IS HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF IN NEW YORK CITY?
by Neil Sankey, P.I., blogging at nspiusa.com
At the time, I was a young British “Bobby” on the beat in England. I remember this so well, reading about these riots and worrying, to some degree, if this could ever happen in England. I took the trouble to try to understand just how this had happened and why it had progressed so rapidly across America.
This is how it was reported…
Harlem Race Riot (1964) … http://www.uncoveringyonkers.com/harlem-race-riot-1964.html.. Christina Vignone
New York City’s third Harlem race riot began much like its predecessors with an incident bringing residents to the streets. On July 16, 1964 Patrick Lynch, the superintendent of an apartment building on East 76th Street, sprayed a group of young boys with a hose while they were playing outside. After a confrontation, Lynch entered the building with James Powell, one of the teenagers originally from Harlem, in pursuit. Off-duty Lieutenant Thomas Gilligan watched as the events unfolded and chased the rest of the boys inside.[1] He showed his shield to the group but shot and killed Powell, claiming the boy lunged at him with a knife.[2] Unlike the 1935 and 1943 race riots, crowds protesting this incident of race-based policing gathered not only in Harlem but also in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn as well, demonstrating that “the actions in 1964 proved to be the beginning of an urban black protest throughout the country.”[3]
See the photo and read the rest here.
