In air thick with tear gas and rage, rioters in St. Petersburg, Fla., reduced buildings to ashes last month after a white policeman was cleared in the killing of a black motorist.
The same day in Pittsburgh, an angry crowd gathered outside a courthouse as another white police officer won acquittal in the death of a black motorist.Some in the mob tried to pull down the U.S. flag. But the protest halted there, replaced by a tense calm.
Why some cities simply simmer while others boil over into riots following police killings with racial overtones puzzles specialists.
Since the circumstances of no two cases are identical, simple comparisons aren't easy, said Lorie A. Fridell, a researcher and professor of criminology at Florida State University.
However, Fridell said, the level of tension between police and the ethnic or racial community, how openly officials confront the incident, the depth of underlying rage among residents and even the weather seem key to whether violence or calm will reign.
"If the relationship between police and the community is generally good and a questionable shooting occurs, both sides can fall back on the communication they built in the past," Fridell said. "But if the relations have been poor, the shooting could be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
Community leaders in St. Petersburg would agree.
"This city's divisions didn't start with that shooting," said Pastor Manuel Sykes of Bethel Community Baptist Church. "Relations have been strained for some time, but they erupted with this recent tragedy. It was the trigger."
Sykes has led community meetings since Nov. 13, when grand jurors found that police officer Jim Knight was justified in shooting TyRon Lewis to death Oct. 24. Sykes said St. Petersburg has a recent history of tense relations between police and the black community.
Four years ago, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission gave the city a failing grade for race relations. It raised the grade to a "B" two years later, but Sykes said trust has been difficult to cultivate in St. Petersburg, where police have killed six citizens in the line of duty this year.
"Goodwill between the community and police has been rare," Sykes said.
In Baltimore, police officer Stephen Pagotto was prosecuted for the death of black motorist Preston E. Barnes. While several groups held angry rallies, no rioting occurred in the days following the Feb. 7 killing.
Pagotto was convicted Dec. 17 on charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment and could receive up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Feb. 27.
Baltimore NAACP President Rodney Orange credited "an open dialogue" between community leaders and police officials with reducing tensions.
"It doesn't feel like anyone is trying to cover anything up. City leaders have been accessible," Orange said.
Samuel Walker, professor of criminology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said police use of force is relatively rare but appears overwhelmingly put upon urban males.
Thomas said force is used in about 1 percent of police encounters with the public. In about two-thirds of the cases, the force is justified, he said.
"Overall, 1 percent may look low, but if you look at black men the proportion is much higher," Thomas said.
Specialists aren't sure how many questionable cases of white officers injuring or killing black suspects occur annually. And not all of those cases gain the media attention of the videotaped Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, which triggered rioting, or the beating death of Malice Green in Detroit, which did not.
While two officers were convicted of second-degree murder in the Green case, some were surprised no rioting took place in Detroit, a city where the crowning of a sports team has sparked disorders in the past.
"I don't see a lot of rhyme or reason to a lot of it," said Diop Kamau, a graduate student at Florida State University in Tallahassee and former police officer who documents instances of police abuse and harassment.
"It makes sense that if the weather is cold, people probably won't come out as quickly," Kamau said. "But if people are feeling hopeless and abandoned by society, the cold might not matter."
Much of what the experts say today mirrors findings of earlier riot researchers during the long, hot summers in the 1960s.
In 1965, the McCone Report, a study of the Watts riots in Los Angeles, cited police abuse, unemployment, inadequate schools and poor living conditions as prime factors behind an urban American riot.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Confrontations' violent aftermath
Rioting sparked by confrontations between white police officers and blacks this year:
- In February, after a Paterson, N.J., policeman shot and killed Chris "Deshon" Thomas, 28, during a domestic abuse call, protesters pelted squad cars with rocks and bottles, smashing a windshield and cutting the face of an officer.
The disturbance came nearly a year after an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white housing police officer during a drug bust. That shooting sparked days of rioting.
- Rioting followed the Oct. 24 shooting of TyRon Lewis, 18, during a traffic stop in St. Petersburg, Fla. The initial disturbance, a round of rock- and bottle-throwing and burning, injured several people and caused at least $5 million in damage.
A subsequent spurt of violence, after a grand jury cleared the officer who shot Lewis, caused an additional $1 million in damage, mostly from fires.
- A curfew that was supposed to quell rioting in Leland, Miss., led to 19 arrests on Halloween night after a black motorist died under disputed circumstances.
Police originally said Aaron White, 29, was shot by a white officer while fleeing a traffic accident. Police later concluded that White shot himself while attempting to avoid officers. Black city leaders charged a police cover-up.
- In December, a large crowd threw bottles and taunted police in Tampa, Fla., after two white officers shot and killed a black man suspected of dealing drugs.