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Published by , 2017-06-06 23:15:00

FINAL TOMPKINS

FINAL TOMPKINS

TOMPKINS 

SQUARE PARK 

The 70s, 80s, & 90s 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENTRIFICATION AND RESIDENTIAL CONFLICTS​…………………………………………………………..2​
THE 1988 TOMPKINS SQUARE RIOTS​…………………………………………………………………………….7​
THE HOMELESS PEOPLE OF TOMPKINS…​ …………………………………………………………………….1​ 9
THE SQUATTERS…​ …………………………………………………………………………………………………..2​ 4
THE ANARCHISTS​……………………………………………………………………………………………………​29

1

GENTRIFICATION AND 
RESIDENTIAL CONFLICTS 

From: Tompkins Square Park b​ y Q. Sakamaki. July 1989. Homeless people and their supporters protest for affordable housing on
Avenue A. Although the community’s anti-gentrification movement had begun before 1988 with a small collection of squatters and
anarchists, the August 6 riot triggered what became the larger Tompkins Square Park movement, a grassroots resistance that

demanded affordable housing. The park became the symbol of this movement, whose impact extended beyond the neighborhood and
into the rest of New York, the rest of the U.S., and even some parts of Europe, notably Berlin. Gentrification in the surrounding
Tompkins area, in the East Village, and the LES all together, included internal and external conflicts. The main perpetrator to
gentrification victims were the state representatives and city officials. They backed private landowners in hopes for a “cleaner and

2

better city”. The city’s funds were only put into select areas and they did, in fact, pay for the demolishment of abandoned buildings
to make room for new construction. The city fought against its poorer residents and those who identified themselves as apart of
various subcultures such as anarchists, squatters and punks to make way for middle class ‘Yuppies’. The homeless suffered the most
as they, unlike other groups, did not have a choice of whether or not they wanted to participate in the infamous grime and grit of the
LES. ​Recurring subjects of dispute include the ownership, occupancy and use of private and public space, the control of individual
(and animal) behavior, and the role of regulatory authorities like the police and parks departments.

Police Called to Meeting on dozen police officers dressed in riot gear stepped between
Tompkins board leaders and the opposing groups to insure the safety of
the 300 people attending the meeting at the Alfred E. Smith
Published: October 25, 1989 Parks and Recreation Building, at 80 Catherine Street in the
East Village. There were no arrests, the police said.
The New York Times
The board members voted 15 to 7 to recommend that the park
The police were called last night to a raucous meeting of remain open around the clock. Six board members abstained
Community Board 3 on the Lower East Side, in which the and 23 were absent.
board rejected a proposal to establish a curfew in Tompkins
Square Park, the scene of clashes a year ago between the police The parks department has the power to impose the curfew
and homeless people. without the consent of the community board. After the vote,
Parks Commissioner Henry J, Stern said that officials had not
The meeting was attended by scores of people who opposed the
1 A.M.-to-6 A.M. curfew, which was proposed by a committee decided what action to take. ​''I believe it shows that
of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, and who the community is divided,'' Mr. Stern said. ''We will
supported the rights of homeless people to use the park. They
engaged in an angry shouting match with a handful of have to inquire further within the community to see what
neighborhood residents who supported the proposed curfew. A should be done.

In the 1980s, Tompkins Square was packed with the pitched
tents of a sprawling Tent City for the homeless.

 
  

3

RESIDENTS VS. 
GENTRIFICATION 

“Residents claims in conflicts often have a strong
moral flavor… Tompkins Square’s history reflects
many themes of American urban social history.”
- Diana R. Gordon

From ​Tompkins Square Park​ ​by Q. Sakamaki.
January 1, 1994.
The inauguration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, another sharp turning
point toward gentrification in New York. Although the
anti-gentrification-movement still remained for several years, it lost its strong grassroots momentum, especially after Rudy Giuliani took the
mayoral office. Twenty years after the August 6 riot, the park now boasts one of the best dog runs in New York City; the Lower East Side has
lost much of its diversity and become one of the city's most expensive, theme park-like entertainment districts.

From ​Tompkins Square Park ​by Q.
Sakamaki.
June 3, 1991. The NYPD prepares to
confront protesters on Avenue B. The
August 6 police riot—so called because
the consensus was that the police
overreacted to the protestors—and
subsequent Tompkins Square riots
were the manifestation of a larger
concern of the overgentrification of the
Lower East Side.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONFLICT THAT AROSE IN TOMPKINS AND THE LES WERE:

RESIDENT VS. RESIDENT ON THE INDIVIDUAL LEVEL, RESIDENT VS. RESIDENT ON THE GROUP LEVEL,
RESIDENT VS. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STATE, RESIDENT VS. NONRESIDENT LANDOWNER OR LANDLORD

4

The Shape Of Its Future Splits East Village

By STEPHEN DALY
Published: March 20, 1983

ST. MARKS PLACE, once a focal point for the hippie movement, is but three blocks long— f​ rom Third
Avenue to Tompkins Square Park. Yet the street reflects the many differences - some subtle, some glaring - within the
community it bisects, the area commonly known as the East Village.

Moving east, past funky-chic hair salons, boutiques and cafes, the street runs past rows of bleak, graffiti-smeared
tenements near Avenue A. In the short stroll, a visitor can view a cross-section of the neighborhood's varied
population - middle-aged hippies, merchants, green-haired punks, working men and women, students, immigrants,
artists and the homeless. ''It's a totally diverse neighborhood,'' said Richard F. Ropiak, chairman of Community Board
3, which includes the East Village, bounded roughly by 14th and Houston Streets and Fourth Avenue and Avenue A.
Mr. Ropiak and others who have lived in the area for a long time believe it is precisely this diverse social mix that gives
the East Village its character.

In recent years, however, many residents have begun to fear that developers who upgrade housing may change the
mix by forcing rents up to unaffordable levels. ''There's a sense that an effort is under way by the real-estate
community to develop the area for middle- and high-income people and displace the working-class immigrant
population who have been in the neighborhood for many years,'' said the Rev. David Garcia, the rector of St.
Mark's-in-the-Bowery Episcopal Church, at Second Avenue and 10th Street.

While a pint of fresh strawberries can still be purchased for 99 cents and a meal in several of the restaurants for under
$5, prices are going up.

''It's not as cheap as it used to be,'' said Rita H. Udell, a planner with the City Planning Commission who works with
Community Board 3. Mrs. Udell said there was a lot of commercial revitalization along Second Avenue and that there
had been some conversions from nonresidential to residential usage. ''Everybody's saying that more middle-class
people are moving into the area,'' she said. ''The impression is that new money is coming in. I'm sure the rents are
going up.''

Since 1969, when Mayor John V. Lindsay's administration sought unsuccessfully to rezone part of Third Avenue for
high-rise luxury apartment buildings, three attempts to change zoning in the East Village have been blocked. These

5

were proposals to gain variances for what are now three parking lots on the east side of Third Avenue between Ninth
and 12th Streets, and build high-rise apartments of higher density than the surrounding housing; the most recent of
these attempts failed last year. According to Ray Spillenger, treasurer of the Third Avenue Tenants, Artists and
Businessmen's Association, the proposals were voted down because ''any upzoning would doom the rest of the area
and low-rise property values would zoom.''

