The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, author of “Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America,” has spoken out in support of Cincinnati police in the wake of a video-taped altercation with a 350-pound black arrestee who later died.
Nathaniel Jones, 41, who resisted arrest early Sunday morning, was found to have cocaine and PCP in his system, officials said. He also had an enlarged heart. It took six officers to bring the suspect under submission using their batons.
Demanding the Cincinnati police chief be fired, some black activists are alleging police brutality.
Peterson disagrees.
“It’s clear based on the video released that the suspect attacked the police and the officers used adequate force to subdue the man,” Peterson said. “At this point, there’s no evidence that the police were responsible for the man’s death. The officers were doing their job, and the citizens of Cincinnati should support these men. The so-called black leaders and activists calling this ‘police brutality’ are inciting a riot.”
Two-and-a-half years ago, the city suffered three nights of riots after a police officer shot an unarmed black man in a dark alley.
Calvert Smith, president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, spoke out against the police.
“If proper police procedure means that you can use that kind of force to clobber people who are clearly disarmed, there is something wrong,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
The officers involved have been placed on leave pending an investigation of the incident.
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