1967 New York City Riot

The 1967 New York City riot was one of many riots that occurred during the Long, hot summer of 1967. The riot began after an off-duty police officer, Patrolman Anthony Cinquemani shot and killed a Puerto Rican man named Renaldo Rodriquez who he claimed was carrying a knife while trying to break up a fight.

Background

Puerto Rican migration and conditions

Between 1943 and 1960 over 1/3 of Puerto Rico's population would move predominantly to the Northern United States cities of New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago. Puerto Ricans along with their descendants born in the US would face poverty and over policing in the urban areas they often lived in. The descendants of original migrants would be influenced by several factors such as: the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, the urbanized environment and industrial decline along with increased levels of racial and economic segregation. With deindustrialization, many jobs would be lost. 47% of Puerto Ricans would be considered as being unemployed or underemployed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By the time the 1960s had been reached, Manhattan had two sizable Puerto Rican communities located in East Harlem and the Lower East Side.

During the 1960s and 1970s many cities with large amounts of Puerto Rican populations would experience riots in them. In Harlem the police were used to experiencing conflicts with crowds. Usually crowd responses led to riots themselves.

Earlier incidents in Harlem

Tensions in the neighborhood involving Puerto Ricans increased after two incidents that happened in the neighborhood. The first being when a police officer killed two Puerto Ricans, Victor Rodriguez and Maximo Solero on November 15, 1963. The two were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and the police would claim that one of them would pull out a gun while under arrest in their car. The police would say that this justified the usage of lethal force towards them. The two officers would not be charged in response to this incident. Skepticism was encountered with the story and protests happened afterwards and the Upper West Side's New York City Police Department (NYPD) would be picketed. During January 1964, the NYPD would announce that they would intensify anti-bias programs relating to minorities and especially Puerto Ricans for there officers.

The second major incident in the area involving Puerto Ricans being killed by the police that led to raised tensions was on February 17 1964. An off-duty police officer would intervene in a fight happening outside a bar and ended up shooting and killing 18-year-old Puerto Rican, Francisco Rodriguez Jr. who had fled from the scene after the police officer intervened. Sometime afterwards a petition would circulate. During February 23, the East 104th Street NYPD station would be picketed that was sponsored by the East Harlem Tenants Council, a rent strike group that was created 5 days prior. The following day, a funeral march would be held for Francisco at 9 AM with 5 East Harlem protestant churches giving out leaflets urging them to attend a day before the march was held. Gilberto Gerena‐Valentin, a member of the steering committee of the National Association for Puerto Rican Civil Rights would say that his association was considering a rent strike that would be citywide on February 29 as a way to call attention towards slum conditions along with rat and cockroach infestations.

Inciting incident

Just after midnight on July 23, 1967; two plainclothes off-duty police officers, Thomas Ryan and Anthony Cinquemani were cruising the Spanish Harlem neighborhood. They encountered a brawl where Renaldo Rodriguez was fighting another man with a knife; at the time these fights were common in the neighborhood and fatal shootings by police officers were common. According to a police report on the incident, when Cinquemani and his partner arrived at the scene one of the men involved named Rodriguez would approach him with a knife. Cinquemani claimed he felt threatened and as a result drew his revolver and identified himself. He killed Rodriguez after repeatedly shooting him in his chest.

Riots

July 23

A crowd of about 400 Puerto Ricans and African Americans formed at Third Avenue and 111th Street where the shooting took place. Soon after the crowd formed, the New York Police Department (NYPD) sent the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) to where they had gathered. The TPF were disliked by minorities in the city and when they arrived it started a clash with the crowd.

Mayor John Lindsay would visit the area where the riots happened at that day as he was legally mandated to by state law and would attempt to cool down the violence by talking to the crowds that had gathered. During the times he visited the area he urged the local Puerto Rican community to create committees where they would meet at the Gracie Mansion to hear their issues. During the meetings later toward the day, an agreement was reached that said local leaders would restore in the area if the TPF was temporarily decommissioned. Also, during that day two people, Emma Haddock and Luis Antonio Torres would be killed by the police after being shot by them which angered residents further. The police would attempt to cover up their own deaths.

Evening of July 23 and 24

However, the victories made at the Gracie Mansion were short-lived as rioting resumed during the evening. At 10 PM a group of teenagers would construct a barricade that consisted of overflowing trash cans on Third Avenue and 111th Street and would light it on fire. The cops would disperse the crowd temporarily before regathering again. This time, they would march on Third Avenue to the 126th Street NYPD police precinct. Along the way they would break windows and loot stores they went by. Police forces would attempt to create barricades at major intersections on Third Avenue but let them walk between 111th and 125th Streets. 250 police officers would guard the outside of the 126th Street precinct. When the crowd had come, the police would start hitting them with their batons and 1,000 officers would respond to the situation. Fighting between the police and the crowd would last throughout the night. The police themselves would even break windows claiming they only did them because rioters had damaged them. The police would exchange gunfire with snipers on top of the rooftops of 111th Street from 2-2:30 AM. 22-year-old Luis Torres, a drug dealer who was released on probation 2 weeks earlier would be killed during that night. The police would say at first that he had died after having suffering a fall and breaking his neck. When New York City's Medical Examiner, Milton Helpern would arrive he would say that the cause of his death was from a .38 caliber bullet when he was shot in his ribs.

