The Cincinnati Beacon
Hey Department of Justice! Smitherman Says Intervene!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
February 13, 2008
United States Department of Justice
Criminal Section -PHB
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Brian A. Benczkowski:
In November 2000 Roger Owensby Jr. died in police custody having been brutally beaten by Cincinnati Police Officers. Roger Owensby was mistakenly identified as a criminal suspect known by the alias “LA”. Roger Owensby Jr. did not fit the description of “LA”. The tragedy of this situation is that Mr. Owensby Jr. was on active duty through two wars (Bosnia and Desert Storm) on behalf of the United States of America. This means these police officers murdered an unarmed African American Military Veteran on his home soil.
Officer Patrick Caton was fired by the City of Cincinnati but returned to work with $200,000 in back pay. He was recently promoted to sergeant on Martin Luther King (MLK) weekend and assigned to communities which are highly populated with African American residents. His promotion on MLK weekend and his public thanks of the second officer involved in the Owensby murder, Blaine Jorg, has created a “powder keg"environment in Cincinnati, Ohio.
This letter is to request your immediate intervention. I requested your intervention as a City Councilmember in 2003. I am now the President of the Local Chapter of the NAACP and yet again request your intervention. Your lack of involvement I believe has permitted these series of events to occur. I am very frustrated that the Federal Government refuses to protect Mr. Owensby Jr.’s civil rights and therefore the rights of all African Americans in the United States. Mr. Owensby Jr., a military veteran, has been deceased for 8 years with no action by the Department of Justice. Again, I formally request on behalf of the Owensby Family that the Department of Justice charge Officers Caton and Jorg with violating Mr. Owensby, Jr.’s. civil rights. This action would be seen by the African American Community as a small step toward reconciliation and healing.
Sincerely,
Christopher Smitherman
President of the Cincinnati NAACP
cc: Cincinnati City Councilmembers
John Conyers, Congressman Chairman of the Judiciary Committee
Dennis Courtland-Hayes, Interim President & CEO of the NAACP
Eric Kearney, Ohio Senator
Mark Mallory, Mayor of Cincinnati
Roger Owensby Sr.
Ted Strickland, Governor of Ohio
Tyrone Yates, Ohio State Representative
Carl Levin, Michigan Senator
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