Across America, civil unrest linked to perceptions of police brutality has followed a remarkably similar pattern, experts say.

        Peaceful demonstrations lead to minor criminal acts by youths who are not under the control of community leaders. This escalates into assaults on passing motorists, then destruction of property in the minority community.

        “I think around three or four days is when things kind of taper off,” said Sgt. John Pasquariello of the Los Angeles Police Department.

        This timing held true even for the riots that consumed his city in 1992. Fifty-three people died and nearly $1 billion in property was damaged across miles of Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white officers in the beating of Rodney King, a black man.

        In 1995, Indianapolis experienced three days of disturbances sparked by a po lice scuffle with a drug suspect in a black community. Troublemakers were quiet during the day but re-emerged each evening, said Lt. Joe Finch of the Indianapolis Police Department.

        On the third day, the Black Panthers held a rally at the center of the neighborhood in question. Church leaders asked police to back off and allow them to relay messages from the activists, Lt. Finch said. The department agreed, with disastrous results: a Revco drugstore was looted and burned.

        “That's when the community said, "Enough is enough,' and it was put to bed,” Lt. Finch said.

        Disturbances tend to be given a three-day time line because that's how long it takes to bury someone, said Dr. Alejandro del Carmen, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Texas at Arlington.

        The initial incident — in Cincinnati's case, the shooting death of Timothy Thomas — sets off a cycle that culminates with the victim's funeral. The services can be kept peaceful, but they don't always provide closure. In Cincinnati, minorities' confidence in city leaders seems to have eroded to the extent that another cycle may begin, Dr. del Carmen said.

        “The burial of a person considered to be a victim can remind them of why they're there, and the symbolism is once again sparked up.”

        The tell-tale moment will be the lifting of Cincinnati's restrictions, he said.

        Dr. del Carmen has studied mob aggression — particularly Miami's riots, which have proved instructive for police nationwide.

        In 1980, 18 people were killed and more than $130 million in property was dam aged after white officers were acquitted in the beating death of a black man in Miami. Police were so unprepared for the violence that only one extra patrol car was sent to the affected neighborhood in preparation for the verdict.

        As a result, Miami police developed riot-control teams called “mobile field forces” and began offering national seminars to share the tactic.

        Some of Miami's lessons are incorporated in the 16 hours of riot-control training Cincinnati police officers receive each year.

        The idea is to quickly make an impressive show of force with large groups of officers, so that crowds disperse without the need for mass arrests.

        “The gist is you get about 50 cops and 12 police cars to a location within 45 minutes of something going down,” Sgt. Pasquariello said.

        People's personal safety is the highest priority, with property damage further down the list, Sgt. Pasquariello said. That's why officers sometimes make the call not to intervene when mobs are looting, as they did in Cincinnati Wednesday night.

        The goal should be to keep crowds moving, said Lt. Finch of Indianapolis.

        “If they're moving and there's no excitement, there's no spark. People get bored and go on about their business,” he said.

        In Indianapolis, the restraint of television stations also was important, he said. Miami police had discovered that live shots of destruction in progress tended to attract more vandals.

        By the second day, Indianapolis stations were mostly complying with the department's request not to air live footage of the rioting.

        This surprised Ted Schock, director of Cincinnati's police academy, who is acting as a consultant to the department this week.

        “That's where they want to be,” he said of TV reporters at scenes of trouble.

        They would be unlikely to voluntarily leave, and “I don't blame them,” Mr. Schock said. “That (the news) is their business.”

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