The Nation : Pastor Asks Tampa Calm

A black minister urged 200 mourners at a Tampa, Fla., funeral for a black man who died after a white policeman held him with a choke hold to avoid answering violence with violence. The Feb. 18 incident set off three nights of disturbances in a black neighborhood. The death of Melvin Eugene Hair should be the catalyst for change, the Rev. A. Leon Lowry Sr., a school board member, said. Hair, 23, whose mother described him as mentally handicapped, died about 1 1/2 hours after the officer used a carotid restraint on him. City officials said preliminary autopsy findings showed a link between the choke hold and Hair’s death.