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

Patrolman Charles Robins assaulted

Around 10PM, Patrolman Charles Robbins was assaulted “by some unknown person.” He was one of nine officers assaulted during the disorder; like all but three, he was attacked during the efforts of police to control the crowds on 125th Street prior to 10PM. At 9 PM, after additional reinforcements arrived, police tried to further extend their cordon around 125th Street and disperse crowds on 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue. At least one other officer was injured in these efforts. Robins was treated at 124th Street and 7th Avenue at 10.15PM, likely once the crowd had begun to break up and spread along the avenues.

Robbins was of only two officers assaulted by an individual, in his case either struck over the head with an iron bar or hit over the head with a brick. He appears only in lists of the injured, four of which provide details of the circumstances. The New York Herald Tribune and Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which listed the injured policemen separately, included the detail that he had been hit by a brick in their listing. The Home News, New York American on March 20, and the hospital record referenced the iron bar. An iron bar was not a typical weapon during the disorder; bricks were frequently used as weapons. Although injured by a blow by an individual, the hospital record locates the attack “at scene of riot,” suggesting the assault occurred in an encounter between a group of police and a crowd rather than two isolated individuals.

The New York Evening Journal, New York Post, New York American (on March 21),and New York Daily News all listed Robbins among the injured without details of the circumstances. His injury was listed as a “possible fractured skull,” but the hospital record of Robbins treatment at the scene by a doctor from Harlem Hospital recorded only a lacerated scalp.

Robbins was not based in one of Harlem’s two police precincts, but had come to the neighborhood from the 43rd precinct as part of the 6th Emergency Squad, a riot squad.

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

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