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Hundreds of people gathered at the steps of the Hamilton County Courthouse downtown to show their support for the civil unrest in Baltimore following the police-involved death of a black man Thursday.
The peaceful “Stand with Baltimore and Freddie Gray” rally organized by Black Lives Matter Cincinnati was a sign of solidarity to those in Baltimore, where days of rioting erupted following the death of Freddie Gray, 25, who died after being in police custody April 19 .
Gray was arrested April 12 for possession of a switchblade. While being transported by police, he fell into a coma and was taken to a trauma center. His death has been attributed to injuries to his spinal cord. The investigation into his death is continuing.
Griffin Ritze with Black Lives Matter Cincinnati said the rally, where a couple dozen police officers stood watch, was a sign of solidarity with those who protested in Baltimore, as well as in other places throughout the country, in hopes to invoke fundamental change.
And unity is what many on the courthouse steps hoped for at Thursday’s rally.
“I’m tired of being sick and tired of being tired,” said Roy Townsend, of Mount Healthy, a suburb of Cincinnati. “It’s 2015, we should be well-beyond the color of each other’s skin. United States, unity — it goes hand-in-hand. There is no unity. Period.”
Cincinnati has been on the brink in the past.
The death of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed black 19-year-old shot by a white Cincinnati police officer led to riots and a boycott of the city that cost businesses millions of dollars in April 2001. Out of the incident came the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, which worked to improve police-community relations.
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