WLWT TV News Cincinnati
The local chapter of the NAACP has asked the U.S. Justice Department to step in and consider federal court action in connection with the death of Nathaniel Jones at the hands of Cincinnati police.
The incident was caught on tape by a police cruiser camera Nov. 30 outside an Avondale White Castle restaurant. Officers hit Jones with their night sticks numerous times after the suspect was seen behaving erratically inside and outside the restaurant.
The confrontation began when Jones, who later was found to have had cocaine, PCP and ethanol in his system, wouldn’t obey police instructions and attacked officers who showed up to calm him down.
Dr. Calvert Smith, president of the local NAACP office, has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported exclusively Sunday. Smith wrote in his note that Jones’ death is “a breach of contract,” referring to the collaborative agreement between the city and the Department of Justice essentially formed to monitor improvements in race relations between police and residents.
Because of the alleged breach of contract, Smith said he thinks Ashcroft must take action in U.S. District Court against the city and Police Department. The letter is consistent with some of the things Smith said at a press conference just a day after Jones died, WLWT reported.
“I have seen the film, and the kind of beating I observed would raise questions in anyone’s mind,” Smith said Dec. 1. “The death of Mr. Jones must be viewed as the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.”
In his letter, Smith suggested that Ashcroft “seek equitable relief to remedy” what the NAACP calls “Cincinnati’s pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals, especially African-American males, of their rights and privileges.”
Several agencies currently are looking into this case. From the beginning, the NAACP said it would conduct its own independent probe into the Jones case. Also, the Department of Justice has asked the FBI to open a federal investigation.