BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- State police sent 150 troopers into the city Wednesday after two nights of rioting touched off by a deadly police chase in this community, plagued for years by poverty, high unemployment and racial tensions.\nCity officials also said they would aggressively enforce an overnight curfew already on the books for those 16 and younger, saying those are the ones causing the trouble.\nSteven McCoy, a member of the City Commission, pleaded for calm, saying: "Let's don't destroy our city. This is our city. When it's all said and done, it's going to take us to put it all together again."\nThe rioting in the mostly black city began Monday after the death of Terrance Shurn, 28, of Benton Harbor, who lost control of his speeding motorcycle and crashed into a building as he was being chased by Benton Township police. Shurn was black, and the officers who chased him into the city are white.\nNo serious injuries were reported in Monday's violence. But late Tuesday, bottle-throwing residents overpowered the small police force and hundreds spilled into the streets, burning at least five buildings and beating or stabbing about a dozen people.\nTwo firefighters trying to reach a burning building near the crash scene were attacked by a mob, even though about 130 state troopers and 100 other officers armed with tear gas were on patrol. Seven people were arrested.\nIt was 4 a.m. Wednesday before the violence was quelled.\n"It is so unnecessary. It is unbelievable to see this in our community," said Police Chief Samuel Harris.\nResidents complained that they have long been harassed by the 25-member police force.\nHowever, Harris said Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America": "We're basically predominantly a black community. Many of our police officers are white, but I seldom have complaints of the racial nature.
Benton Harbor, a city of 12,000 people situated on Lake Michigan about 100 miles east of Chicago, is 92 percent black, according to the 2000 census. Boarded-up buildings dot the community, and the average unemployment rate last year was 25 percent. Appliance maker Whirlpool is headquartered in Benton Harbor, but on the outskirts of town.\nIt is separated by a river bridge from the St. Joseph, which offers a stark contrast: The city of 8,800 is 90 percent white, bustles with trendy restaurants, boutiques, offices and a picturesque waterfront, and had an average unemployment rate last year of 2 percent.\nAlex Kotlowitz wrote about the two cities and their racial divisions in the 1998 book "The Other Side of the River," which chronicled an investigation into the 1991 death of a black teenager last seen in St. Joseph.\nGov. Jennifer Granholm said 150 state troopers would be on the streets overnight to keep the peace.\n"You don't want to overreact and cause an unintended consequence, which is community backlash even greater than the one we've seen," she said. "We want to proceed with great caution."\nBenton Township officials promised to examine their policy on high-speed police chases after about 70 residents and city officials questioned them at a public meeting Tuesday night.\nPolice said that they did not know why Shurn fled officers. But they said his license had been suspended and officers found a small amount of marijuana on him after the crash.\nShurn's aunt, Rosemary Shurn, said the several arrests on her nephew's record were for minor offenses. "He had turned his life around and changed," she said.\n"There's got to be another solution. I can understand where these children are coming from. They've lost hope. They're in poverty but it's not the way to go about it. I don't think it's the way to go about it," she said.
