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"Arrested in Rioting," Daily News, March 20, 1935, 3.
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2021-12-20T20:08:38+00:00
Frank Wells arrested
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2024-02-13T04:12:10+00:00
Around 8:50 PM, Officer Henry Eppler of the 48th Precinct arrested Frank Wells, a twenty-six-year-old Black man, for allegedly "hurling an automobile hub through a cafeteria window on 125th Street," according to a story in the New York Herald Tribune. Eppler was stationed in front of 207 West 125th Street, he testified in a public hearing of the MCCH; that was the address of the Willow Cafeteria, which appeared in several newspaper lists of damaged businesses. Eppler had arrived on Emergency Truck #5 about 7:15 PM and initially was stationed on 124th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, at the rear of Kress' store. By that time, the crowds that broke the store's rear windows were gone and he testified that the street was quiet, so the truck drove on to West 125th Street. At that time, police were establishing a cordon around Kress' store; around the time Eppler arrested Wells, a crowd reportedly broke through that cordon on to this block of 125th Street. Wells lived near 125th Street at 155 West 123rd Street, near the corner of 7th Avenue, so could have been drawn to the noise and crowds around Kress' store early in the disorder, when store windows on 125th Street were broken.
A New York Herald Tribune story reported Wells was "locked up at West 123rd Street station," the charge against him "to depend on value of the window." That determination was necessary as malicious mischief, the offense involving damage to property that was the charge most often made against those alleged to have broken windows, was a felony if the damage was more than $25. Only the Daily News list of those arrested reported that charge against Wells. The charge was inciting a riot in the list published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, assault in the list published in the New York Evening Journal, and disorderly conduct in the list published in the New York American. Wells did not appear in the 28th Precinct police blotter, perhaps because of how early in the disorder he was arrested. On March 20, when Wells appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, one of the last arraigned after being one of the first arrested, the charge recorded in the docket book was disorderly conduct. He appears to have been one of a small number of those arrested to be represented by a lawyer: "Ed Kuntz, 100 5th Ave." was the attorney recorded in the docket book. Edward Kuntz, a lawyer with the International Labor Defense, also represented Daniel Miller, Sam Jamison, Murray Samuels, and Claudio Viabolo, the men arrested for picketing in front of Kress' store immediately before the disorder began, in the Court of Special Sessions, and questioned witnesses in hearings of the MCCH commission. That representation indicated that Wells was associated with the Communist Party. So too did the involvement of another ILD lawyer, Isidore Englander, who once he heard he had been arrested, sought him out at the Magistrates court.
The ILD lawyers representing Wells alleged that he had been beaten by police during his arrest. He appeared in a list of possible witnesses that the Communist Party gave to Arthur Garfield Hays of the MCCH, with the annotation "police brutality." According to a summary in a list of "Cases of Police Brutality, Discrimination and Mistreatment of Negroes in Harlem" later supplied to the MCCH by lawyers affiliated with the Communist Party, he was "attacked by police and brutally beaten" while walking down 125th Street, again at the police station, and a third time in the police line-up on the morning of March 20. When Englander found Wells at the Harlem Magistrates Court, "his head was bandaged, his shirt was red with blood, he could not stand on his feet," he testified in a public hearing of the MCCH. At an earlier hearing, Kuntz had tried to ask Patrolman Eppler about the claim that police had beaten Wells "on the streets," but had been prevented by the district attorney's instruction that police officers testifying in the hearings could not reveal any evidence they would give in a pending case.
