CINCINNATI - Bush backs police

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Monday April 16 2:36 PM ET

Bush Backs Cincinnati Police

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) supports the Cincinnati police department, which has worked to quell violence following the shooting of an unarmed black man, but also is ``sensitive'' to blacks' complaints, a spokesman said Monday.

``It's a very sensitive time,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said. ``It's sensitive for law enforcement, who the president is a strong supporter of. It's sensitive for people in the community, who have a lot of concerns they don't believe are being addressed.''

Cincinnati suffered through three nights of arson, store looting, beatings of white motorists and clashes with police in black neighborhoods.

This followed the fatal shooting April 7 of Timothy Thomas, 19, who fled from police officers trying to arrest him on 14 warrants, mostly for traffic charges. Thomas was the fourth black man killed in a confrontation with police since November, the 15th since 1995.

``Certainly the president is a supporter of law enforcement,'' said Fleischer, in response to a question of whether Bush supports the city's police.

But ``the president is also sensitive to the causes in the community, the problems in the community, that have created the flash point that it has in Cincinnati,'' he added.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2001


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