FEARS OF NEGROES

Press, Volume C, Issue 29674, 18 November 1961, Page 11

FEARS OF NEGROES

Brutality By Police (NZ.PA.-Renter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Nov. 17. Many victims of racial violence in the United States were scared to appeal for official protection because of police brutality, the Civil Rights Commission said last night. Reports of police brutality accounted for about 30 per cent, of “11 complaints received by tik "Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department, the commission said.

A study showed that "although whites are not immune. Negroes feel the brunt of official brutality, proportionately, more than any other group in American society." The Commission, reporting to Congress and President Kennedy on the administration of Justice, said: "Some American citizens . . . live with the fear that if racial violence strikes, the police may be on the side of the mob."

As an example of this, it cited a telephone call made several years ago to a member of the Commission's advisory committee in Alabama The call came from a Negro woman, who said: "Somebody just threw a bomb and took off the side of our house. What shall I do?” Advised to call the police, the woman replied. ”1 can’t call the police. It might have been the police that threw the bomb. If they And out we're not dead, they might come back and throw another bomb.”

Train Derailed.—The llcarriage Rock Island railway Twin Star Rocket passenger train crashed Into a road grader near Beech, lowa, tnd was derailed Between 25 and 30 persons were injured.—Beech (Iov>), November 17.