BEHIND ‘THE RIOTS IN THE USA?
By Evelyn Sell
Between July 18 -and August 31, riots. broke out in the Negro ghettoes of seven Northern cities: New York, Rochester (New York), Jersey City, Elizabeth and Patterson (New Jersey), Dixmoor (a Chicago, Illinois, suburb) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania).: President Johnson. ordered the secret. political police to make a: compre- -hensive’ study of the events and the Federal: Bureau of Investigation [FBI] has now published its official report «:
The report: describes: ‘a common pattern of events: “, . ..4dm ‘each instance there. was first violent interference with ‘the ‘police-
t men on the scene, followed by: the gathering of a crowd. . . Ina majority of the areas affected store windows were broken, sometimes ‘for many blocks, rocks were thrown, ash cans were hurled from roof tops, bottles, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fire bombs were thrown - « » Looting followed. . . In most of the communities respected Negro and other civic leaders, clergymen and public officials made every effort to halt the riots. . . In almost all cases only massive and vigorous policé- action or the arrival of state police or the National Guard finally brought about a termination of the: riots and the restoration of law and. order. Inescapable Facts
The FBI, no friend to the Negro people, could not. help but ‘yYeveal the inescapable facts of ghetto misery that prompted Negroes to’explode in such a fashion. The report pointed out that it was essential to understand that: “The social’ and economic conditions in which much of the Negro population lives are demoralizing. . .« many of these areas are characterized by miserable living conditions, houses that are badly maintained, many of them rat infested and filthy. Drunkenness, narcotics peddling, prostitution, idleness, frustration, poverty and lack of opportunity are part ‘of the atmos phere many people in these districts breathe."
Unlike. the Southern demonstrations and the previous actions insthe North which were aimed at integrating a specific.lunch counter or getting jobs: for Negroes from a particular company, the riots were
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a generalized protest against the totality of Northern ghetto living. In each riot-torn area there is a similar pattern of high Negro unemployment, indecent housing, inadequate educational facilities and police prutality. Although the rioters were called "hoodlums," it is significant that newspaper reports of the events in Rochester stated that the few Negro-owned businesses, the Black Muslim mosque and the “headquarters of a civil-rights organization, Congress of Racial Equality, were untouched although white-owned businesses on either side were wrecked. .
Althéugh the FBI report recognized to some extent the significance of the conditions of life within the ghettoes it hailed Johnson's phony ° ant lpoverty program and -“other private and public: activities" as a “long range" solution to the problems of the black ghetto. Police Brutality
- A good portion of the report deals with one of the most crus cial-sore points of the black ghetto: police brutality. All but: one of the seven riots were touched off by an incident involving the police, In New York it was the shooting-of a 15-year-old Negro boy by an off-duty white policeman; in Rochester it was the arrest of a Negro man at a street dance; in Jersey City and Philadelphia it was the arrest of a Negro woman; in Patterson it was a fight between Negro tearagers and policemen; in the Chicago suburb it was a case where a white liquor store owner accused a Negro woman of stealing a pint of gin. In each case rumors spread that the police-were beating or maltreating a Negro and crowds quickly. formed:.to aid. the Negro or to Protest the police actions.
“th its summary conclusions the FBI report states: “A common characteristic of the riots was a senseless attack on all constituted authority without purpose or objects": Senseless? Without purpose or object? As far back .as thirty years ago a mayor's com-~ mission in Néew York stated that the main cause of tension in Harlem was the community's resentment against police brutality. There have. now been four major riots in Harlem.within the past thirty years <-in 1935, 1943, 1959 and this.summer -- and each time police brutality was at the core of the disturbance. Charges of police brutality are constantly made in every large Northern city. A:Negro in Rochester told reporters during’the riots, "There are two sets of law, one for white and one for black. We just took enough of it. Police brutality, that's the name for it,"
The FBI. ‘report: absolves the ‘police of any wrong doing, demands additional powers for the police, recommends increased train ing in riot control for local police forces and launches a long attack against civilian review boards which were set up in Philadelphia and Rochester to curb police brutality. Many other areas have demanded the creation of such boards and the demand was reiter~ated after the riots, -
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The FBI report claimed that “where there is. an:outside civilian review board the restraint of the police was so great. that effective action against the rioters appeared to be impossible, This . restraint was well-known in the community and the rigters thereby. emboldened to resist and completely defy the efforts of the police to restore. order, In short, the police were so eareful to avoid accusations of improper conduct that they were virtually paralyzed."
FBI Challenged
Officials of the review boards quickly challenged the FBI statements. It was pointed out that the police acted with similar. "restraint" in the other cities --~ where there were no review: boards, It is interesting to note that the. FBI attack comes at a time whén a: proposal to create a public review board is being considered by the City Council of New York, yoo
The FBI proposals to deal with the causes and effects of the social explosions within the ghettoes are obviously inadequate or nonsensical. They call for "coordinated and concerted programs to keep teen-agers in school" -- when statistics prove that unemployment among Negro teen-agers is twice:as high as unemployment among white youth and that a high-school diploma means almost nothing in terms. of. getting a job. They complain about the frequent "absence of punishment of any kind" for "lawless youth" who are “well informed of their. privileged condition, including the fact that in many .jurisdictions they cannot be punished at all. by fine or imprisonment but onty, by probation or reform schools." (My emphasis. The report overlooks the many times that Negro youth have been judged, sentenced and punished on the spot by trigger-happy policemen such as the one who shot and killed the Negro youth and thereby set off the Harlem rioting.
There are many concerned parties who are attempting to head. off-riots in their own tense communities, The mayor of Buffalo, only seventy miles from the rioting in Rochester, called together. a group . of more than one hundred Negro and white community leaders to discuss preventive measures in their city. The president of the local chap-ter. of the National Association-for the Advancement of Golored People told the mayor, "I say to you it's time for you to.act. You have got to give us something we can tangibly tell our people. Something important, something that feeds their stomachs," ,
The mayor suggested a week or day. of prayer. The FBI suggests increased riot training for police. Neither proposal will prevent or stop further explosions within the seething black ghettoes of America,
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK. teur),.