Even without the high-rises, property values continue to soar. A nine-story, 69-unit apartment building at 232-238
East 12th Street, which sold for $937,500 in February 1980, was resold last January for $3,719,047. A 16-unit,
six-story walk-up at 318 East 11th Street that went for $35,000 in October 1975 was sold in January for $285,000.
With a $40,000 rent roll, the building is losing money, according to the new owner, James D. Kinsey. But once the
two storefronts on the first floor are renovated and leased, he said, the rents should be able to carry the building.

''I don't shoot for $1,000-a-month rents and quick deals,'' he said. ''I'm looking for long-term capital gains.'' Mr.
Kinsey, who also owns a building at 320 East 11th Street, has worked in the East Village for the last 12 years, first in
building management. He feels that the neighborhood has come a long way, but that it is not about to be swallowed by
interloping, profit-hungry developers.

''THERE are operators,'' Mr. Kinsey said, referring to short-term investors in the community who harass tenants and
''flip'' buildings for quick profits. ''In some instances, they're going to make the bucks. But I don't think they're going
to get very far. In the East Village, everybody knows everybody, and they're not going to let themselves be mistreated.''

Nevertheless, the economic shifts are causing sharp divisions. Some residents see the changes as positive, others have
mixed feelings and still others feel that developers and landlords are tearing the neighborhood's social fabric apart.
And there are those residents who refuse to acknowledge that an East Village even exists and continue to refer to the
area as part of the Lower East Side.

''The 'East Village' is an invention of the real-estate people who want to make it trendy, a chic part of town where
young singles can make the scene,'' said Valerio Orselli, the director of Cooper Square Community Committee, a
24-year-old tenant organization founded to fight a slum-clearance proposal of the late Robert Moses. ''Apartments in
old-law tenements are going for $450 to $600,'' he said. ''Five years ago, they went for $100. ''People come in with a
project, do some cosmetics, quadruple the rent and soon you have a new SoHo, with the sterility of the suburbs. Our
area suffered too much from that in the 70's. We want the neighborhood to grow from within. We don't want people
from the outside coming in to make a quick buck and leave.'

6

THE 1988 TOMPKINS 
SQUARE RIOTS 

7

Class Struggle To their evident surprise, they reaped a That belief was symbolized during
whirlwind. Sunday's protest by a flurry of
Erupts Along ''The idea was to bring people bottle-throwing at a 16-story
peacefully to the park,'' said Frank condominium near Tompkins Square,
Avenue B Morales, a 38-year-old former Christadora House, which contains
Episcopal priest who helps run a apartments selling for up to $1 million.
By MICHAEL WINES once-vacant building now occupied by At 6 A.M., at the tail end of the
Published: August 10, 1988 a group of squatters. ''But you have this demonstration, several protesters
New York Times long history of pent-up anger that set it rammed a police barricade through its
off.'' brass and glass front doors.
To hear veterans of the Sunday melee
in Tompkins Square Park tell it, the ''Frank and I were discussing what to Many neighborhood residents not
New York City police who swept down do with the park,'' added Kenny Tolia, involved in Sunday's protest have
the park's trendy Avenue A border 22, another squatter on the Lower East charged that the police imposed the
felled columns of protesters like so Side of Manhattan, ''but what curfew at the behest of real-estate
many trees. But they missed the roots happened was totally unplanned.'' In developers, so that the neighborhood
of the protest altogether. interviews, Mr. Tolias, Mr. Morales and would appear more desirable to
others said they helped lend impetus to professionals moving into the area.
Those roots, demonstrators say, are two Tompkins Square protests, on July There is no known evidence to
nearer the unfashionable Avenue B side 31 and last Sunday, which turned document that.
of Tompkins Square, in a small and violent after squads of police appeared
shadowy community of urban on the scene. The clashes injured scores ''What happened Saturday was a
homesteaders, ecologists, fringe rock of people and Sunday's melee led to situation where you had police who
bands and revolutionary priests whose nine arrests and 52 complaints of have monopolized violence,'' Mr.
lives revolve around political action. police brutality thus far to the Civilian Morales said, ''and people who are fed
Complaint Review Board. up with being violated and want to fight
They are an unconventional lot, back.''
wearing nicknames like Jerry the They expressed surprise and confusion
Peddler and John the Squatter. Some at the police reaction to the Frustration with a daily life of poverty
are survivors of the 1960's anti-war demonstrations, and said they neither and oppression help explain why
protests; others are dropouts from advocated violence nor sanctioned a someone - who, they say, they do not
1980's materialism. leaflet last week that threatened know - began tossing beer bottles at the
violence against backers of the curfew. police during each of the two protests,
There, amid the bombed-out buildings starting violent street battles.
and garbage-strewn lots of the barrio At the same time, they argued, such a Mr. Morales and his associates believe
they call Loisada, they decided that a confrontation was inevitable, now or in this oppression with a passion
city plan to impose a 1 A.M. curfew on later, because of what they say is a class altogether foreign to the vast,
Tompkins Square merited another in war between the richer, backed by the comfortable enclaves beyond the
an endless series of often-ignored police, and poorer residents of Loisada Avenue B border of Loisada. It
protests. and similar areas. transcends their political philosophies,
which vary from eco-anarchism to

8

communism to milder forms of Some are community centers. Their printing leaflets and spreading the
socialism. occupants include formerly homeless word of a rally among friends. Indeed,
people, some elderly and some they described themselves as the
And it is reinforced by the conviction, runaways, squatters said. moderates in a network of more radical
equally foreign to outsiders, that the advocates of protest.
plight of the homeless and the poor and The squatters and their friends also
the tragedy of AIDS are part of a Members of that network vary from the
Federal conspiracy to depopulate the helped lead a bitter but losing battle in Rainbow Gathering, a group of
cities for repopulation by the wealthy. ecologists, to the Proletariat Warriors,
Mr. Morales, Jerry the Peddler and September 1985 to preserve a Lower a revolutionary communist
others have had their share of run-ins organization, to rock bands with
with the forces of authority. Jerry and a East Side plot of land, dubbed the political agendas such as Missing
second squatter, called John the Foundation.
Communist, were among four people Garden of Eden by its creator, Adam
arrested at the July 31 disturbance at Missing Foundation, whose slogan is
Tompkins Square. Jerry the Peddler Purple, which was marked for ''the party's over,'' believes that
boasted yesterday of a long list of industrial society is at the brink of
arrests, many of them under aliases, at development by the City Department of irreversible collapse. The group has
demonstrations throughout the city. about 20 political followers, one
Housing Preservation and squatter said, and one of its members
The decision to help organize protests was arrested at the July 31 protest in
at Tompkins Square, they said, was Development. Tompkins Square.
rooted in a long series of legal and Mr. Tolia and Dana Beal, a member of
political battles with the police. ''The Garden of Eden fight brought us the Youth International Party, or
all together under one big banner,'' Yippies, both said that organizers of the
Foremost is their devotion to the Jerry the Peddler, a slim, sunburned Sunday protest planned originally to
squatters movement, a little-noticed man with a long, reddish beard, said march peacefully west from Tompkins
effort by organizers to occupy and yesterday. ''It made us all realize what Square on St. Marks Place.
renovate city-owned buildings in we had in common.'' During the protest, however, some in
Loisada -a word whose origins are the crowd of 80 to 100 demonstrators
obscure, but which some say is a sort of Jerry, Mr. Tolia and others are now urged the crowd to turn back into the
Spanish pun on ''Lower East Side.'' #20 battling the city and private developers intersection of Avenue A and St. Marks
Squatters Buildings Despite police over a plan to build housing for the Place, where they blocked traffic.
actions against the squatters, including elderly on a vacant lot, which they call
one eviction that triggered a La Plaza Cultural, which they have It was there that the police, on foot and
month-long protest at a building at 537 converted to a park. The park, at East horseback, were assailed with bottles
E. Fifth Street, the movement has Ninth Street and Avenue C, is in the and firecrackers. The police charged,
mushroomed to include at least 20 center of a squatters' neighborhood. beginning a five-hour riot.
buildings in Loisada and nearby areas.
It was at La Plaza Cultural, some
associates of the men say, that plans for
Sunday's demonstration at Tompkins
Square were first discussed seriously
last week.

