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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 1980)
11? ) 15 feel collision niles perseti aid be er than onei United Press International MIAMI — Still “seething and volatile,” Miami today began the process of returning to normal from hanceofai three bloody nights and days of loot- )ti ing, gunfire and arson. A federal grand jury was to con vene today to investigate the beating ery four ;raft desip worrying lan meteora j ea th last December of black busi er said then 10,000 inaj le rocket ph made spad ceptability ;, with h highei ver, that sea ; e about ts likely to be returned ellites awl ) ex] red, am igainst leaii uch as rd the Early today, with the curfew in effect and thousands of police and National Guardsmen manning barri cades around the riot zone, no se rious incidents were reported. “It’s been pretty quiet,” said police spokesman Al Dominguez. “We haven’t had anything at all.” Gov. Bob Graham Tuesday asked ,(1 (i President Carter to declare the city a disaster area to make Miami eligible for federal recovery and reconstruc tion funds. Graham also ordered general id m •rnalional Texas Bn orcementd ;d by a (el they depit rights byh 1979. ' nneth Wii Dcpartne at the tiffi was accf md striliit: The. i isolated Siverinffi fthe Cob ;e and At the rry Mich barges of[i spitalizedt r a fracte of cuts .S. AtM charged* ivil rights) protectiot ry, carriei years impi e. Depri'i on of the I s a maxi® prison ait :int with ,ed from 1 at Can* 'ublic Sdf ialdwin i ce t. Hintzd ther depit las been nal reco® smt T86 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, 1980 Page 5 Miami City ‘quiet’; grand jury to begin probe nessman Arthur McDuffie. The ac quittal Saturday of four policemen accused in his death touched off riot ing that resulted in 16 deaths, 1,129 arrests and property damage of $100 million or more. counsel Lamar Matthews to review the performance of the office of Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno in the McDuffie case, and did not limit the scope of the review. Matthews and the Justice Depart ment indicated the investigations may include other cases that have rankled blacks in south Florida re cently. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, who returned to Washing ton Tuesday, promised to send addi tional FBI agents, attorneys and U.S. marshals in a get-tough look at possible brutality and civil rights violations in Miami. "This is a serious situation,” the attorney general said. “I sense from the community itself that this is still a seething and volatile area.” The start of the curfew in riot areas was rolled back from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday, but police and 3,600 guardsmen maintained barricades to keep outside elements out of riot zones after dark. Schools remained closed for stu dents until Thursday morning, although all teachers and other em ployees were told to report to work today. Most businesses in areas not directly involved in the rioting re sumed normal hours Tuesday, but sales of gasoline were still restricted to vehicle tanks only within the cur few areas and liquor sales were ban ned throughout the county. Some officers said they were afraid the area was being opened too quick ly, if only in the daytime, because of die possibility of a white backlash. Dade County Sgt. Scott Partridge said, “There are businesses burned down and looted, inventories wiped out. Everybody with a grudge against blacks to begin with is free to drive through. “Whenever there’s an action, there’s a reaction,” he said. “Yeah, I’m worried.” Authorities said police assigned to guard a shopping center on Miami’s violence-torn northwest side slashed tires and smashed windshields of 14 vehicles — some belonging to sus pected looters — on Sunday night and early Monday. “It bums me to see one or two bums screw up the whole reputation of 700 dedicated men,” said Mayor Maurice Ferre, who vowed to de mand the dismissal of all police in volved in the vandalism. After a quick check Tuesday, tour ism officials said the rioting had little immediate effect on the county’s tourist-oriented economy, but they predicted it could hurt in the long run. ‘Time bomb’ exploded United Press International TAMPA, Fla. — In moving the trial of four white former Dade County policemen on charges of beat ing a black man to death two months ago. Judge Lenore Nesbitt said the case was a “time bomb” she didn’t want to have go off in her city of Miami. It did anyway Saturday night when Miami became the first city of the decade to fall victim to a race riot. The finding by the all-white, six-man jury Saturday that black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie’s death was justifiable homicide touched off a riot that raged through the weekend. Acquitted were Alex Marrero, 26, charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, aggravated battery and tampering with evidence; Ira Diggs, 31, charged with two counts of manslaughter, aggra vated battery, tampering with evidence and being ar accessory after the fact; Michael Watts, 30, charged with two counts of manslaughter and aggravated bat tery; and Herbert Evans Jr., 33, charged with tam pering with evidence and being an accessory after the fact. During the trial, prosecutor Hank Adorno said McDuffie died because of “street justice handed out by a group of police officers who lost control of them selves.” Defense attorneys called the incident “unfortun ate,” but said the 33-year-old ex-Marine resisted arrest and fought police officers, who had to use force to subdue him. Report describes ‘war zone’ United Press International MIAMI (UPI) — After long hours of violence, the sound of black rage was the crunch of tires on streets paved with broken glass. The smell was the acrid odor of burning factories, warehouses and stores. The look was gaping holes in windowless buildings, husks of burnt-out cars, collapsed roofs, twisted girders and piles of rubble. Police call it a “war zone” and Monday, during the first hours of calm since four former Dade County policemen — whites — were quickly acquitted in Tampa Saturday of par ticipating in the beating death of a black man, the nickname fit. In the sunny, smoky, uneasy calm of Monday afternoon. Liberty City, 20 square miles of squalor and indus try in the northwest