Humboldt Park riot
| Humboldt Park riot | |||
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| Date | June 4 - 5, 1977 | ||
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| Casualties and losses | |||
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Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (add Chicago FALN attacks)
The riot began on the same day the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN) set off a bomb in downtown Chicago. The riot led the community to hold the Division Street Puerto Rican Day Parade,[2] which started in 1978.[3]
Background
1966 Division St. Riots
Eleven years earlier, beginning on June 12, 1966, the Division Street riots rocked Humboldt Park, Chicago. Puerto Ricans were gathered in the streets, celebrating after a parade downtown.[4] The celebration was in honor of St. John the Baptist, for whom San Juan, Puerto Rico is named.[5] In 1966, the parade for this celebration was officially renamed the Puerto Rican Parade.[6] The festivities are misattributed in some print news as a celebration for "Puerto Rican Independence Day."[7][8] The riot began after a white police officer shot and wounded a young Puerto Rican man, and continued for three days, in spite of police efforts. The riot signified the difficult conditions Puerto Ricans faced in Chicago, including high unemployment, low income, racial discrimination, poor housing, and inadequate education.[9] In the aftermath of the riot, new community organizations and community leaders more actively engaged in city politics to work to improve conditions for Puerto Ricans in Chicago.[10]
FALN bombing
Riot
The details of the beginning of the riot are contentious. It began in Humboldt Park (Chicago park) on June 4, 1977, after the Puerto Rican Day Parade.[11] According to the police, the violence began with gang-related shooting in the park. Police Superintendent James M. Rochford issued a nine-page report on June 14, 1977, which declared that seven other people in the park were hurt by gang gunfire before the police began shooting.[12] The gangs in question were the rival Puerto Rican street gangs the Latin Kings and the Spanish Cobras.[7] Sergeant Thomas Walton shot and killed Julio Osorio, 26. Rafael Cruz, 25, was also killed by a bullet from Sgt. Walton's gun.[12] Preliminary autopsy reports showed both Osorio and Cruz were shot in the back.[13]
According to the Chicago Tribune, late Saturday afternoon, police arrived to Humboldt Park to break up gang-related fighting. When police were arresting one of the combatants, the young man resisted, and "picnickers became angry and began hurling objects."[14]The New York Times printed that following the shooting of Osorio and Cruz, the police tried to close the park and "were met with a barrage of bricks, bottles, stones, sticks and chairs. But Hispanic witnesses charged that policemen stormed the park with nightsticks and attacked many picnickers, including families with children."[8] The account continues to state that the riot escalated because police were outnumbered (Chicago police officers were stationed in large numbers at Soldier Field for a rock concert that day).[8]
[Family version]
Acting mayor Michael Bilandic came to Humboldt Park and the riot area for about 15 minutes after the violence died down, late Saturday night.[15]
'77 riot, day one: Two people were killed, fifteen police officers were injured, and approximately 3,000 people were involved.[14] 38 police officers and 3 firefighters were injured.[16]
116 people injured, 119 arrested during the first day. The riot began in Humboldt Park itself, near the intersection of Division Street and California Avenue. Rioters threw rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails. Police set up a command post at Division Street on California Avenue. The police department reported that 17 police cars and trucks were damaged during the riot. [7]
Car chase with the police
During the riot on Sunday night, 23 year-old Luis Velasquez ran down police Sergeant William Diaz. Velasquez took off, and engaged in a chase with the police that reached speeds of 80 m.p.h.. Velasquez was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated battery, reckless driving, resisting arrest, and possession of controlled substances.
Fires
According to a witness, Viola Sagado, by evening, the police closed off the streets surrounding Division and California. People ran through this area to avoid confrontation with the police. Others were scared, as a building fire burned, while the fire department did not respond or work to control the blaze.[17]
Four days after the riot, the body of Domingo Torres Claudio, 62, was found in the rubble of the grocery store below the apartment where he lived. On Saturday night, rioters looted the grocery store, then started a fire. When the fire department came, rioters shot at the firefighters. The building burned while the police and fire departments regrouped. Claudio was a retired factory worker and lived alone.[18]
Aftermath
After the riot, police Superintendent Rochford issued a gag order, preventing police officers from discussing the events in Humboldt Park.[19]
Following the riot, members of neighborhood gangs complained of police harassment. The increased, confrontational policing maintained the tense conditions that led to the riot.[20] In the days following the riot, community members of Humboldt Park met with acting mayor Michael Anthony Bilandic to discuss the weekend's riot. After waiting three hours, the Humboldt Park residents had 20 minutes with the mayor. Puerto Rican community leaders also met with Chicago police officials and Department of Human Services officials for two hours, and expressed their concerns about the community.[5]
PR identity in Chicago in response to colonialism[21]
References
- ^ Casey, Jim and Larry Weintraub, "Rochford backs cop who shot 2 in riot." Chicago Sun-Times. July 15, 1977.
- ^ Laviera, Jesús Tato. “'77 PR Chicago Riot.” Afro-Hispanic Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 2007, pp. 145–183., www.jstor.org/stable/23054627.
- ^ "La Negra of Chicago's Puerto Rican People's Parade". La Respuesta. 2015-06-20. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
- ^ "Neighborhood fight ; Activists push to keep Puerto Rican pride alive in Humboldt Park". Chicago Tribune. June 12, 2006 – via Proquest.
- ^ a b "Bilandic, Latinos, meet about riots". Chicago Tribune. June 7, 1977 – via Proquest.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Puerto Ricans". www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org. Retrieved 2017-03-29.
- ^ a b c Lowe, Frederick, and Blakley, Derrick. (June 6, 1977). "2d day of Humboldt riots". Chicago Tribune – via Proquest.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Times, Paul Delaney Special To The New York (1977-06-06). "LOOTING, VANDALISM FOLLOW CHICAGO RIOT". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-03-28.
- ^ Padilla, Felix M. (1987). Puerto Rican Chicago. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 145-147.
- ^ Padilla, Felix M. (1987). Puerto Rican Chicago. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 155.
- ^ "Equal justice under the rug: how police botched the Humboldt Park riot". Chicago Reader. August 5, 1977.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b Casey, Jim, and Larry Weintraub (June 15, 1977). "Rochford backs cop who shot 2 in riot". Chicago Sun-Times.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Ziomek, Jon, and Jim Casey (June 7, 1977). "Humboldt Park gets a cleanup". Chicago Sun-Times.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b Lowe, F., &, Blakley, D (June 5, 1977). "Humboldt Park riot". Chicago Tribune – via Proquest.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ The Associated Press (1977-06-05). "2 KILLED, 49 INJURED IN CHICAGO VIOLENCE". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
- ^ "Outbreak of Violence Leave 2 Dead, 70 Injured in Chicago". The Washington Post. June 6, 1977.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Ramos-Zayas, Ana Y. (2003-07-15). National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago. University of Chicago Press. p. 251. ISBN 9780226703596.
- ^ Miner, Michael (June 10, 1977). "Find body of 3d riot victim in debris of burnt building". Chicago Sun-Times.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Humboldt pk.--troubled 'island' without clout. (1977, Jun 12). Chicago Tribune (1963-Current File) - via Proquest.
- ^ Suro, Roberto, and Jon Ziomek (June 8, 1977). "Sweater Symbol in Humboldt area". Chicago Sun-Times.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Rinaldo, Rachel (2002-01-01). "Space of Resistance: The Puerto Rican Cultural Center and Humboldt Park". Cultural Critique (50): 135–174.