VIOLENCE IN HARLEM

Wairarapa Age, 22 March 1935, Page 5

VIOLENCE IN HARLEM

UNRULY ELEMENTS IN UGLY MOOD. TWO DEATHS IN HOSPITAL. MANY RIOTERS AND OTHERS * WOUNDED. (Received Thursday, 5.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 20. Throughout the day police detachments maintained uneasy order in Harlem, with prospects of more violence after nightfall. Last night’s rioting continued until dawn. The police in several instances were forced to shoot looters, two of whom died in hospitals today. About one hundred, mostly rioters, are nursing wounds, many requiring medical attention. The boy whose theft started the trouble has been found and his photograph is displayed In the newspapers to show that he is unharmed but by this time the unruly elements are ia an ugly mood and have apparently forgotten the incident involving the child. It is estimated that over six hundred shop windows have been broken and other property damaged to the extent of several hundred thousand dollars. Many attribute the rioting to serious economic conditions. Harlem is sometimes called “the world’s biggest negro city.” Of twe hundred thousand persons packed in a relatively small area, about half are unemployed, with corresponding poverty and unhealthy conditions. A Grand Jury, after investigation, stated with particular emphasis that alleged Communist agitation is responsible for most of the trouble.