Investigating the case against Wells took an unusually long time. He returned to court on March 26, at which time his bail was set at $500. A note on the docket book appears to indicate that someone put up that bail, likely a Communist Party organization. Wells returned to court a further five times, according to the docket book, on April 9, 12, 17, 18, and finally on April 20, when he was convicted and sentenced to thirty days in the Workhouse. -
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2021-12-20T17:37:03+00:00
Leo Smith arrested
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2024-01-27T23:49:21+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer Williams of the 6th Detective Division arrested Leo Smith, an eighteen-year-old white man, for allegedly "throwing a stone through a Seventh Avenue window," according to a story in the New York Herald Tribune. The specific location of the damaged store is not given. However, Smith was one of three men arrested during the disorder arraigned in the Night Court, during the disorder on March 19, the New York Herald Tribune reported, so was arrested early in the disorder, likely near 125th Street, where the initial events were concentrated. In reporting that Smith was "accused of smashing a store window," a story in the Home News gave the address as 3180 7th Avenue, a non-existent address. He lived well to the east of Harlem, at 305 East 118th Street, between Second and First Avenues, an area with only white residents.
Smith was included in lists of those arrested in the disorder charged with disorderly conduct published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal and in the New York American, and without a charge in a list published in the Daily News. He was not included, however, in the transcript of the 28th Precinct police blotter, likely because he was arrested and sent to the Night Court on March 19 (although one of the two other men arraigned in the Night Court, Claudius Jones, is in the transcript). There Magistrate Capshaw held him for the Magistrates Court, on bail of $500. On March 20, Smith appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, charged with disorderly conduct. Magistrate Renaud tried and convicted him that day, holding him for sentence, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book and a story in the Home News. According to the Daily News, Smith had a white lawyer (although none was recorded in the docket book). The unnamed lawyer attracted the reporter's attention when he "sought to inject a question of race while a colored patrolman was testifying against" Smith. A slightly less cryptic account of what the lawyer said appeared in the Times Union, the only other newspaper to report the incident: "a lawyer for a white defendant hinted the trouble was started by Negroes and was racial in origin." According to that story, "Negroes in the jammed room muttered disapprovingly" and "Magistrate Renaud quickly reprimanded the attorney." The Daily News quoted the magistrate's words: "The patrolman in this case happens to be colored, the Judge happens to be white and the prosecutor is colored," said Renaud. "We recognize no race, color or creed here. We are looking for justice and law and order." When Smith returned to court on March 23, it was for sentencing, stories in the Afro-American, New York Age, Daily News, and New York Times reported. Magistrate Renaud sent him to the Workhouse for one month, a sentence in the middle of the range of punishments handed out to those arrested in the disorder.
Smith was recorded as white in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, in stories about his sentencing in the Afro-American, New York Age, Daily News, and New York Times and in lists published in the New York Evening Journal and Daily News. Neither story about his first appearance in court, in the New York Herald Tribune and the Home News, mentioned his race. His address, well east of the areas of Black residences in Harlem, fit with his recorded race (although the New York Evening Journal, New York Herald Tribune, and Daily News mistakenly recorded his address as West 118th Street). None of the newspaper reporting offered any comment regarding Smith's race.
While many of the white men and women involved in disorder around the time of Smith's arrest were members of Communist Party organizations, the evidence is contradictory in regards to Smith himself. He was represented by a lawyer, as those affiliated with the party typically were, but the statements attributed to his lawyer are at odds with the party's position that the disorder was not a race riot. Given the hostility of the judiciary toward Communists, Smith's sentence might have been expected to be longer. However, Frank Wells, a Black man who appeared to have ties to the party and who was also convicted of disorderly conduct after being arrested for breaking windows, received the same term of one month in the Workhouse. -
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2021-12-09T01:50:40+00:00
William Ford arrested
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2024-02-03T01:01:41+00:00
At 10:40 PM, Patrolman Walter MacKenzie told the Harlem Magistrates Court he saw William Ford, a seventeen-year-old Black laborer, throw a brick through a large display window in Kress' 5, 10 & 25c store at 256 West 125th Street. Ford then allegedly shouted, "in a loud tone of voice 'Shed white blood, kill the cops, there has been enough black blood shed now.'" A "very large and threatening crowd" gathered in response to Ford's shouts, according to MacKenzie. By that time, the large crowds that had been focused on 125th Street had broken into smaller groups, many of which scattered north and south up the avenues, but some groups remained. Ten minutes before windows were broken in Kress' store, Claude Jones allegedly threw a rock that broke a window at Blumstein's department store several buildings to to the east, and then called on the people on the street to attack police, drawing a large crowd. Around the same time, a white man named Thomas Wijstem was hit by a rock in front of the W. T. Grant store immediately east of Blumstein's, allegedly while being attacked by a group of Black men. Douglas Cornelius was arrested for allegedly throwing that rock.
