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Harlem in Disorder: A Spatial History of How Racial Violence Changed in 1935

Jacob Bonaparte arrested

Sometime during the disorder, an officer from the 28th Precinct arrested Jacob Bonaparte, a twenty-four-year-old Black man (the clerk's handwriting in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book is too messy to decipher the officer's name). The arrest likely occurred near the Romanoff Drug Store at 375 Lenox Avenue, on the northwest corner of West 129th Street. J. Romanoff of that address is recorded as the complainant when Austin is arraigned in the Harlem Magistrates Court.

Just what Bonaparte allegedly did is uncertain. He appears among those listed as being arrested for burglary, the charge used in cases of alleged looting, in the lists published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Gazette, and in the New York Evening Journal. However, the 28th Precinct Police blotter records the charge against him as Attempted Burglary, suggesting that he was not arrested with any merchandise in his possession. In the Magistrate's Court, Bonaparte was charged with Disorderly Conduct, an offense not used in cases of alleged looting. Such a charge suggests that he may have allegedly broken the store windows but not attempted to take any merchandise. However, Magistrate Renaud acquitted Bonaparte, indicating that there was no compelling evidence linking him to whatever damage was done to the store (the 28th Precinct Police blotter recorded that Bonaparte was discharged). The Romanoff Drug store was located in the midst of the area of Lenox Avenue that saw multiple arrests and reports of looting and violence, likely after midnight. Bonaparte may have been among the crowds drawn to the street by the noise. He lived 123 West 128th Street, midway down the block between Lenox and 7th Avenues, relatively close to the store.

J. Romanoff was also the complainant in the case of Oscar Austin, a twenty-nine-year-old Black man, arrested by the same police officer, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book. Austin's prosecution followed the same pattern as that of Bonparte, ending in his acquittal. He lived a little further from the store than Bonparte, at 204 West 128th Street, just west of 7th Avenue.

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