Mr. Tolia, Mr. Morales and others say
their involvement in providing impetus
for the protest went little beyond

9

TOMPKINS SQUARE RIOT 

MEMORIES 

By PAUL DERIENZO et al.

Published in: the Shadow, New York, issue 53, August 2008

What follows are personal accounts from various people who were
present on that fateful night in Tompkins Square on August 6, 1988.
They observed and experienced firsthand the bloodlust of the
marauding cops invading our neighborhood from all over the city.
Twenty years later, these memories are still fresh in the minds of those
who were there, as though it all happened just yesterday....

Paul DeRienzo​: I was with a crowd that was pushed onto East Ninth When the surges would recede back toward the park, we would follow
them back. During one surge, my buddy Bobby Apocalypse, who was
Street by police. A large number of undercover officers wearing helmets bartending
were on the street, while other cops were running up and down the sidewalks.
One officer chased me or was running blindly in my direction as I yelled "I'm at the International Bar on First Avenue, hid me out in the bathroom. I hadn't
PRESS," while holding up my official police press pass that I received from done anything wrong, but I wasn't going to try to
[radio station] WBAI, where I was working as a reporter. The cop continued reason with them. On St. Mark's, as I headed back to Avenue A, I saw cops
to run after me in a rage, running directly into me. We tangled; both rolled on horseback at full gallop beating a running man with their clubs, as though
onto the sidewalk, I yelled that I was with the media, showed my press pass,
while the officer climbed up off the street holding his leg, which was
obviously in great pain. I jumped up, tried to watch my back so I wouldn't be
hit from behind by a police officer, and then I was able to leave the area.

Jerry the Peddler:​ Things started getting tense, and by midnight, all they were playing polo. At one point, cops lined up in formation along
Avenue A. A police helicopter descended above them and blew their hats off,
hell was breaking loose. All up and down Avenue A, people were dodging causing them to scurry around like Keystone Kops as they retrieved them.
horses and nightsticks while yelling at the kops: "It's our fucking park." This was met with howls of laughter by protesters and bystanders alike.
Around 2:00, I was chased down St. Mark's to First Avenue. I ducked into
what was then the St. Mark's Bar and Grill and had a quick beer. Fifteen Later, during another surge south on Avenue A, cops chasing people to the
minutes later, I was back on the street, heading toward Avenue A. Two kops, corner of Fourth Street were forced to retreat when residents of a tall
one on foot and the other on horseback, were standing in the middle of the apartment house tossed bottles at them from the windows above. As 6:00am
street. The one on foot was pointing straight at me, so I turned around and approached, we were dog tired, but maintained our confrontation against the
headed back toward First Avenue. The kop on horseback came galloping up cops at Sixth and A, as they slowly withdrew. By 6:00, they were completely
beside me and I started thinking it would be easier to get by the kop on foot. gone. From there, we all ran into the park, feeling victorious, though I
The pork on the horse came riding up on the sidewalk behind me and kicked realized that by holding us off until 6:00, when the park was officially open
me square in the back, yelling "Whose fucking park?" I fell to the ground, for the day, the cops could claim victory. Despite our exhaustion, the anger
gasping for breath and yelled back "OUR fucking park!"

Chris Flash​: ​For much of the night, I was running from and dodging

waves of vicious out-of-control cops who were attacking anybody in their
sights. It didn't matter if they were curfew protestors, bystanders, or even
yuppies out for a night on the town. Cops would surge west on St. Mark's
Place and south on Avenue A, as folks ran for their lives. Those who didn't
run, rationalizing that they hadn't done anything, were set upon and beaten.

10

level was still high. A few dozen people ran through the park, to the John Penley:​ I watched NY Times photographer Angel Franco getting
Christodora House on Avenue B. The lobby was raided and occupied by the
crowd. A large potted plant in the lobby was removed and thrown into the hit by a cop on a horse at the Seventh + A entrance to the park. He showed
street as people took over Avenue B, chanting and cheering. Suddenly, the the cop his press pass while he was trying to take his picture and the cop hit
cry went out to "Save the tree!" and it was quickly replanted inside the park. him with his club and broke his finger. I saw cops going after a waitress
inside the 7A Café. The female manager intervened and they dragged her out
Frank Morales​: I saw that night revolt showcased on the streets all into the street by her hair. I don't know what else happened, because I was
running. My ex-wife was working at the Chameleon on Sixth Street. The bar
over. Graffiti, rebellious ornamentalism, flyers, and silk-screen posters were became a hospital ward for people being beaten by cops - the window guards
everywhere. A sight for sore eyes, Our squatter symbol, a circle with a were pulled down as injured people kept coming by for help. When the cops
lightning arrow shot through it, over the words "Gentrification is Genocide," came, she wouldn't let them in.
"Seize the Land," everywhere. So too, Missing Foundation's upside down
martini glass, "Th Ned:​ I​ t was one day after I'd just gotten fired from my job. I went down to
Party's Over," "1988=1933," "Your House is Mine." Also nihilism with an
attitude, like Nick Zedd's "Police State," and the plain truth of the Rivington the park as usual, knowing that there was crazy shit going to happen. There
School, a circle with arrows pointing in opposite directions. Scratched on a were about 250 cops, for a guess, about half on horseback on Avenue A. The
walls, "Free the Park, Saturday August 6 Midnight, Be There or Bury Your park was full of people, some with signs and stuff. At the time, the park was
Neighborhood." I took heart when I saw some young well attired punk girls, supposed to close, cops on foot in riot gear attempted to force us out. I,
in from the Island, out after a night of partying, bar hopping and the like. among others, opted to pelt them with stuff. A girl I knew (who died 2 years
later) gave me a 40 ouncer. I clipped one in the face mask of his riot gear. A
Unaware of what was transpiring, they instinctively jump into the fray with a woman cop shouted that I had hit a cop and to get me. I turned around and
giggling and sweet rendition of "This Land is Our Land," sung in the face of ran like hell to Avenue A. About halfway across, they choked me out and
tone deaf aggressors on 9th Street, one of the girls skipping boldly Alice in brought me down. "I can't breathe," I said. "It's a bitch, ain't it?" came the
Wonderland across the war zone. And I could hear, under-lying that, an reply. They put me in a van with others, chained us together at the ankle, and
equally inspired, quiet, soulful, "We Shall Overcome," being sung by some took us to the Ninth precinct. As the night wore on, I was surprised at the
black men a few doors down. What a telling scene I thought, imagining number of people that were brought into the cell with broken knees, arms,
Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly, digging it all, who lived together on 10th legs, etc. At some point during the night, we were brought down to central
Street, looking out their window blessing this moment of beauty and the booking, processed, then brought to a holding cell with 13 or so other cell
blues, and love under fire. The violence that the police were wreaking that mates. About 33 hours after being arrested, I went before the judge with a
night had people clinging to each other. Frantic to get back inside local court appointed attorney. A court date was set. I was apprehensive, since I
eateries and such seeking protection, inside a familiar bodega, a frightened was charged with felony assault of a police officer. Weeks went by and it got
crowd of instantly bonded comrades. Like a tornado about to hit, we had to harder to sleep through the night. As the date got closer, the ACLU appointed
put our collective shoulders to the task, slamming Alcatraz door shut, Bob Sullivan to my case. Thanks to his able defense, we plea bargained down
keeping out the marauding cops, who are now rabidly rapping with their to disorderly conduct. What a relief. I didn't get to sue like others did, but
nightsticks on the window grate, clearly grimacing inches away with really I wouldn't have had a case anyway. I'm 41 now. I still look back on
threatening ugly funny cop faces, giddy frightened patrons on the other side that time as the most intense time ever. So much has changed since then. The
looking out, who were not into being beaten, shutting them out of the bar, Lower East side will never be the same.
successfully, celebrating, and the bar-keep howls: Drinks on the house!
Allen​: Some of the events from that night are perfectly clear, but