Patrolman MacKenzie appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court as the arresting officer of not just Ford but also the two other men arrested nearby around the same time, Claude Jones and Douglas Cornelius. It is not clear he actually made the arrests. In court MacKenzie stated that he had witnessed Ford and Jones breaking windows and inciting the crowd, but made no mention of arresting them (there are no details of the circumstances of the arrest of Cornelius). Police had established a headquarters in front of Kress' store, and officers from throughout the city had begun arriving there before 10:30 PM, so there were likely other officers in the area who could have made the arrests.
William Ford gave his address as 263 West 130th Street in his examination in the Harlem Magistrates Court, saying he had lived there for about four years. That address was five blocks directly north of Kress' store, just east of the intersection with 8th Avenue, so Ford could have been among those drawn to 125th Street by the noise and rumors circulating after the store closed. He was one of only four individuals under the age of eighteen years arrested during the disorder. Ford appeared in lists of those arrested in the disorder, but the charge made against him is different in each list: in the list published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide he appeared among those charged with inciting a riot; in the list published in the New York Evening Journal the charge is disorderly conduct; and in a list published in the New York Daily News, Ford is charged with assault. On March 20, when he appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, the docket book records the charge as inciting a riot, although the arresting officer's affidavit describes Ford breaking a window and calling on the crowd to attack police. Magistrate Renaud remanded him in custody.
Ford was returned to the Harlem Magistrates Court a week later and held on bail of $1,000. He was one of only eighteen of those arrested in the disorder to have a lawyer representing him listed in the court docket book, in his case West-Indian born Hutson Lovell, prominent in the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and the Elks Lodge, with an office at 240 Broadway (both the other men arrested at same time, Claude Jones and Douglas Cornelius, also had Black lawyers representing them). Two days later Ford appeared again, when Magistrate Ford sent him to the grand jury. After MacKenzie was not present for Ford's first scheduled appearance on April 8, it would be two weeks before his case was presented to the grand jury. On April 12 the grand jury transferred Ford to the Court of Special Sessions, with a note on the Magistrates Court affidavit recording both the misdemeanor forms of inciting a riot, and malicious mischief, an offense involving damage to property used in the prosecution of those who allegedly broke windows during the disorder. (As the malicious mischief charge was not recorded in the docket book Ford is not categorized as being charged with that offense.) There was no information on the outcome of that trial. Ford did not appear in the transcript of the 28th Police Precinct blotter that provides outcomes for most of those prosecuted in the Harlem Magistrates Court. No newspapers reported his appearances in court.
The day after Ford appeared in the grand jury, his mother, Nora Ford, went to the MCCH to make a complaint about the police department in regards to his arrest. No details of her complaint appeared in the record of her visit, but the subcommittee on crime had begun to hear testimony in its public hearings about what it termed police brutality. Patrolman Mackenzie appeared on a list of police witnesses in the records of the chairman of that subcommittee, Arthur Garfield Hays, indicating that they had asked to have him testify in a public hearing. That did not happen. With a large number of cases reported to it, rather than holding hearings about them all, the MCCH asked Black lawyers from the Harlem Lawyers Association to investigate some cases, one of which may have been Ford's complaint. There is no evidence of the outcome of the complaint. -
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2021-09-07T16:52:05+00:00
James Smith arrested
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2024-01-27T17:39:43+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer C. G. Weiler of the 32nd Precinct arrested James Smith, a seventeen-year-old Black man. Smith appeared in the lists of those arrested in the disorder charged with burglary published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal and in the Daily News. By the time that Smith appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20, the charge against him had been reduced to disorderly conduct, a charge recorded in the docket book and reported in New York American. That change suggests that police did not have any evidence that Smith had taken any merchandise, or had been trying to take merchandise, the acts that constituted the offenses of burglary and larceny. He may have been accused of breaking store windows; a third of those police alleged broke windows faced a charge of disorderly conduct. But the definition of the offense did not actually encompass property damage, only various forms of breach of the peace. If the prosecutor was employing the charge in line with that definition, it was likely Smith had been part of a crowd near a looted store, but police could not establish that he attacked or took items from the store.
