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

Patrolman Charles Robins assaulted

Patrolman Charles Robbins, a member of the 6th Emergency Squad (a riot squad), was "struck over head with an iron bar by some unknown person,” according to the record of the ambulance that attended him. Dr Russell of Harlem Hospital treated Robbins at 124th Street and 7th Avenue, at 10.15 PM, indicating that that assault took place sometime earlier, around 10.00 PM. The location of the assault was the "scene of the riot," in the Medical Attendance record, likely where Robbins was treated or a block north on West 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. By 10.00 PM time police had established a perimeter around the block of 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues on which Kress' store was located, producing crowds on those corners and causing some groups of people to move up and down 7th Avenue. Emergency trucks were part of that perimeter, and while newspaper stories differed over precisely where they were stationed, both the New York Times and New York Herald Tribune located at least one truck on 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. (The New York Times put the others on 124th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, 126th Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues, and at 130th Street and Lenox Avenue, while the New York Herald Tribune had them at Lenox Avenue and 125th Street, and 7th Avenue and 127th Street).

Robbins was included in lists of the injured published in the press. Four of those lists provided details of the circumstances in which he was injured. The Home News and the New York American on March 20 described the injury as caused by an iron bar, following the Medical Attendance record. The New York Herald Tribune and Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which listed the injured policemen separately, included the detail that Robbins had been hit by a brick. An iron bar was not a typical weapon during the disorder; bricks, however, were frequently used as weapons. The New York Evening Journal, New York Post, New York American (on March 21) and Daily News all listed Robbins among the injured without details of the circumstances. His injury was listed as a “possible fractured skull,” but the Medical Attendance record described Robbins' injury as only a "laceration of scalp." Nonetheless, it notes that Robbins was "removed" to Harlem Hospital for further treatment, which may account for newspapers identifying a more serious injury.

No one was arrested for assaulting Robins, as was the case in seven of the nine assaults on police.

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