admittedly some are a bit blurry. Not only has twenty years past (shit!), but I
was doing the Mad Dog/Vodka shuffle that night. That's one pint of awful
cheap wine and one pint of awful cheap vodka. The end result is... a riot, I
guess. I was actually crashing in the park a lot those days. I had lost my job
and my apartment, and was crashing either on friends' sofas or floors, or in
the park. Back then, there were so many punks, skinheads, metal heads,
drunks, junkies, hard luck homeless, etc...in the park at night that it was
actually extremely safe to sleep there. Everybody knew everybody else, and
no one fucked with you if you were cool. There sincerely was a code of sorts,
an honor amongst thieves kind of thing. The day of the riots, everyone knew
that mayor Koch had decided to impose a 12:00 curfew on the park, which at
the time was pretty much a slap in the face of the entire community. What
people nowadays don't realize, is back then, people really didn't have a
problem with what the park was all about. Yeah, there were people living in

11

handmade tents, and crashing on benches, and it wasn't all pretty, but there chanting, yelling, and then...boom. Everyone ran like hell. It was at that point
was an amazing sense of community in the neighborhood back then, and the that point that my sad, revolutionary (and drunk) ass made a terrible decision.
community policed ourselves to a degree. In other words, don't rip off the As the intelligent, sober mass of protesters retreated west on Saint Mark's, I
neighborhood businesses and they'll look out for you when you're broke. cleverly ran directly to a pay phone, where I figured that I could disguise my
Anyway, as the minutes ticked down towards midnight, more and more cops pathetic, bottle banging, "Kill the pigs" chanting self as an innocent
started showing up, and more and more protesters started showing up. A payphone patron. The fact that it was three feet away from where the cops
bunch of us decided that we'd stay in the park after curfew and see what had been looking at me for the last two hours did not occur to me at the time.
happened. 12:00 - Shit, they were serious! They came into the park with riot I remember literally saying "Hey Mom" in the receiver at the time, knowing
gear and night sticks and we all ran like hell getting out of there. Still, that this would make my disguise perfect. The cops would simply run right
somehow, it didn't seem real. We all ran across Avenue A and lined up on the by me and beat up everyone else. Imagine my surprise when I saw that
west side of the street. Meanwhile, an army of cops in riot gear and on horses massive wall of blue run towards me, and that one cop in the lead swing his
surrounded the park across the street from us. That was the big stand off. stick not one, not two, but three times over his head, and then up like
That's also when a tremendous amount of media footage was shot, including nunchucks. The fourth swing went right between my legs and up and into my
an unfortunate shot of me banging my (empty) vodka bottle against a street balls. Naturally, I went down, and after that there were at least six other cops
sign while everyone chanted "Pigs out of the park", and "Whose fucking kicking me and beating the hell out of me with their sticks. I don't know how
I finally got up but I did. That's when all the news footage was shot of me
getting thrown down the street without my shirt on (my shirt got ripped off in
the beating). I remember at that point running into an old friend and telling
her to get the fuck out. They meant business. We made it over to 7th street
where it seemed a bit safer. That's when a whole crew of cops (by then we
had noticed that they were covering their badge numbers with tape) ran down
the street in a pack. I swear to God that as they made their way down the
street, I saw them bust out the windows of every single parked car on the
block. They were also yelling "NYPD Rules" and shit like that. In addition, I
remember seeing cops shove their nightsticks in to the spokes of passing
bicyclists, and also beat and shove innocent people coming out of bars. it was
an ugly, ugly night.
I remember running into a guy named Spider (R.I.P.) at the Gem Spa and
some people taking pictures of us. They ended up in The SHADOW years
ago. I eventually found my girlfriend that night and she took me to Saint
Vincent's, where I was treated for a dislocated shoulder, lacerations, bruises,
etc... I also remember that cops visited me that night in the hospital to "Get
my statement". That was scary as shit, but the doctor was really cool, and I
remember him yelling at them - "You did this to him, get out of here!" Cool
doctor.
Things have changed a lot down here since then, and I honestly believe that
the NYPD is one of them. I think that they are smarter and cooler than they
were back then and should get some props for that. Other changes in this
neighborhood are not so positive. The developers have turned this beautiful
old neighborhood into a shell of what it once was. A once thriving,
revolutionary mecca has been transformed into Anytown, U.S.A. That's why
memories are so important.

park?...Our fucking park"! By then, the helicopters had been called in and I Clayton Patterson​: I made a 3 hour and 33 minute video tape of out of
remember one almost landing on the top of the Alcatraz (a bar that was on St.
Mark's and A at the time). I have to admit thinking that this was the coolest control and violent police wilding against the defenseless Lower East Side
thing in the world at the time. I mean, shit, this was it! War! Us against them! residents, the tape that classified the night as a "Police Riot." If one sees that
Youth run amok! Fuck the pigs! Punk fucking rock!!! Then something crazy tape today, a viewer will be completely shocked at the lack of authority the
happened. The cops actually charged us! One minute we were screaming, ranking officers had over the lower ranking cops. The police were clearly out
of control. The police claimed that they were responding to local residents
requesting a park curfew. This was a lie. Police commanders had made a
previous agreement with the park homeless and drug addicts about where
they could stay in the park that night. The police agenda on this night was to