Magistrate Ford convicted Smith and sentenced him to six months in the Workhouse, an outcome recorded in the docket book and reported in the New York Herald Tribune and Home News and later in the New York Age. That was the maximum prison term the Magistrate could impose for disorderly conduct, and one of the heaviest punishments given to those arrested during the disorder. Notwithstanding the decision to charge him with disorderly conduct, that outcome suggests that police did allege that Smith had been involved in looting.
There is considerable variation in Smith's age and home address in as reported in the press. The docket book recorded him as seventeen years of age and living at 125 West 123rd Street, near the heart of the disorder. The New York Evening Journal and Daily News reported that home address, but Smith as eighteen years of age. The New York Herald Tribune, Home News, and New York Age reported Smith was forty-eight years of age, living at 112 West 136th Street, while the New York American reported his age as twenty-six years and his home as 158 West 123rd Street. Based on the docket book, the stories could not refer to anyone else who appeared in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court on March 20 other than James Smith. -
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2021-12-15T20:01:46+00:00
Henry Stewart arrested
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2024-01-25T22:24:42+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer Libman of the 32nd Precinct arrested Henry Stewart, a thirty-three-year-old Black man, for allegedly having thrown a bottle through a window in the meat market at 2422 8th Avenue, a story in the Home News reported. There was no information on the time or circumstances of the arrest. The arrest may have taken place around 10:30 PM, when the disorder intensified and crowds spread from 125th Street along 8th Avenue, but more likely occurred later, around 11:00 PM, given how far north the store was located. Libman also appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court as the arresting officer of another man, Warren Johnson, and two women, Louise Brown and Rose Murrell, who, with Stewart, had all been arrested at 8th Avenue and West 127th Street, according to a story in the Daily Mirror. The broken window in 2422 8th Avenue was the northern-most report of disorder on 8th Avenue, on the block between 130th and 131st Streets, two and half blocks north of where the story reported Stewart's arrest. While the grocery store whose window Murell allegedly broke was located at that intersection, on the southeast corner of 127th Street, the location of Brown and Johnson's alleged offenses are not mentioned in any sources. The intersection may have been where police were stationed and where those arrested were initially brought, rather than the site of their arrest. The other reported broken windows and looting on 8th Avenue were south of 128th Street. Stewart lived at 268 West 132nd Street, east of 8th Avenue a block and a half north of the meat market, so may have been drawn to the noise and crowds on the avenue in the early evening of March 19. All six of the men and women arrested by police on 8th Avenue lived either west of the avenue or in the block between 8th and 7th Avenues.
