about it?" said Nathaniel Livingston Jr. of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati. The officers who were at the scene Sunday — five whites and one black — were placed on administrative leave, which is policy while investigators examine any police encounter that results in a death. Sunday's confrontation was videotaped by a camera on a police cruiser. After seeing the video, Mayor Charlie Luken rejected activists' demand that he force police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. to resign. "What I saw was a 400-pound man violently attacking a police officer in a manner that put the lives of police officers at risk," Luken said. "While the investigations will continue, there is nothing on those tapes to suggest that the police did anything wrong." Luken said he agreed with the initial police assessment that the officers who struggled with Jones defended themselves as they were trained to do when attacked. An employee at a fast-food restaurant called 911 early Sunday to report that a man had passed out on the grass outside. Emergency personnel arrived and reported that the man was awake and "becoming a nuisance," according to police radio transmissions. The first two officers to arrive, Baron Osterman and James Pike, were shown on the video striking Jones after he was warned to stay back. Jones then lunged at one of the two white officers and knocked him down. The officers kept yelling "put your hands behind your back" as they struggled to handcuff him. They called for an ambulance when Jones appeared to be in distress. He died within minutes of arriving at University Hospital, Assistant Chief Richard Janke said. The reason for Jones' behavior is not known, Janke said. Black activist groups staged an economic boycott of Cincinnati after the 2001 shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, who was wanted on prior charges of fleeing police when he ran from officers. Officer Stephen Roach shot him in a dark alley and was later cleared at trial of criminal charges. A federal investigation of that shooting, requested by the city, resulted in Cincinnati's April 2002 agreement to tighten policies regarding use of force and to improve handling of citizen complaints against the police. Last February, a white officer chased and fatally shot a black man who was spotted running from a store that had been broken into, police said. The police, Hamilton County prosecutor and the Citizen Complaint Authority review panel concluded that the shooting was justified because the suspect was beating the officer with his nightstick. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...=4&u=/ap/20031201/ap_on_re_us/died_in_custody
It looked like the big man was fighting the police and got his ass kicked. People need to stop resisting arrest. If the burgers at WhiteCastle don't kill him, the cops will.
I don't know why this was titled "Cincinnati Police Kill a Minority" It probably should have been " Drunk attacks Cops and Gets Killed" Why does it become some racial thing everytime someone is killed. From the sound of it he was drunk causing a ruckus, passing out and then attacking police officers. If you don't attack the police, odds are you won't get a night stick to the head and die.
I'm surprised no one is defending the 400 pound man. What is different about this case and the Houston one? Both were unarmed, resisted arrest, and put officers in danger.
Can never understand why anybody is stupid enough to resist arrest. I imagine only about .0001% of those folks get away - saw one the other year IIRC on Scariest Police (name?) videos or whatever it's called but that was for two brothers wanted for murdering police officers so they were insane to begin with.
News tonight mentioned some interesting tidbids on this: 1. The man had an enlarged heart 2. The man had traces of cocaine in his bloodstream 3. The man was also drunk 4. The bruises on his body would not have led to heart failure (however this is initial coroner's report)
We don't really know the whole story, the camera doesn't show the whole incident. Plus, no one defends attacking police but when the police can't detain even a large person such as this without killing him, that's a problem. There need to be non lethal means of dealing with that, ie taser guns, mace, or whatever. It's just another example of how poorly trained/equipped the police are today. BTW to FD, it becomes a racial thing because it's usually a minority getting killed. If coked up white execs kept getting beaten to death in their front lawns you'd probably be hearing people asking why too. Really now, let's try to pay a little better attention to detail.
Hmmm, 400 pound man on a drug and alcohol rampage... 14 year old boy lying face down on the ground... hmmm, I see no difference.
Here's a tip: Don't put yourself in a position for skull cracking by the police. Don't get drugged up and pass out in public. And when the police want to arrest you for it, don't fight back. This is just basic common sense. This is not a racial issue. The police are not the bad guys. They are there to protect you from the bad guys.
Dumb thread title The police killed a man resisting arrest.....it clearly shows him fighting the cops, but noone deserves to die from an arrest..........unless he/she is trying to kill the officer of course.
That's sort of faulty thinking in my opinion. I know you get really heated about this stuff, so I'll try to keep it short. Why is it the fault of the police that minorities get coked up and assault police or do other unlawful activities. The problem isn't that the police 'mistreat' minorities, it's that minorities continually put themselves in the position to be mistreated. Or at least from what I have seen, and from the statistics of prisons and Death Row, etc. Or maybe I'm totally wrong. And I'll throw in a smiley too, just to avoid anything too personal directed at me.
When's the last time you've seen a "coked up white exec" passed out with coke and booze and having the cops called on him. Then proceeding to wake up and attack the cops. How many drive by shootings occur in River Oaks?? Blame, Blame, Blame. Tell people not to attack cops and there is a higher probability they won't get beaten by police. That is "attention to detail". I think some people are obsessed over race while I try to take a blind eye and look at actions.
Originally posted by F.D. Khan When's the last time you've seen a "coked up white exec" passed out with coke and booze and having the cops called on him. That's a wonderful question since people have cited information here that says wealthy people use drugs at the same rates as everyone else. Why aren't there more coked up white people getting beaten to death by cops? How many drive by shootings occur in River Oaks?? Blame, Blame, Blame. Tell people not to attack cops and there is a higher probability they won't get beaten by police. That is "attention to detail". I think some people are obsessed over race while I try to take a blind eye and look at actions. How many of these police shooting involved drive by shooting incidents? None. None of these people recently have been armed so you really aren't paying much attention to detail at all. You can tell people whatever you want but ever so often when there's an incident involving someone getting killed or beaten by police and it's always a minority then it's naive to believe a tremendous amount of mistrust won't develop. That is what's happened. The bottom line though is that an unarmed man was drunk or drugged up causing a situation, the police came, and now the man is dead possibly because of what the police did. This is not acceptable.
The kid was also shot, that was the problem I had. Your comparison is ridiculous. Oh yeah, the kid hadn't done anything wrong prior to resisting arrest.
This Post should of read 'Police kill another Human Being'I saw it on the TV. Do we realise what we are doing to each other?Will we ever get it that each is unto each other, both brothers and sisters.