12

kick the ass of those anarchists who had forced them to retreat the week corner blocking the view and preventing me from seeing or turning the
before. Another blatant example of the curfew lie was the fact that the police corner. I took some shots of the cops standing around, and caught some
did not spent the night closing and guarding the park, but were often several mounted police riding their horses South on Avenue A.
blocks from the park. Most of my night was spent on Sixth Street and A police helicopter was hovering just above what was then Leshko's Coffee
Avenue A. Shop at Seventh and A. I took some footage as it hung there, almost touching
My videotape of the riot got 6 cops criminally indicted, the captain was the rooftops, kicking up dust and debris on the street. I had a feeling that
removed from the precinct, a chief was retired, some cops were fired, and there was more going on around the corner, so I doubled back around Avenue
many innocent injured civilians used my tape to sue the city. I did not sue, B and up Sixth Street to Avenue A, where I came upon the front line of riot
but this night of police rioting has taken me on a 20 year and counting cops with helmets and shields that spanned east to west across Avenue A. I
journey through the inside of police precincts, through court systems, both started the tape rolling and panned the lineup of riot cops and some apparent
civil and criminal, the police trial unit at 1 Police Plaza, and the state and police brass among them. There was the occasional sound of glass breaking
federal justice system. I have been followed, videotaped, photographed, had as bottles hit the street not far from the police. Suddenly, a herd of cops broke
teeth knocked out, been arrested 14 times, all compliments of NYPD. All formation and chased people up Sixth Street toward First Avenue, nightsticks
because of documenting police actions on NYC streets. As this anniversary flailing into bodies and darkness. I didn't feel very safe at that moment and I
date was approaching, I was arrested documenting what was a minor fire on scoped out a van parked on Avenue A, just by the Con Edison substation, for
Ludlow Street. There was no frozen zone, no police-line, people were cover. As the confrontation escalated, I climbed to the roof of the van to get
allowed to walk through, kids were hanging out, businesses were opening -- above the fray and to secure a better vantage point for my camera. Again, the
there was not even a fire, just a little smoke. It is totally bizarre, especially cops broke ranks and began pushing people with their nightsticks and chasing
since the anniversary of the Police Riot is coming up. It would be a little them down the avenue. I was following the action as much as I could, when I
ridiculous and funny if it was not so sinister. heard two thumps against the metal body of the van--then noticed that the
van was surrounded by cops shouting "GET DOWN" at me, swinging their
Paul Garrin​: Saturday night on August 6, 1988 was hot and humid. nightsticks at my legs and at the legs of two other photographers perched
Fortunately, that night, I was booked at Broadway Video to do special effects next to me. The cops were shouting at me to get down, and at the same time
and editing on my video work entitled "Free Society." Just after midnight, the
technician and I started work on image processing of various riot scenes that
I had collected over time by recording the TV news. Just as our session was
getting up to speed, the power suddenly went off and all the media equipment
and computers in the entire place went dark. The excessive power demand
that night caused a brownout in Midtown. There was no engineering staff on
duty to safely bring systems back up, so I took a taxi back to my apartment
on Seventh Street, just off Avenue B.
As I got out of the taxi, I looked up Seventh Street and saw flashing lights, a

helicopter hovering just above the rooftops, and police on horseback riding were swinging their nightsticks trying to hit me--an irreconcilable situation. I
on Avenue A. I had no idea what was going on, but with the sight of all the continued to roll tape as I danced to avoid the blows of the nightsticks, and
police vehicles and riot cops on the street, I thought it would be a good shouted "I'M GETTING DOWN! JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE...". As I sat
chance to get some fresh material for Free Society. I went back to my down on the roof and started to come down, one cop lunged at me out of the
apartment to pick up a new Sony video 8 camera that I borrowed from my darkness and grabbed me by my shirt, swung me around, and slammed me
friend. I walked to the corner of Avenue A, but there were cops all over the against the brick wall at the substation, as my camera rolled on. He screamed
at me "PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS TO YOURSELF OR I'LL CRACK
YOUR FUCKIN' SKULL!!! YOU GOT ME?" I answered: "Yeah, I got
you!" as I hit the ground and felt him kicking me. Then he yelled: "NOW
GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!!!!" and then he stomped on the video
camera. I was dazed, the camera hit me in the face as the cop assaulted me,
and cut me above my eye...I realized that the cop said to get the fuck out of
there, and not that I was under arrest, so after ascertaining that the camera

13



Artist Surrenders Videotape Of Clash in Tompkins Square

By CONSTANCE L. HAYS, NY Times
Published: September 17, 1988

Ending a 16-day holdout, a Manhattan artist agreed
yesterday to turn over a copy of his videotape showing the
police and demonstrators clashing in Tompkins Square
Park.
But the artist, Clayton Patterson, told Acting Justice
Richard B. Lowe 3d of State Supreme Court that he
wanted the judge to keep the tape until a copy of it could
be screened ''for the people.''

Judge Lowe asked Mr. Patterson when he planned
the public screening.

''Probably Tuesday night,'' Mr. Patterson said. Arrested
Sept. 1

When the assistant district attorney, Carol Ann Stokinger, expressed no objection to the plan, the judge said he would
turn over a copy of the tape to the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Wednesday. ''That will be done,'' he added,
''whether or not you have made arrangements to show it to the public.''

The hearing yesterday brought to an end the unusual minuet between Mr. Patterson and the courts over the videotape,
which was subpoenaed Aug. 19. Mr. Patterson dismissed his lawyer, Alton H. Maddox Jr., and refused to turn over the
tape. He was arrested Sept. 1 on a civil contempt of court charge.

Judge Lowe appointed a lawyer for Mr. Patterson and adjourned the hearing until Sept. 6. During that session, Mr.
Patterson refused all legal assistance, saying he wanted to represent himself. He also told the court that he did not want
to turn over the tape for various reasons, including his concern about the homeless and what he said was the failure of
the District Attorney's office to prosecute a drug dealer and a police officer who he said had harassed him.

Mr. Patterson, of 161 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was found in contempt at the Sept. 6 hearing
and sentenced to 90 days in the civil section of the Bronx House of Detention for Men. Going to Jail 'Loses Its Purpose'

At a hearing Tuesday, Mr. Patterson insisted that he had no plans to turn over the tape.

Yesterday, however, he said, ''There's a certain point where going to jail loses its purpose.''

''This is not the end,'' Mr. Patterson added, as a crowd of supporters milled around him outside the courtroom at 111
Centre Street. ''This is the beginning. We're going to continue trying to show people that police brutality does indeed
exist.''

15

A Riot? 1988? What Riot?

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: Aug. 10, 1997

Si​ nce the 1988 riot at Tompkins Square Park, the event's anniversary had become the occasion for rock concerts
featuring punk or folkie bands whose angry political ethos matched that of the original protesters. Trash cans were
burned, arrests were usually made, and the memory of the riot was secure.

Problem is attendance was declining. So this year organizers decided to try a new tack -- inviting two underground rave
promoters to program the music.
''Ravers are the new hippies, and we're the old hippies,'' said Jerry the Peddler, a local, well, hippie and de facto
organizer of the event. ''It's a handshake across the generation.''

So it was that on Wednesday

afternoon that a crowd of some 500

ravers -- bell-bottomed,

face-stickered, lollipop-sucking

devotees of techno music -- descended

on the park to celebrate. What

old-timers quickly realized, however,

was that their younger

counterparts has little interest in the

politics of the occasion. Or politics

at all, for that matter.

''What riot?'' said Jill Shari, 23. ''Never
heard of it.''

