Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-07-21
Harlem HOOdlums Threaten
Another Race Riot; Churches
Lose Hold On Congregations

gate Negro policemen exclusively
to Harlem. They have demanded
and obtained the distribution of
Negro policemen to the Broadway
area, to points in Brooklyn, the
Bronx and elsewhere in New York
as tenet of their creed and pro-
gram that Negroes be integrated.
As a result, more white policemen
have been on duty in an almost ex-
clusively white Negro community.
With little knowledge and sympathy
for the Negroes problem-economic,
social and civic-these white police
men have rightly stayed away from
matters of strictly racial poten-
tialities such as the crimes Negroes
commit against one another, and
devoted most of their efforts to
protecting white business places
and the white people who come to
Harlem for pleasure or for business.
Since the rioting of 1913, there has
been a pronounced tendency on the
part of white policemen in Harlem
to leave all save the most fragrant
cases of misdemeanors or crimes
in Harlem severely alone. None
want the stigma of starting another
race riot.
Control of Situation Is Lost
With a woeful lack of qualified
Negroes on the force, the problem
has reached a stalemate that has
resulted in situation in which COM
plete control has been lost over the
hoodlum element in Harlem. The
result was the shooting episode
among the Sabers, the Bachelors
and the Chancellors. There will be
more such incidents. There will be
more killings, murders, muggings,
purse-snatching and acts of van
dalism. The reason is apparent.
Mayor LaGuardia, in his zeal to
protect minorities in New York
City, has on several occasions shown
his disfavor of rough handling of
Negro thugs and hoodlums by the
cops. Whether the Mayor gave
orders to the cops not to shoot in
last years riot is true or not, the
fact remains that the hoodlum ele-
ment in Harlem got a boost in
morale from the low casualty rate
of that outbreak.
But the police are in a mood to
defy the Mayor. Their guns are
itching to rid the streets of some
of the hoodlum, young and old, who
are doing the city no good at all;
who are degrading their race and
making it all the harder for decent
law-abiding Negroes to live in the
worlds largest Negro community.
This attitude by the cops was seen
in the gang fight mentioned above.
The police converged on the park
the minute the young thugs started
fighting among themselves. Turn
ing away from their own warfare,
the young hoodlums started shoot
ing at the police. That was the
mistake that spells probable doom
to Harlem's young gangs. The cops
went to town with their guns.
Many a mothers son is in line
for the grave of a hoodlum in Har-
lem this summer. The lack of
parental control is now paying off.
The refusal of Negro mothers and
fathers to properly supervise their
children is being rewarded with
police bullets moving down these
same undisciplined youngsters. In
the midst of it all, Negro churches
and ministers are losing face with
the people they purportedly serve
because of an abject failure to
teach decency, respect for the rights
of others and pride of clean cut
manhood, if not of race to their
congregations.