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William Norris arrested
Norris, a twenty-two-year-old Black man, was recorded as residing at 201 West 122nd Street in all the records of his arrest, only a block east of the clothing store. He appeared in the Harlem Magistrates Court on March 20 charged with malicious mischief. Magistrate Renaud transferred him to the Court of Special Sessions for trial, and held him on bail of $500. His decision indicated that the value of the damage to the building was less than the $250 required for the charge to be a felony. The judges in the Court of Special Sessions convicted him, and on April 1st sentenced him to three months in the Workhouse. The prosecution of Wright followed the same process and brought the same result. Phillips was also the arresting officer of three other individuals, Arthur Davis, Herbert Hunter, and Elizabeth Tai.
Pauline Lokos of 2275 8th Avenue was identified as the owner of the store whose windows Norris allegedly broke in the Home News and recorded as the complainant in the Harlem Magistrates Court docket book when he appeared in court on March 20. Norris appeared in the lists of those arrested during the disorder published in the Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide and in the New York Evening Journal, but the two lists differed in the charge made against him. The Atlanta World, Afro-American, and Norfolk Journal and Guide included him among those charged with burglary, while the New York Evening Journal and the 28th Precinct police blotter recorded the charge as inciting a riot. That offense appeared to be the charge initially made against many of those arrested during the disorder. The charge malicious mischief made in the Magistrates Court was recorded in the docket book and reported in the Home News. That change reflected a general practice of replacing the initial charge of riot made at the time of an arrest with a more specific charge that fit what police officers alleged an individual had done.
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- "Transcripts of Police Blotter - Precinct 28, March 19 & 20, 1935," MCCH - Juvenile Delinquency - 1935-36, Departmental Correspondence. Box 34, Folder 1 (Roll 171), Records of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, 1934-1945.
- New York Penal Law, § 2090-2094: Riot
- New York Penal Law, § 1433: Malicious mischief
- Harlem Magistrates Court docket book