She was not alone. An informal poll of
the predominantly
found nobody who teen-age crowd
1988, when an
park curfew erupted into a battle between protesters and the police. knew of of Aug. 6,

attempt to impose a

''It's about giving thanks to all the kids who support the rave scene,'' said Adam Pontari, 19, when asked about the reason
for event. ''At least, that's my guess.''

16

In the old-timers' eyes, the event became yet another indicator of how far the neighborhood has fallen from its days as a
hotbed. Indeed, the thundering monotonous techno music left little room for political speech. Gone were the Dylanesque
lyrics. A typical techno chorus went: ''One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.'' (Repeat.)

Perhaps the most annoyed constituency was the ''gutter punk'' crowd, which watched from a distance.

''They put glitter on their faces and think they're cool,'' said Joe Stivallas, 18, who sat with a pit bull. ''But they're just
some joke with a couple of turntables.''

Still, some aspects endured. After Jerry the Peddler was arrested (as he is most years), his supporters ran up to the police
van and launched into a fit of righteous rhetoric.

But by afternoon's end, no one on stage had even mentioned the riots. The final insult came when one promoter, Colin
Strange, ended the event early and thanked the police for ''being so great.'' As Mr. Strange left the stage, he was accosted
by a small crowd demanding what he meant.

''I was asked to throw a rave,'' Mr. Strange answered. ''Nobody told me to throw a riot.''

If Police Can't Take Action, the Streets Will Be Even
More Unsafe

Published: January 25, 1989

To the Editor:

''Tompkins Square and Larry Davis'' (editorial, Dec. 31) simply ignored some rather disturbing elements in the Tompkins
Square Park episode of last Aug. 7.

If you are convinced that all of the people allegedly abused by the police were innocent bystanders or naturalists out to
commune with nature, we certainly do not share that view. Sufficient evidence has been elicited to establish that a group
of self-avowed anarchists conspired not only to incite riot and mayhem at the scene, but also to provoke, attack and then
falsely to accuse police officers of misconduct. Indeed, the deleterious element that descended on the park on the night in
question eventually took the shape of a violence-prone mob comprising druggies, drunks, skinheads and anarchists, who
went on to attack and injure police officers assigned to enforce a park curfew.

17

Have you ever concerned yourself with the injuries that are sustained by police officers? In your frenzied rush to punish
the police for alleged misconduct, have you, on balance, called for swift punishment for those found guilty of resorting to
mob rule and assaulting police officers?

Frankly, your priorities are confused. Should the police have retreated and allowed the savage horde to burn, pillage and
otherwise engage in the kind of deviant behavior that made a shambles of the right of the decent residents to enjoy
security and tranquillity in their own neighborhood? If the police are made to retreat in the face of mob violence, the rule
of law is summarily destroyed.

But if the police are to uphold the law - as
they were charged to
7 - they must use force do on the night of Aug.
life-threatening
force used by the police when confronted with
has been subjectively
excessive and by others violence. The extent of
regrettable that a few
victimized in the wild, at Tompkins Square
ensued.
observed by some as

as too restrained. It is

innocents were

chaotic melee that

However, what is even more regrettable is that
some officers at the scene found it
necessary to remove their shields out of fear
that they would ultimately have to
explain their use of necessary force before
the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Federal
and local grand juries and a department
tribunal.

And it is that paradoxical element of fear on the part of police officers that should be of major concern to you and all
other responsible parties. For if the police are so psychologically atrophied that they cannot take appropriate action when
necessary, then the streets of New York City will become even more unsafe than they are now.

PHIL CARUSO President, Patrolmen's Benevolent Assn. New York, Jan. 13, 1989

18

THE HOMELESS PEOPLE OF TOMPKINS  

“By the end of the 1980s the Lower East
Side felt like it had suffered more than its
fair share of failed government politics.
The homeless crisis was reaching a critical mass.
In 1990 there were 70,000 to 80,000
homeless in New York, and 250,000 people
were at risk of losing their homes.”

January 4, 1994. A march down Avenue B in memory of Terry
Taylor, another homeless Tompkins Square activist who died of AIDS.
By 1991, the estimated 300 homeless people living in Tompkins
Square Park were gone and the park was forcefully closed for
renovations. After its reopening in summer 1992, the Lower East Side
quickly started to transform into one of the most high-rent communities in New York.

December 14, 1989. In the freezing early morning following eviction from the park, a homeless couple packs their things.
19

The Case of ‘The Butcher of Tompkins Square Park’

February 2, 2012 | From: T​ he Villager

BY CLAYTON PATTERSON | By the end of the 1980s the Lower East Side felt like it had suffered more than its fair share of
failed government politics. The homeless crisis was reaching a critical mass. In 1990 there were 70,000 to 80,000 homeless in
New York, and 250,000 people were at risk of losing their homes.

The drastic cuts in social spending, together with the increasing rate of inflation due to the worldwide financial crisis at the

end of the 1980s and the cutbacks in jobs, entailed a rapid pauperization among the middle and lower classes. Additional cuts

in state subsidies for affordable housing further exacerbated the housing situation. And there was the conversion of the

S.R.O.’s (single-room-occupancy hotels) to co-ops and condos. We

all remember Mayor Koch’s famous solution to the problem:

“If You Cannot Afford To Live Here, Move.”

In 1989 Tompkins Square Park was filled with a “Tent City” made
up of hundreds of homeless people. Tent City had many of the
same problems associated with Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti
Park. And as at Zuccotti Park, the activists and the homeless tried to
govern and control their own space.

Back in ’89, one particularly disturbing rumor that caused
much consternation and concern among, not only the people
sleeping in Tompkins Square Park, but the activist community,
was that of a woman’s head having been boiled on top of a
stove. The rumor was so constant that a local reporter had
contacted the police.

It turns out the rumors were true.

It was getting to the bottom of this “who done it” murder that
became complicated. In the end, Daniel Rakowitz was arrested and
charged with the murder. But my question has always been, Did he
do it? After his arrest, Rakowitz contacted me and I have spent a
number of years, in one way or another, following this case. And
there are a number of mysteries connected to this murder.

The murdered woman’s name was Monica Beerle. Beerle, from

Switzerland, was a dance student at the Martha Graham School of

Dance. She was Daniel’s roommate in a tenement building

at 700 E. Ninth St. The conflict centered around Monica having the lease and threatening to evict Daniel. Eventually, Daniel,

high on acid, was video-interviewed by the police and confessed to hitting her in the throat. However, he always claimed he

was tricked and was adamant about the fact that he did not commit the murder. O.K., let’s see. …

He did talk violent nonsense, like, “Kill the pigs and feed them to the hogs.” But one reason I thought about his innocence was
the fact that whenever there was a violent conflict between the police and the protesters, Daniel always left. Outside of his
delusional verbiage, he appeared to be nothing more than a passive, nonviolent, pot-smoking, hippie type with a broken arm.
However, there is no question he was involved in dismembering Beerle’s body and then disposing of everything but the bones.

Because of the high-profile nature of this crime, I assumed all of the prison telephone conversations I had with him had to
have been taped. Daniel went into great, gruesome detail about how he and Eddie and Sylvia, who also crashed in the
apartment, cut up the body. Later, I interviewed Sylvia and Eddie and they also went into intimate detail about how they all
cut up the body and the problems associated with such a despicable criminal act.

