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Joseph Sarnelli assaulted
Attacks by groups are the most common form of assault on whites during the disorder, but in only one other instance is the assault part of an attempted robbery, the assault on Max Newman in his grocery store (there is also one robbery, which involved threats by men armed with knives including Edward Larry but no assault). That there was a police officer nearby able to come to Sarnelli’s assistance is not surprising given that the intersection of 125th St and 7th Avenue was a center for police operations – but also the site of multiple assaults in the course of the disorder. Just when the assault occurred is unclear, as Harlem’s businesses could remain open to 9pm, 11pm, or even midnight, with this area the site of disorder throughout that period. The shop’s location might have made it a particular target; the Hotel Theresa did not accept black guests, a situation that did not change until 1940.
The only report of this assault appears in the New York Post. As police arrested no one for the assault, and as there is no mention of Sarnelli being injured despite his being “badly pummeled,” the event did not appear on any of the lists published by the press. Brief accounts of assaults on whites such as this were a feature of the reporting of the Post and the New York Evening Journal, which emphasized racial violence. That the group who attacked Sarnelli allegedly sought razors was in line with the racist stereotypes that marked those stories, which held up the razor as the preferred weapon of blacks.