2001 Cincinnati riots

Cincinnati riots of 2001
Date	April 9–13, 2001
Location	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Causes	Shooting of Timothy Thomas
Methods	Riots, vandalism and looting in Over-the-Rhine, downtown, Walnut Hills, Bond Hill, and Avondale.
Result	an estimated $3.6 million in damage; an estimated loss of $10 million due to the subsequent boycott; reform of police procedures concerning racial profiling
Parties to the civil conflict
Cincinnati P.D. Ohio Highway Patrol Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Rioters
Casualties
Arrested	158 in civil disobedience, 800 for curfew violations.

The Cincinnati riots of 2001 were a series of civil disorders which took place in and around the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio from April 9 to 13, 2001. The riots were the largest urban disturbance in the United States since the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

The riots were sparked after 19-year-old Timothy Thomas, an unarmed African American man, was shot and killed by Cincinnati Police Department Patrolman Stephen Roach during an attempt to arrest him for non-violent misdemeanors, most of which were traffic citations. Tensions were already high in the city following a series of other incidents of alleged police brutality and racial profiling, including two deaths. Protests erupted into four nights of rioting in Cincinnati, with rioters throwing objects at police officers, vandalizing and looting businesses before a city-imposed curfew effectively ended the unrest.

Ultimately it was determined the riots caused $3.6 million in damage to businesses and another $1.5 to $2 million to the city. A subsequent community boycott of downtown businesses had an estimated adverse impact of $10 million on the area. Incidents of violent crime rose in the downtown area for several years thereafter. The city worked with the community and police to improve training and policies to prevent incidents like that in which Thomas was fatally wounded.

The initial incident and much of the subsequent unrest took place in Over-the-Rhine, a neighborhood immediately north of Cincinnati's central business district. A 2000 demographic profile of the neighborhood showed a resident population of 7,368, of whom 5,974 were African American. The profile also showed significant poverty, unemployment, and a lack of development in the area for several decades. Some 1,667 of 3,594 housing units, or more than one third, in the neighborhood were vacant. About 96 percent of the occupied houses were renter-occupied. The neighborhood had a concentration of African Americans, who otherwise made up 40 percent overall of the 331,000 residents of the city. At the time of the riot, the median income in Over-the-Rhine was $8,600 compared to $26,774 for the city overall. Author David Waddington attributed the poverty of the area to high unemployment resulting from a loss of manufacturing jobs in the city, as well as cuts in youth programs in the city. The neighborhood had a high rate of crimes, in particular drug-related offenses.