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

Jose Perez arrested

Officer Ramos of the Alien Squad arrested Jose Perez, a twenty-three-year-old white man born in Cuba, for allegedly possession of a gun. There are no details of his alleged offenses or where or when Perez was arrested. The only sources which connect him to the disorder are the list of those arrested published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American and Norfolk Journal and Guide and the list published in the New York Evening Journal. In both lists the charge against Perez is identified as "Sullivan Law," the name by which the offense of possession of a weapon was known. The Harlem Magistrates Court docket book recorded the weapon alleged to be in his possession to be a "gun."

Notwithstanding his appearance in newspaper lists, it is not certain that Perez was involved in the disorder. He was not in the 28th Precinct Police blotter. While Perez did appear in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20, among those arrested during the disorder, so too did a handful of individuals charged with offenses unrelated to the disorder. His address is recorded as 25 South Street, on the southern end of Manhattan, far from Harlem, although he may have come to the Hispanic neighborhood around West 116th Street at the time of the disorder. The three other men arrested during the disorder charged with possession of a weapon had been arrested for riot, breaking windows or looting, after which a police officer allegedly found a weapon on them.

Perez pled guilty, according to the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book, and Magistrate Renaud transferred him to the Court of Special Sessions for sentencing. There is no information on the decision of the judges in that court.

Both lists and the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book recorded Perez's race as "white;" unlike most of those recorded as white, he was likely Hispanic rather than European in ethnicity.

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