Henry Stewart was recorded in the 28th Precinct police blotter as charged with inciting a riot. That charge was reported in the lists published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal and the Daily News, and in a story in the Daily Mirror. However, malicious mischief was the charge recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book on March 20, when Stewart appeared in court, and reported in the Home News story about those proceedings. Police appeared to have initially charged many of those arrested during the riot with inciting a riot and then revised those charges to fit the specific act that an individual was alleged to have committed before their arraignment in court. The others arrested by Libman were all charged with malicious mischief, although Brown and Johnson later had that charge reduced to disorderly conduct, indicating a lack of evidence they had broken windows. Magistrate Renaud transferred Stewart to the Court of Special Sessions and set bail at $500. That decision meant that the value of the damage to the building was not more than $250, the level required for the charge to be a felony. On March 25, the judges in that court discharged Stewart, according to the 28th Precinct police blotter. He was the only one of the six individuals tried for malicious mischief known to have been released (the outcome of three trials is unknown). Evidently police could not prove that Stewart had been a participant in the disorder rather than a spectator. -
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2021-12-15T20:00:50+00:00
Rose Murrell arrested
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2024-02-01T00:55:41+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer Libman of the 32nd Precinct arrested Rose Murrell, a nineteen-year-old Black woman, for allegedly having "stoned a store window," in the grocery store at 2366 8th Avenue, a story in the Home News reported. There is no information on the time or circumstances of the arrest. Libman also appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court as the arresting officer of another woman, Louise Brown, and two men, Henry Stewart and Warren Johnson, who, with Murrell, had all been arrested at 8th Avenue and West 127th Street, according to a story in the Daily Mirror. While the grocery store was located at this intersection, on the southeast corner of 127th Street, the location of Brown and Johnson's alleged offenses are not mentioned in any sources, and the store in which Stewart allegedly broke a window was two and half blocks north of where the story reported his arrest. It is possible that the intersection was where police were stationed, where those arrested were initially brought, rather than the site of their arrest.
The grocery store at 2336 8th Avenue was in the midst of the blocks of 8th Avenue on which there are reports of violence and police making arrests during the disorder: the arrest of James Hayes for allegedly looting the Danbury Hat store at 2334 8th Avenue near 125th Street; the arrest of Emmett Williams and Theodore Hughes for allegedly breaking windows and looting Frendel's meat market three buildings south at 2360 8th Avenue; the arrest of Thomas Babbitt for allegedly taking soap from Thomas Drug store at 2374 8th Avenue, across 127th Street; and at the very end of the disorder, the arrest of Jean Jacquelin at 128th Street for allegedly looting and police shooting and killing James Thompson across 8th Avenue from the store. Murrell lived at 260 West 126th Street, just east of 8th Avenue a block south of the grocery store, so may have been drawn to the noise and crowds on the avenue in the early evening of March 19. All six of the men and women arrested by police on 8th Avenue lived either west of the avenue or in the block between 8th and 7th Avenues.
Rose Murrell is recorded in the 28th Precinct police blotter as charged with inciting a riot. That charge is reported in a list in the Daily News and a story in the Daily Mirror. However, the list of those arrested in the disorder published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, and the list published in the New York Evening Journal include her among those charged with malicious mischief, an offense involving damage to property used in the prosecution of individuals arrested for allegedly breaking windows during the disorder. That was the charge recorded in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book on March 20, when Murrell appeared in court, and reported in the Home News story about those proceedings. Police appear to have initially charged many of those arrested during the riot with inciting a riot, and then revised those charges to fit the specific act that an individual was alleged to have committed before their arraignment in court. Magistrate Renaud transferred Murrell to the Court of Special Sessions, and set bail at $500, indicating that the value of the damage to the building was not more than $250, the level required for the charge to be a felony. Almost two weeks later, on April 1st, the judges in that court convicted Murrell and sentenced her to one month in the Workhouse, according to the 28th Precinct police blotter.
Murell's name is spelled in different ways in the sources: as Murrell in the 28th Precinct police blotter and Harlem Magistrates Court docket and book and the Daily News and New York Evening Journal; as Murelle in the Daily Mirror; as Murell in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide; and as Morrell in the Home News. -
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2021-12-02T20:47:06+00:00
Arthur Killen arrested
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2024-01-17T01:47:54+00:00
Officer Platt of the 40th Precinct arrested Arthur Killen, a forty-three-year-old Black man, allegedly "after he threw a stone through the window" of the Truss Shop at 2136 7th Avenue, according to a Home News story. After the arrest, that story went on, police found an "open knife" in his possession. The newspaper story did not mention when Platt arrested Killen. Groups from 125th Street had begun to move north on 7th Avenue around 8:30 PM, and some broke store windows as they went. However, police were not deployed on these blocks of 7th Avenue until around 9:30 PM. Patrolman Edward Doran arrested Leroy Brown for breaking windows a block further north on the other side of 7th Avenue at 9:45 PM. Killen was likely arrested around that time. An arrest later, at 10:10 PM, a block north on the same side of 7th Avenue as Killen's arrest, was of an alleged looter. The shift from breaking windows to taking goods generally came sometime after store windows had been broken, so that arrest suggested that the behavior of the crowd had changed — or at least who police sought to arrest had changed. Certainly, there was no evidence of arrests for breaking windows in this area after 10:00 PM, making it unlikely Killen was arrested later in the disorder.
