Instead of viewing all of its rebellious inner-city youth as “thugs” and rioters, Cincinnati should realize that those protesting the Timothy Thomas shooting are more like the revolutionaries of American history, a Harvard Law professor and author said Friday.

        Charles J. Ogletree spoke to a full house at the Friday night NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner downtown. He said during a press conference before the dinner that the property damage and verbal conflicts that punctuated April's and September's unrest were the result of legitimate frustration with the police and the courts and should be viewed as an agent of change. He did not refer to the violence.

        He urged the audience to listen to their youth. African-American men, particularly young ones, he said, had a right to be angry after the April 7 fatal shooting of Mr. Thomas, who was unarmed but running from Cincinnati police, when Officer Stephen Roach shot him. The resulting protests resulted in riots and three nights of a citywide curfew.

        Officer Roach was acquitted on two related misdemeanor charges in late September, touching off minor demonstrations but prompting more citywide curfews.

        "The shooting was the tip of the iceberg. The iceberg itself was all problems that had gone on before,” said Mr. Ogletree, who wrote a book on the Rodney King police beating case and is a trial lawyer involved in racial profiling suits.

        “Cincinnati is at the epicenter of a lot of issues. You've got a lot of dirty laundry,” he said.

        “You're going to have a lot of commissions, task forces and groups that will come up with one or two solutions to the problem, but that is not going to get it done.”

        What will get it done, he said, is to break down the mutual fear between black people and the police. Police should more closely resemble the communities they serve, he said, and people should educate themselves more on what police are trained to do.

        Mr. Ogletree was the keynote speaker at the 46th annual dinner, a major fund-raiser for the NAACP, at the Hyatt Hotel. Jack Cassidy, president and CEO of Cincinnati Bell, was awarded the 2001 Wright-Overstreet Memorial Award for philanthropy in education, for his leadership in the Taft School of Technology Project.

        The award for community service went to Betti Hinton, wife of former NAACP President Milton Hinton, for her work as a children's advocate in developing the Families Forward program.

        And the Rev. Damon Lynch III, pastor of New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine and co-chairman of Cincinnati Community Action Now, received the Theodore M. Berry Award for achievement in service to the community for his work on improving race relations in Cincinnati.

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