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- NATION, Page 49American NotesMIAMIBreaking the Cycle
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- Miami was prepared for the worst as the trial of police
- officer William Lozano, charged with killing two unarmed black
- men last January, came to an end last week. Their deaths sparked
- three days of burning and looting. Twice before in the 1980s,
- riots followed the acquittals of white or Hispanic police
- officers charged with killing blacks. As police were suiting up
- for more trouble, a jury of three whites, two blacks and one
- Hispanic broke the cycle of violence by convicting Lozano on two
- counts of manslaughter.
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- While another flare-up was averted, reaction to the verdict
- split along Miami's racial fault lines. Hispanics said the
- officer was being sacrificed to appease blacks. But in the
- Overtown ghetto, the site of January's worst rioting, some
- residents marched in celebration. "This is what the black
- community has been waiting for," said Overtown resident Alice
- Johnson, 43. "Justice."
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