The video from the Cincinnati police cruiser is incomplete. But it is clear that six police officers are struggling to subdue a very heavy and angry suspect. He lunges at them. They club him with their nightsticks. Finally, they tackle him, yelling all the while at him to put his hands behind his back. When they flip him over, an officer notices he’s not breathing. Nathaniel Jones, 41, died after that confrontation with police outside a Cincinnati burger restaurant on Sunday night. Jones was black. Five of the officers at the scene were white; one was black. And that was enough to stir racial tension on Monday. As snippets of the video were played over and over on television, black activists demanded police reform. There’s a new city manager — a black woman — and the police chief reports directly to her. There’s a civilian panel empowered to review police actions; it has started investigating Jones’ death. And the department has put in place new guidelines on the use of force, from nightsticks to Mace to dogs. ‘‘Certainly, any time there’s a death, it’s not positive, but we have mechanisms so that the community will be informed of what happens,’’ said Vice Mayor Alicia Reece, who is black. By Monday, city employees trained to defuse confrontation were walking the streets, knocking on door after door to talk — and to listen. The strategy seemed to be keeping the peace, despite anger among blacks. ‘‘We have been through a lot in this city. We’ve come a long way,’’ said Mayor Charlie Luken, who is white. The incident began when the manager at a White Castle restaurant called paramedics to report a man unconscious on the grounds. By the time the fire department arrived, Jones — weighing 350 lbs — was up and shouting. Paramedics concluded that he was out of control and called the police. The officers yelled at Jones to stay back and put his hands down. Instead, he pressed onward. The scuffle was brief, but violent. When they had subdued Jones and noticed he was in distress, the officers called an ambulance. Jones died shortly afterward. Preliminary autopsy results show that Jones had cocaine and PCP, or ‘‘angel dust,’’ in his blood; both drugs can cause aggressive behaviour, Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott said. Luken defended the police, saying they were justified in using force as Jones’ sheer bulk was a ‘‘deadly weapon’’. Roger Webster, president of the police union, said the officers’ swings with the nightsticks did not constitute brutality, but instead were part of a ‘‘pain compliance’’ technique approved by the federal monitors reviewing the department’s use-of-force policies. (LAT-WP)