20

Daniel cleaned and kept most of the dead woman’s bones. He was saving them to give them to Monica’s mother in
Switzerland. In the meantime, he kept them in a drywall-compound bucket, filled with cat litter, in a locker at the Port
Authority. When asked by the police about the body, he told them about the locker. The police went to the locker, found the
bucket, and there were indeed human bones inside.

According to Dorothy, an investigative assistant to Daniel’s lawyer, on the advice of their own pro-bono lawyer, Eddie and
Sylvia, when interviewed by authorities, pleaded the Fifth, and that satisfied the authorities. Eddie and Sylvia were never
charged with any crime.

Daniel was charged with the murder. One of the unfortunate sidebars of the trial was that the charge of cannibalism stuck as a
fact in the case. One of the prosecutor’s habitual criminal witnesses was able to trade a criminal conviction for a
get-out-of-jail-free card if he would tell his a tale of finding a human finger in a bowl of homemade “Rakowitz soup” that
Daniel had allegedly ladled out in the park. That is a myth: I do not believe that Rakowitz ever served any such soup in the
park.

In the end, on Feb. 22, 1991, Daniel was found not guilty by reason of insanity — and he has been committed ever since. He is
now in Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center for the criminally insane on Wards Island, in New York City.

In the Daniel Rakowitz Wikipedia entry there are a number of questionable facts. For example, the part of his cooking the
brain, tasting it and liking it, and thereafter referring to himself as a cannibal. There’s no question he dismembered the body,
but out of the hours of conversation I’ve had with Daniel, he’s always denied cooking the soup, feeding it to the homeless or
tasting it himself.

Also, according to Daniel, he was born in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri (his
father was a criminal investigator for the Army), not Rockport, Texas. At his
subsequent sanity trials, like the repeated cannibalism charge, the district
attorney went on about “the Rakowitz stare.” There is no Rakowitz stare —
just a dull expression.

I have visited Daniel many times over the years and he always pushes the
same story of someone else having done the murder, but he states he is not
allowed to say who did it. Considering that most of the people connected to
the case are dead or gone, and certainly non-threatening, I think he did what
he was charged with doing. At the time of his trial he was delusional. And, in
my mind, it is possible because of all the psychedelic drugs he was doing that
he is convinced someone else committed the murder. He always took
responsibility for hitting her in the throat, as well as his part in the body’s
mutilation. It was the gap between the death and the mutilation that was
unexplained.

But another reason I was interested in following the case is the fact that, in my opinion, the prosecutors were just as
emotionally hysterical and physiologically out there as Daniel was. I’m not sure what stimulated or caused the D.A.’s
imagination to go so far from reality, but the prosecution construed this whole fictional scenario of how Patrick Geoffrois, a
local tarot card reader and mystic, was the head of a satanic cult. They went so far as to suggest that the murder was a satanic
ritual, led by Patrick, and that I had videotaped the whole gruesome ceremony.

Of course, none of their imaginary fiction contained even a grain of truth. But it did create, for me and Patrick, a few
complicated situations with a number of attempted setups by the local authorities. There’s not enough space to elaborate on it
here, but in one setup, the police ended up with a search warrant to my home, confiscating a tape I had recorded for my
“Clayton Presents” program on Manhattan Neighborhood Network public-access TV.

If their setup did not have the possibility of ending up with such really serious consequences, the premise of what they were
suggesting was so ridiculous I would have laughed at the audacity of their imagination. My blessing was my Legal Aid lawyer,
Sarah Jones. She was very smart, related to President Rutherford B. Hayes, and worked at Legal Aid because of her idealism.

21

She could have made much more money in the corporate world. She did laugh at some of what they were projecting. It took me
more than a year of going to court to get the tape back into my archives.

This prosecutorial satanic madness led to some very strange and unique interactions between myself and the “authorities.”
This part of the history will have to be dealt with on another day. But there is no question I got an insider’s view of two
different sides of social madness. This part of my L.E.S. legal journey taught me lessons about how dangerous out-of-control
individuals with political and legal power can be — in this case, the police and prosecutors. And also how dangerous
speculative gossip can be. Thankfully, I survived the madness with just a few scrapes and bruises. It could have been much
worse.
Pictured Above In Order:
Daniel Rakowitz in Tompkins Square Park. Photo by Clayton Patterson.
Untitled​ From T​ ompkins Square Park​ by Q. Sakamaki.
Untitled(Homeless Man in To​ mpkins)​ From ​Tompkins Square Park​ by Q. Sakamaki.

22

23

THE SQUATTERS 

24

Frank Morales

Puerto Rican Episcopal priest and activist.

Summing up his feelings about
squatting, Morales said, “T​ he only way
you can get housing is to seize it. The
buildings are sitting empty. People need
housing. It’s fun to do this — that’s a
big part of it for me. It’s fun to sweep
out the debris. You can make a daycare
center or community kitchen.”

“I used to walk out of services with a
crowbar and we’d open up abandoned buildings…”

Riot Police Remove 31 Squatters From Two East
Village Buildings

By SHAWN G. KENNEDY
Published: May 31, 1995
With a show of force befitting a small invasion, the Police Department seized two East Village tenements yesterday, overwhelming a
defiant group of squatters who had resisted city efforts to retake the buildings for nearly nine months.

Using a tanklike armored vehicle and carrying riot gear, hundreds of officers moved in on the city-owned buildings to try to end years
of occupation by the squatters, who argued that their long-term presence and efforts to rehabilitate the once-abandoned buildings
gave them the right to stay.

The takeover of the two buildings at 541 and 545 East 13th Street occurred about midmorning, many hours after the police first
arrived and were met by makeshift barricades consisting of old furniture, appliances and trash containers.

Well before dawn, the block between Avenue A and Avenue B was filled with dozens of squatters and their sympathizers, who
danced, taunted officers and banged on trash-can lids and street signs. The site is only a few blocks from Tompkins Square Park,

25

where a violent clash between the police and protesters occurred in the summer of 1988.

The police had also expected a violent conclusion to the eviction process. But while the police had to break through doors that the
squatters had welded shut, in the end most of the squatters yielded peacefully. The police arrested 31 people, many of whom tried to
form a human chain in front of the buildings, but there were no serious injuries.

The show of force was ordered by city officials in an effort to insure the safety of Buildings Department workers who actually carried
out the evictions. Although the city has for months been seeking a court decision that would give them the right to retake five
buildings on the block, officials won a more limited ruling last week saying they could evict people from the two buildings because
inspectors felt they were in danger of collapse.

At a news conference in the afternoon, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani defended the effort. "The fact is you can't occupy city buildings
and not pay rent, have them in the conditions that these buildings were in, which were dangerous," he said. "God forbid that
something happens to these buildings, the first thing would have been the city would have been blamed for not doing something
about it."

Unlike the poor immigrants who have taken over other
city-owned buildings in the Bronx and elsewhere as an
alternative to homeless shelters, most of the squatters on
East 13th Street are artists, musicians and poets whose
stance against the city is as much about politics as about
the need for housing.

Most are white, most have jobs and over the years, they
have carved comfortable spaces out of the dilapidated
properties that the city owns because the previous owners
defaulted on taxes. It is unclear how many people lived in
the two buildings, but the squatters said there were about 100 residents in the five city-owned buildings on the block.

