Hydrant Turned Off
(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright)
CHICAGO, July 14.
“I’d like to see them turn off a hydrant in a white neighbourhood and then try beating a white kid over the head with a club,” a Negro youth said.
This is the general attitude of residents in a Negro neighbourhood shaken yesterday by the second successive night of violence, the Associated Press reported.
"The white man’s strategy is causing this,” the Negro youth continued. "Ask the
city, ask the Mayor to compare the price of the water from that one fire hydrant to all the money that’s been wasted through vandalism and rioting.” It was a fire hydrant that started the disturbances on each night. Policemen turned it off after Negro residents had opened it The Negroes said policemen permitted hydrants in an adjacent Italian neighbourhood to run. Hot Weather
It is a common practice, although against the law, to open water hydrants during hot weather so that children can cool off. The weather has been in the 90s all week. “This (incident) has instilled something in these children they will remember the rest of their lives,” a man said. “If they are brave enough to fight the police they are brave enough to do anything. “Look at all those coloured (Negro) windows,” a resident said. “Not one broke. Then look at aIT those white windows. Every one of them is busted.”
Roosevelt road, the main core of the violence, is an ethnic dividing line between Negro and white neighbourhoods.
A young Negro social worker said: “We had gone so far. We had got all those people together in an alley and were reasoning with them when three little boys broke into a store.
“They were only 11 years old but the police sent a whole force into there and disrupted the whole crowd and we couldn’t get them back in control again.” “All Got Mad”
“All these people in this neighbourhood were content with living piled up on top of each other like cattle in the stockyards—until the police closed one fire hydrant and they all got mad,” another resident said.
“This has opened up the minds of these closed-minded people and only the Lord can tell what will happen now,” he murmured. A small Negro boy ran up to his mother: "Mama, I’m scared,” he sobbed .
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19660715.2.125
Bibliographic details
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Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 13
Word count
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389Hydrant Turned Off Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 13
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