Killen lived at 277 West 127th Street, at the western end of the block that intersected with 7th Avenue near the Truss Shop. He appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court on March 20, charged with both malicious mischief and possession of a knife. Magistrate Renaud transferred Killen to the Court of Special Sessions, and held him on bail of $500 for each charge. Renaud's decision indicated that the value of the damage to the window was not more than $250, the level required for the charge of malicious mischief to be a felony, and that Killen did not have a previous conviction, which would have made possession of the knife a felony. The outcome of his prosecutions are unknown.
A story in the Home News about Killen's appearance in the Magistrates Court was the only evidence that connected him to 2136 7th Avenue. Killen appeared in lists of those arrested during the disorder, with the charges against him variously recorded as inciting a riot in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, disorderly conduct in the New York American, "concealed weapons" in the Daily News, and disorderly conduct and possession of a weapon in the list in the New York Evening Journal. Those inconsistencies likely resulted from Killen being charged with more than one offense, which was unusual for those arrested during the disorder. Given that he appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court, Killen should have been in the 28th Precinct Police blotter, which would have included information on the outcome of his prosecution. However, Killen was missing from that record.
The Daily News identified Killen as a white man, but the Harlem Magistrate's Court docket book recorded him as a Black man. The Daily News misidentified several of those arrested as white. -
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2021-12-10T21:34:11+00:00
Emmet Williams arrested
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2024-01-24T00:56:27+00:00
Sometime during the disorder, Officer Carrington of the 32nd Precinct arrested Emmet Williams, a twenty-eight-year-old Black man, for allegedly breaking a window in Frendel's meat market at 2360 8th Avenue. There are no sources that clearly describe what Williams allegedly did. He is identified as "breaking window" in a list in the New York American, which fits the charge made against him in the Harlem Magistrates Court, malicious mischief. That offense involved damage to property, and all those arrested during the disorder who faced that charge had allegedly broken windows. Leo Halberg, a butcher employed in the meat market is recorded as the complainant against Williams in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, by "marks that refer to his details in the row above, the record of the appearance of Theodore Hughes." The clerk used the same marks to identify Carrington as the arresting officer. He arrested Hughes, a twenty-two-year-old Black man, for allegedly taking two pieces of salt pork from the broken window of the meat market, according to a story in the New York Herald Tribune and a list in the New York American. The latter source specified that Hughes had taken the pork from an already broken window; Williams likely allegedly broke the window.
The home address recorded for Williams in the docket book, 242 West 127th Street, was only half a block west of 8th Avenue. The meat market was midway between 127th and 126th Streets, on the east side of 8th Avenue. He was likely drawn to the area by the multiple incidents of attacks on windows, looting, and violence reported there during the disorder: the arrest of James Hayes for allegedly looting the Danbury Hat store at 2334 8th Avenue near 125th Street; the arrest of Rose Murrell for breaking windows in a grocery store three buildings to the north, on the corner of 127th Street; the arrest of Thomas Babbitt for taking soap from Thomas Drug store a block north; and at the very end of the disorder, the arrest of Jean Jacquelin at 128th Street for looting and police shooting and killing James Thompson across the street from the store.
