FURTHER RIOTS IN CHICAGO

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 13

FURTHER RIOTS IN CHICAGO

Shooting As Roving Gangs Start Fires

GV Z. Press Association—Copyright)

CHICAGO, July 14.

Two major disturbances erupted three miles apart last night on Chicago’s west side as police and Negroes exchanged gunfire and roving gangs started numerous fires, the Associated Press reported. Six shots were fired at police from a large public housing project in a Negro neighbourhood as authorities attempted to halt gangs of Negroes who were throwing rocks and home-made bombs.

Police returned the fire, but apparently no-one was hit.

Two shots were fired from an alley at a police car on Roosevelt road, the main eastwe s t thoroughfare through the Negro section. Officers jumped from the car and three homemade bombs were thrown at them. They were not injured.

A few doors away, fire bombs tossed on the roof of a one-storey garage set the structure afire. It was the fourth fire in the block. Fire bombs landed in the midst of firemen fighting the blaze. The violence had been quelled in the neighbourhood a few hours earlier as 150 policemen, aided by a rainstorm, drove 1000 persons into their homes. The violence erupted again after the rain (topped. The West Side Organisation,

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a community action group, put 24 of its members on the street, urging women and children to go indoors. A city street-cleaning vehicle moved down the glassstrewn Roosevelt road, clearing it of glass and rocks. In an earlier outbreak of vi< lence two Negroes were shot and wounded, one in the arm and the other on the thumb. Ten policemen and two motorists were also hurt. Eight people were arrested.

Police Attacked

A crowd of 300 Negroes had attacked a group of 10 policemen who were believed to have fired at least 15 shots into the air.

Other police came to the rescue and pushed the crowd back.

The trouble began, as it had the previous day, when police turned off a fire hydrant being used as a fountain to cool Negroes sweltering in 84 degree heat

As the water was turned off the police became the targe* of bottles, stones and bricks. Police moved in and several youths were knocked down. When the police fired shots into the air the crowd retaliated with a shower of

stones. The windshield of a squad car was shattered. Other police vehicles were scarred by rocks. Streets were littered with rocks over a twoblock stretch. Rock - throwing incidents continued for more than two hours. Finally, police massed and drove the crowd of more than 1000 Negroes into their homes. They were helped by a rainstorm. Later, gangs of angry, marauding teen-agers looted a drugstore, raided a pastries truck, and showered police with rocks and stones. One policeman was injured by a flying brick and another’s shirt was torn off in the melee. Fire Bombs Thrown More trouble developed at a public housing development at Racine and Roosevelt roads, scene of much of the two nights’ violence. At least seven Molotov cocktails flamed down from the upper storeys and there was the rattle of explosions—most of them apparently firecrackers. Police ringed the buildings. After 30 minutes, peace appeared to have been restored there.