Talk:1967 Newark riots
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I would like to suggest that the title of this article be changed to "Newark Rebellion." If not, could someone please explain what is intended by the word "Riot" in this article? Who rioted?
I was the youngest of seven children. The Newark riots started the day after my fourth birthday. There is something although insignificant to some it was very powerful in my conscientiousness. We lived on the fifth floor in the Scudder Home Projects which were located not far from Springfield Ave. I remember my mother turning the kitchen table on its side and making the smallest of us get behind it. To hear the noise was deafening, but to watch from the side of the table and see what I would now know as despair on my mother's face as she looked out the window searching for her three oldest children. Watching and praying.
Sheri Fryer-Morris
First off, this line is in dispute " The police department was dominated by officers who would routinely stop and attack Blacks with or without provocation". A source is needed before that claim can be substantiated.
Secondly, the writer of this article totally overlooked the impact of the Medical school expansion. The expansion of UMDNJ called for demolition of many properties owned by blacks in the Central Ward. This proposal is a major factor in the tension in the city in that time.
I left the south ward---Clinton and s. 20th Street---in 1965, the year I turned nine. Given the current state of the neighborhood (2007), I suppose my parents were prescient in seeing what was coming. Because I lived in the city for my first nine years, and because my dad became a firefighter there in 1965, I have always been drawn to the place despite many years of separation. In the end, Newark is my ancestral homeland in that both sides of my family---now all deceased---come from there.
With regard to the article, I think it should be noted that the FBI was aware of Tom Hadyn's presence in Newark just prior to the riot's eruption...and that the Students for a Democratic Society---largely composed of middle class, suburban white kids, were working with militant black groups at that time. If this is all true, then the Newark riot of July 1967 was planned...and blood is actually on the hands of the folks who planned it. That blood consists of one cop, one fireman, and the balance, as far as I know, black citizens.
Finally, mention needs to be made of the heroic effort put forth by the fire department during the disturbance. Whatever the underlying social causes and frictions which existed at that time, this bunch of largely white men---mostly the sons of immigrants---performed extraordinary feats and bore the pain of fire, rocks, and even bullets in an effort to protect the city and her, largely black, citizens. I recall being discomfited by the nightly news, seeing flames and hearing bullets knowing that my dad was in there. In the end, there were many victims and many ways to have been victimized by this very unsettling event.Mikegilmartin 18:04, 29 June 2007 (UTC)Mike Gilmartin
Umm, the name is Tom Hayden, not Tom Hadyn. As for riots being planned, that's nothing new. Street gangs are said to have planned Watts in 1965, and the Jakarta (Indonesia) pogrom of 1998 was also planned. I am not sure how spontaneous the 1992 Los Angeles riots were, though. — Rickyrab | Talk 14:08, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Police firing indiscriminately into residential buildings
I believe the PBS documentary shows footage of police officers firing automatic weapons indiscriminately into the open windows of a residential building, after they allegedly heard that there was a sniper "on the roof." If I could track the video down to confirm it...