Williams appears in the list of those charged with inciting a riot published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide. A list published in the Daily News, which misreported his name as "Emmet Hughes" and his race as white, listed the charge against him as disorderly conduct. In the court docket book, Williams was recorded as Black. Arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, directly after Hughes, the charge against Williams was malicious mischief. Several of the other people arrested during the disorder charged with breaking windows likewise were reported as charged with inciting a riot or disorderly conduct, but were then charged with malicious mischief in court. Like Theodore Hughes, Magistrate Renaud sent him to the Court of Special Sessions and held him on bail of $500 (indicating that the value of the damage to the building was not more than $250, the level required for the charge to be a felony). There is also no evidence of the outcome of his trial. Williams and Hughes are two of the few of those who appeared in the Harlem Magistrate's Court not mentioned in the Home News story on March 21 that provides brief details of the charges against those arrested in the disorder. Given the location of the market, Williams and Hughes should have been taken to the 28th Precinct and appear in their blotter, but they do not. Carrington may have instead taken them to his own precinct, the 32nd, on West 135th Street.
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2021-12-15T20:01:28+00:00
Louise Brown arrested
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2024-01-28T05:32:22+00:00
Sometime during the riot, Officer Libman of the 32nd Precinct arrested Louise Brown, a twenty-three-year-old Black woman. There was no information on Brown's alleged offense, or the time or circumstances of the arrest. The arrest likely took place around 10:30 PM or 11:00 PM, when the disorder intensified and crowds spread from 125th Street along 8th Avenue. Libman also appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court as the arresting officer of another woman, Rose Murrell, and two men, Henry Stewart and Warren Johnson, who, with Brown, had all been arrested at 8th Avenue and West 127th Street, according to a story in the Daily Mirror. Murrell and Stewart were alleged to have broken windows in two different stores, Murrell at 2366 8th Avenue and Stewart at 2422 8th Avenue. Brown and Johnson were also arrested for breaking windows, based on the charge against them, malicious mischief according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book. An offense involving damage to property, malicious mischief was used by prosecutors after the disorder only against individuals arrested for allegedly breaking windows. Brown has been treated as having been arrested for breaking windows on the basis of that charge even though there are no details of her alleged act.
While the story in the Daily Mirror suggested Brown and Johnson had been arrested at the intersection, so likely had allegedly broken windows nearby, the store in which Stewart allegedly broke a window was two and half blocks north of where the story reported his arrest. It was possible that the intersection was where police were stationed, so where those arrested were initially brought, rather than the site of their arrest. Brown lived at 251 West 128th Street, just east of 8th Avenue, a block north of where she was reported arrested, so may have been drawn to the noise and crowds on the avenue in the early evening of March 19. All six of the men and women arrested by police on 8th Avenue lived either west of the avenue or in the block between 8th and 7th Avenues.
Louise Brown was recorded in the 28th Precinct police blotter as charged with inciting a riot. That charge was reported in the lists published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal and in the Daily News, as well as in the story in the Daily Mirror. Police appeared to have initially charged many of those arrested during the riot with inciting a riot, and then revised those charges to fit the specific act that an individual was alleged to have committed before their arraignment in court. Prosecutors had changed the charge against Brown to malicious mischief by the time she appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20. Magistrate Renaud held Brown in custody until March 25, on bail of $500. When she was returned to court, the charge against Brown was reduced to disorderly conduct, malicious mischief crossed out in the docket book, "Red." written above it, and "DISORDERLY CONDUCT" stamped in its place. That change, to a lesser offense that did not involve damage to property, likely indicated a lack of evidence that Brown had broken a window. Instead, she was likely part of a crowd in the vicinity of the damaged store, arrested either by mistake or to get her off the street as part of police efforts to disperse the crowd. Disorderly conduct was an offense that could be adjudicated by a magistrate, unlike malicious mischief which would have been referred to another court. Magistrate Ford convicted Brown and gave her a suspended sentence. Warren Johnson, arrested with her and prosecuted in the same way, also received a suspended sentence. -
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2021-12-15T20:02:06+00:00
Warren Johnson arrested
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2024-02-13T19:24:29+00:00
Sometime during the riot, Officer Libman of the 32nd Precinct arrested Warren Johnson, an eighteen-year-old Black man. There was no information on Johnson's alleged offense, or the time or circumstances of the arrest. The arrest likely took place around 10:30 PM or 11:00 PM, when the disorder intensified and crowds spread from 125th Street along 8th Avenue. Libman also appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court as the arresting officer of two women, Rose Murrell and Louise Brown, and another man, Henry Stewart, who, with Johnson, had all been arrested at 8th Avenue and West 127th Street, according to a story in the Daily Mirror. Murrell and Stewart were alleged to have broken windows in two different stores, Murrell at 2366 8th Avenue and Stewart at 2422 8th Avenue. Johnson and Brown likely also allegedly broke store windows, based on the charge against all four of those Libman arrested, malicious mischief, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book. An offense involving damage to property, malicious mischief was used by prosecutors after the disorder only against individuals arrested for allegedly breaking windows. Johnson has been treated as having been arrested for breaking windows on the basis of that charge even though there are no details of his alleged act.