part of Dade County, looked like a bombed-out city, a scene of devastation. Streets glistened with broken windshield and bottle glass. Dozens of burned cars sat in the middle of thoroughfares, minus tires and win dows. Thick black smoke poured from half a dozen buildings. Only the ragged edges of walls marked where dozens of buildings, most of them large stores, once stood. At major intersections and along the perimeter, National Guardsmen stood beside jeeps with M-16 rifles balanced on their hips. People had died during the two preceding nights of violence that be gan in Liberty City and spread to other parts of the city. More were to die. In the quiet, life went on — but not as before. Three black women and a man washed clothes in a launderette. Next door, the contents of a small grocery store spilled through broken glass doors. A teen-aged bike rider peddled curiously by firefighters battling flames still flickering from the Miami Cordege Co., a factory now reduced to a pile of rubble and twisted steel girders. At Earl’s Supermarket, three port ly women picked through the litter in the parking lot, loading things into shopping carts. Cars parked helter-skelter filled the parking lot of a shopping center. All had flat tires and on the side of each was spray-painted “looter.” * Few stores were open. Small groups of black men clustered at street comers and watched as a pro cession of cars filled with whites car rying TV cameras passed. Some mugged. Some raised their fists in black power salutes. Others hoisted a single finger in a more bla tant show of defiance while many shouted obscenities sprinkled with threats. “I’ll start shooting at you,” called one. On a section of smokecharred orange wall at the Norton Tire Co., someone had written in 2-foot-high letters with black spray paint: “Fuck the white.” Six Guardsmen sat on boxes at one comer, a few storefronts up from a looted liquor store, its windows broken out. A few feet away, three small black children in shorts and T-shirts watched them intently. Miami triggers memories of Watts United Press International LOS ANGELES — Six days of burning, brawling and bloody racial rioting in Watts 15 years ago — similar to the angry black uprising in Florida — was triggered by the arrest of a black motorist for drunken driving. In August 1965, an estimated 10,000 of the community’s nearly half-million residents rioted during nearly a week of shooting, looting and burning before a force of 15,000 policemen and National Guard troops finally secured the smoldering 46.5-square-mile section of South Los Angeles. Thirty-four died, at least 1,032 were injured, many by gunshot wounds, and more than 4,000 were arrested and property damage topped $50 million. A blue-ribbon state commission appointed to explore the causes of the Watts riot called it a “formless, quite senseless” expression of deep economic and social frustration triggered by the routine arrest of the black motorist. The 101-page McCone Commission report said that “when the rioting came to Los Angeles it was not a race riot in the usual sense.” “What happened was an explosion — a formless, quite senseless, all but hopeless violent protest — engaged in by a few but bringing great distress to all,” the report said. The commission identified the arrest of Marquette Frye as the “tinder-igniting incident. ” Frye, 21, was stopped on Avalon Boulevard by California Highway Patrolman Lee W. Minikus about 7 p.m. on Aug. 9, 1965. Frye’s mother and brother arrived on the scene and protested and an increas ingly hostile crowd gathered. An erroneous rumor quickly spread that a pregnant black woman was being arrested for spitting at an officer, and the crowd estimated at 1,000 began throwing rocks. The riot was on. Entire blocks were put to the torch by roving bands of blacks, the National Guard was called out and Watts became an armed camp. Looting was common as were shouts of, “Bum, Baby, Burn!” and “Get Whitey!” A LIMITED OFFER: $160 per person for June 1-July 9 (Summer Session) Furnished - All Bills Paid- We pick your roommate if you don’t have one. Ea^t Gate Apaetmeats 401 Lincoln Drive East, College Station, Texas 713/696-7380 Some Miami policemen strike back; cars vandalized with nightsticks United Press International MIAMI — Policemen assigned to guard a shopping center on Miami’s violence-torn northwest side slashed tires and smashed windshields of 14 vehicles parked there Sunday night and early Monday, a police official said. “We do not condone and we do not support this kind of action,” said Maj. Michael Cosgrove, acting assis tant police chief. “If these men can be identified, they will be disciplined. We have made it clear this kind of conduct will not be tolerated,” Cosgrove said Monday night. Mayor Maurice Ferre said he would demand dismissal of all police involved in the vandalism. “It bums the hell out of me to see one or two bums screw up the whole reputation of 700 dedicated men. ” Some of the cars belonged to peo ple arrested as suspected looters on Sunday. The words “thief’ and “loo ter” were painted on some of the cars. Upholstery of some of the cars was slashed. Authorities said the city would "assume responsibility” for the damage. Residents living near the plaza housing a discount department store and supermarket said they were awakened before midnight Sunday by the sound of breaking glass. They said they saw two white police offic ers breaking windshields with rifle butts, night sticks and a length of pipe. Joe Sheely, 26, said, “I came out of my house and yelled, ‘Would you like someone to do your car like that?’ “ “That’s when they drew down their rifles at me. They were just laughing at it. They were getting a kick out of it,” Sheely said. Alice Calhoun said, “Policemen woke me up beating up on these cars. I thought, ‘My God, it’s kicking up again.’ But it was the police. I went out there and told them they were just as bad as the people that were breaking into the (super market).” Calhoun’s huband, William, said he saw “at least seven or eight” policemen taking part in the van dalism. “I actually saw them use the night sticks on the windshields, ” Calhoun said. Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611 ‘ AUTO INSURANCE FOR AGGIES: Call:. George Webb Farmers Insurance Group 3400 S. 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