Evening of July 24 and 25

Riots would continue and during the second night it spread over into the South Bronx after a rumor turning out to be false that Mayor Lindsay would visit the area. Violence would begin after a crowd of 1,000 would "attack" a Gulf Oil gas station on 109th Street which they falsely thought was a shelter for the police who were incited by a man giving speeches in Spanish nearby on Third Avenue and 111th Street about Puerto Ricans serving in the Vietnam War. The police would try to appease the crowds during that night on 109th and Third Avenue by not using sirens, helmets, and helicopters. At some point during the rioting that night, a group of youths would draw a chalk line across Third Avenue at 110th Street in Manhattan and wrote that it was the "Puerto Rican border." Over 1,000 police officers would be dispatched to deal with the 2,000 people who were involved in the unrest that happened that night. The crowd was dispersed after a heavy rainstorm happened at 3 AM. The mayor would be clueless as to how to respond towards the situation.

A 19-year-old would be shot at his arm along 139th Street in the Bronx. Youths would set fire to trash cans in the Bronx and 2 stores would be looted. The police would assign 70 officers to the area. During the unrest occurring that night in the Bronx, the police would shoot and kill Jose Rodriguez. Jose was fighting 18-year-old Alfredo Feliciano over "a girl" at Longwood Avenue and Fox Street according to the police. Police would also state that Felicano stabbed Rodriguez in his stomach and that Rodriguez himself had a pistol. Feliciano would be arrested in connection to the stabbing. The police would say at first that he was killed after being stabbed by a knife on July 24. Rodriguez would fire one shot at Patrolman Granville Watson. However on July 25, the police would change their story saying that Patrolman Watson would fire a warning shot as the two had run off; and during his second shot he would end up hitting Rodriguez in his shoulder.

July 26 and 27

Although during the daytime hours of July 26 the city was described as being at a sense of peace. Also during July 26 the city's Police Commissioner, Howard R. Leary would order the entire patrol force to be on a six day work week and give a 60% increase towards the number of officers available for anti-riot activities in an attempt to prevent any unrest in East Harlem from happening.

In addition to the unrest in Harlem and the Bronx, new violence would hit other parts of the city as looting and vandalism erupted along in Midtown during the night of July 26 and 27. At 11:30 PM during July 26, officers at a station on 51st Street would report that a crowd that was disorderly consisting of 100-150 youths leaving Central Park from a Rheingold Festival. The crowd would go southwards along Broadway and turn eastwards toward 46th Street heading onto Fifth Avenue. Once at Fifth Avenue, they would smash the windows of a men's clothing store along the northeastern corner of Fifth Avenue and 46th Street. A shoe store was also looted that night along 38th Street. In response to this outbreak of violence, the police would response quickly. Officers would be placed in pairs on the corner of Fifth and Madison Avenues running from 42nd to 50th Street. Commissioner Leary would and Chief Inspector Sanford D. Garelick would go to the scene from their command post located in East Harlem. At 1:30 AM Jacques Nevard, the deputy police commissioner who was the head of press relations would say the unrest midtown was under control. By 2:20 AM the unrest was reported by the police as having ended with 32 arrests happening that night.

July 29 and 30

Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood would see unrest in it during July 29 and 30 as well. During the night of July 29, 100 police officers would be sent into an area centering around Nostrand Avenue and Fulton Street. Windows would be broken over the course of several hours before the crowd stopped and instead yelled insults at the police. The police did not retaliate and order would return to the area by dawn that day. The Brooklyn disturbances would see 32 arrests in total over the course of two days. However, it is unknown what specifically caused it.

Aftermath, legacy and results

Following the riots a consensus would form from civic groups, the mayor, media and parts of the police department that the riots themselves weren't only an explosion of lawlessness in the area like how they were often viewed during the 1960s. The general image instead that was formed by them was that they were fueled by isolated incidents and their demands were created spontaneously.

Mayor Lindsay would be asked by US President Lyndon B. Johnson to join the Kerner Commission on July 27, 1967. After being asked, Mayor Lindsay would accept the offer by President Johnson and served as the vice chair of the Kerner Commission.

Another riot would happen in the neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn after an African-American police officer had killed a 14-year-old African American who was attempting to mug a Jewish man. A false rumor would spread that it was a white police officer who had done it which lead to inciting residents in the area with 3 consecutive nights of disturbances happening along Ralph Avenue going from Bergen Street to Eastern Parkway.

What happened that year would be one of many incidents of civil unrest during Mayor Lindsay's term as mayor. The following year in 1968, a brief period of unrest would begin after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. during April 1968. The riots occur in close to the same locations as they had the year prior. Also in 1968, two incidents of unrest not connected to the King assassination riot would happen during July in Coney Island and the Lower East Side at close to the same time.

The Young Lords would begin having a presence in the city during 1969 establishing chapters in: East Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx and the Lower East Side. They would have fast paced campaigns and be media-savvy as well. Some Puerto Ricans would turn to the Young Lords as they felt more moderate forces like Mayor Lindsay could not solve their problems adequately.

See also

* Harlem riot of 1935
* Harlem riot of 1943
* Harlem riot of 1964
* 1968 New York City riot

References

{{Reflist

Riots and civil disorder in New York City
Riot
African-American riots in the United States
New York City
New York City riot
New York City riot