While the story in the Daily Mirror suggested Johnson and Brown had been arrested at the intersection, so likely were alleged to have broken windows nearby, the store in which Henry Stewart allegedly broke a window was two and half blocks north of where the story reported his arrest. It is possible that the intersection was where police were stationed, where those arrested were initially brought, rather than the site of their arrest. Johnson lived at 206 West 121st Street, a block east of 8th Avenue and six blocks north of where he was reported arrested. All six of the men and women arrested by police on 8th Avenue lived either west of the avenue or in the block between 8th and 7th Avenues, but the others lived north of 125th Street, considerably closer than Johnson.
Warren Johnson was recorded in the 28th Precinct police blotter as charged with inciting a riot. That charge was reported in the lists published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide, in the New York Evening Journal and in the Daily News, as well as in the story in the Daily Mirror. Police appear to have initially charged many of those arrested during the riot with inciting a riot, and then revised those charges to fit the specific act that an individual was alleged to have committed before their arraignment in court. Prosecutors had changed the charge against Johnson to malicious mischief by the time he appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20. Magistrate Renaud held Johnson in custody until March 25, on bail of $500. When he was returned to court, the charge against Johnson was reduced to disorderly conduct, malicious mischief crossed out in the docket book, "Red." written above it, and "DISORDERLY CONDUCT" stamped in its place. That change, to a lesser offense that did not involve damage to property, likely indicated a lack of evidence that Johnson had broken a window. Instead, he was likely part of a crowd in the vicinity of the damaged store, arrested either by mistake or to get him off the street as part of police efforts to disperse the crowd. Disorderly conduct was an offense that could be adjudicated by a magistrate, unlike malicious mischief, which would have been referred to another court. Magistrate Ford convicted Johnson and gave him a suspended sentence. Louise Brown, arrested with him and prosecuted in the same way, also received a suspended sentence. -
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2022-11-18T03:07:21+00:00
Ernest Barnes arrested
13
plain
2024-01-24T01:13:49+00:00
Ernest Barnes, a thirty-two-year-old Black man, was recorded in the Washington Heights Magistrates Court docket book as charged with disorderly conduct on March 20. His appearance in the Washington Heights Court indicated that Barnes was arrested above 130th Street but there was no information on exactly where or when police took him into custody. He appeared in the list of those arrested published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide and lists published in the Daily News and New York Evening Journal, all of which recorded him as charged with riot. The change in charge to disorderly conduct cast him not as a participant in inciting others, breaking windows, looting, or assault, but as a member of the crowds police encountered on the street, perhaps near outbreaks of violence, and arrested either mistaking them for participants or to get them off the streets. Barnes did not appear in the stories that reported the hearings in the Washington Heights court in the New York Herald Tribune, Home News, and New York Age. Those stories only mentioned those convicted; Magistrate Ford found Barnes not guilty. He was the only one of the fifteen men charged with disorderly conduct in unknown circumstances that the magistrate did not convict.
The docket book and the lists published in the Daily News, and New York Evening Journal recorded Barnes' address as 224 West 124th Street.