Drive-by Shooting in Cincinnati ... By the Cops

Apr 23, 2001

In the middle of the upsurge in Cincinnati, following the murder of Timothy Thomas, the 19-year-old black man gunned down by Cincinnati police, there was a small demonstration on a street corner. A few people were holding up a banner calling for an end to police abuse. Suddenly three Cincinnati police cruisers and one Ohio State Highway Patrol car drove up. Officers and troopers jumped out, and fired several so-called "bean bags" into the small crowd. They then jumped back into their cars and drove off.

It was, as one of the witnesses later said, like a drive-by shooting.

Four people were wounded, two girls, ages 11 and 7, a 37-year-old French teacher and a 50-year-old man. One person had to be hospitalized, the French teacher, Christine Jones, from Louisville, Kentucky, who suffered a fractured rib, bruised lung, and internal bleeding from her spleen.

Bean bags make the ammunition that the cops use sound like they are not harmful. In fact, the bags are filled with lead buckshot. That is why they did the damage that they did.

This attack on a small peaceful demonstration illustrates the viciousness of the Cincinnati police–and show, once again, that people are correct to use whatever force is necessary to defend themselves.

And it wasn’t only the cops who were vicious. After suffering her wounds, Jones went to a hospital in Cincinnati that wouldn’t even treat her. They just gave her some pain pills and told her to go home. Only when she checked herself into a hospital in Louisville, was Jones given the treatment that may have saved her life.

What can be said about doctors and hospitals who take sides against the people they are charged to heal? Simply that they are scum.