"What you see here is a classic David and Goliath story," said Frank Morales, who stood at a police barricade at dawn yesterday
trying to explain why he and other squatters would risk arrest and injury in defense of their positions. "The city is wrong on this issue
and we must take a stand against what is happening all over this neighborhood. The city is trying to take away our hard work, our
sweat equity in these buildings without offering anything in return."

Mr. Morales said that many of the residents had left the buildings over the weekend as word spread that the police would try to
retake them.

Although hundreds of squatters are encamped in similar buildings, over the years officials have largely let them alone and in a few

26

cases have actually helped them fix up their buildings. But housing officials say that with thousand of people on waiting lists for
low-rent apartments, they have no choice but to go after buildings like those on East 13th Street.

While city officials stressed that the police action was motivated by concerns for the squatters' safety, the city is continuing to fight a
court battle, begun in November before Justice Elliott Wilk of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, to gain broader rights to evict
squatters.

The squatters, some of whom say they have lived in the buildings for more than 10 years, are claiming rights by "adverse possession."
It is a legal principle that holds that someone who has had the continuous use of someone else's property without a formal objection
or notice to vacate has a right to keep using it.

Mara Neville, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said officials had offered to provide
emergency housing for the squatters. But so far, she said, none had sought the help. She said that their possessions would be
removed and stored and that the buildings would be sealed.

Although the battle over the East Village buildings has been brewing for months, yesterday's confrontation developed after an
Appellate Court ruling last Thursday that struck down a decision by Judge Wilk in April blocking evictions based on the safety issue.

Since the ruling, both sides geared for battle, with the city planning strategy and the squatters passing out leaflets seeking help from
sympathizers in the neighborhood.

On Monday, the squatters and their supporters began dragging to the middle of 13th Street a collection of furniture, lumber, trash
containers and worn-out appliances in an effort to slow the entry of the police, whom they were told to expect early Tuesday
morning. An old car was moved to the middle of the block and overturned. At various places along 13th Street between Avenue A and
B ropes were laid on the ground to trip the police.

According to the police, there were also booby traps, including concealed boards with nails protruding through them and patches of
tar or oil in front of the building entrances.

The squatters also worked to fortify their buildings. "There was a 2 A.M. cutoff for fortification," said Peter Spagnuolo, who was
inside the building at 541 East 13th. "We had two welding crews welding people inside the building, welding the doors shut. We were
sealed in." Between 4 A.M. and dawn, the street took on a festival atmosphere. From a loudspeaker somewhere in the buildings, Bob
Dylan could be heard singing "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35." At least a dozen people used brooms or wrenches to bang on No
Parking signs.

27

See Skwat Community Room, 1992

Before dawn, helmeted patrolmen arrived by the score, and police vans, ambulances and squad cars pulled up to the curb on streets
east of the squatter camp. Altogether, a police official said, up to 250 officers were involved in the confrontation.

By 5 A.M., police had cordoned off a five-block area near 13th Street. As the sun rose, the officers drew closer, taking positions on the
roofs of nearby buildings as police helicopters circled overhead.

Just after 9:20 A.M., the police, backed up by emergency service trucks and fire vehicles, began ripping down the barricades. They
then moved on to break up a line of demonstrators who had locked arms in front of the buildings. The fortification efforts also held
off the police. Mr. Spagnuolo said it took the officers at least two hours to reach his apartment. "They ground off the hinges with a
grinder," he said.

Bill Stark, who lived at 539 East 13th Street and who has a bicycle shop on the first floor, said he fled after seeing live reports on
television of the police movements. "I remember seeing that tank vehicle; it was very frightening," he said. "I didn't want to get
arrested. I didn't want to be separated from my dogs and her puppies."

28

THE 
ANARCHISTS

29

Bob McGlynn

Bob McGlynn longtime figure in New York City’s anarchist scene who linked the Tompkins Square Park protests of the 1980s to pro-democracy
movements in Eastern Europe. Faced with police harassment and city government attempts to oppressively regulate cyclists, in 1982 he organized
the first bike messengers’ union in New York, the Independent Couriers Association. In 1987, when Mayor Ed Koch issued an order banning
bicycles from three Midtown avenues during working hours, the messengers repeatedly rode in a large group in defiance. McGlynn was on the
frontlines of this successful struggle — the ban was overturned as unenforceable. McGlynn proudly called himself the “King of All Bicycle
Messengers.”
McGlynn was again facing off with police in the streets when the city attempted to impose a curfew on Tompkins Square Park in 1988. That set off
three years of conflict on the gentrifying Lower East Side, with squatters, anarchists and the homeless fighting the cops in an endless series of angry
protests and riots. McGlynn, although living in Brooklyn, biked across the river to join in the action.

1988:​ Department of Corrections plans to moor a 400-man, $19 million prison barge at Pier 40. Police and East Village
squatters and anarchists clash in Tompkins Square Park riot.
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The Anarchist Switchboard

The Anarchist Switchboard was a radical bookstore located in the
basement of 324 East 9th Street between 1st and 2nd Ave.
It was opened in 1986 by a man from the Libertarian (aka Anarchist)
Book Club.
It was a “damp and dingy one-room spot with couches, exposed light
bulbs and red concrete walls.”
The space contained speakers and hosted organizing meetings and
poetry/folk performances. There were lots of activity in NYC and on
Long Island that came out of that place, including NYC’s first Food
Not Bombs (from people who had visited San Francisco and saw their
F’n’B in action). The Switchboard also produced 11 issues of a zine
(Black Eye) and a pamphlet (“Bakunin on Violence”).

The Anarchist Switchboard also was a figure in the August 1988
Tompkins Square Park Riot. The Switchboard was also the victim of a
right-wing skinhead mob attack on July 4th, 1989 and several people
were badly injured (the skinheads were looking for “flag burners”).
Eventually the Switchboard (which was started as a “free space”
experiment) was taken over by a “mob of junkies”. “They slept there
and stank the tiny place up”. Everybody stopped going there, and
there was an outcry from the neighborhood to shut the place down.
And down it went.

SABOTAGE (​ Fall 1989- Summer 1990)

A crew of people from the Switchboard wanted to start a more
professional- style bookstore. They quite ambitiously rented a storefront on
St. Mark’s Place (96 St. Mark’s Place btwn 1st & 2nd Ave). Sabotage
opened Fall ‘89. I was a great place. They had shelves and shelves of
awesome books, the place was always abuzz with activity (often too
much!). Lots of activities related to the squatters movement and the height
of the struggle against a curfew in Tompkins Square Park.

In March 1990 a punk rocker was killed (stabbed to death) by right-wing
skinheads just up the street from Sabotage. July 4, 1990 an Anarchist picnic
was attacked by this same mob of right-wing skins.

Sabotage crashed and burned. The neighborhood was hot because of lots of
clashes with the police around the park and in the squats. There was a lot of
aggro and pressure. Eventually the collective that ran the place split in two.
The bookstore got taken over by an assortment of LES crazies and didn’t
last a minute. The more level-headed Anarchist element dropped out and
put out a pamphlet explaining their side of things (“What Ever Happened To Sabotage?”).

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