page_title: Tompkins Square Park
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Tompkins Square Park / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Tompkins Square Park in New York City, February 2008.
context_page_description: Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5-acre public park in the Alphabet City portion of East Village, Manhattan, New York City. The square-shaped park, bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the west by Avenue A, is abutted by St. Marks Place to the west. The park opened in 1834 and is named for Daniel D. Tompkins, Vice President of the United States.
context_section_description: In the middle 19th century the "Square" included a large parade ground for drilling the New York National Guard.  The modern layout of the park by Robert Moses in 1936 is said to be intended to divide and manage crowds that have gathered there in protest since the 1870s. That tradition was rekindled as the park became the nursery of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
  By the 1980s Tompkins Square Park had become for many New Yorkers synonymous with the city's increased social problems.  The park at that time was a high-crime area that contained encampments of homeless people, and it was a center for illegal drug dealing and heroin use.
  In August 1988, a riot erupted in the park when police attempted to clear the park of homeless people; 38 people were injured. Bystanders as well as homeless people and political activists got caught up in the police action that took place on the night of August 6 and the early morning of August 7, after a large number of police surrounded the park and charged at the hemmed-in crowd while other police ordered all pedestrians not to walk on streets neighboring the park. Much of the violence was videotaped and clips were shown on local TV news reports (notably including one by a man who sat on his stoop across the street from the park and continued to film while a police officer beat him up), but ultimately, although at least one case went to trial, no police officers were found culpable. A punk rock festival has been held in the park in the years since, in commemoration of the event.
  The park had become a symbol of the problems in the city, including homelessness—which had prompted the 1988 riot. Against that backdrop, Daniel Rakowitz shocked the neighborhood in 1989 when he murdered Monika Beerle, dismembered her, made a soup out of her body and served it to the homeless in the park.  Rakowitz, called the Butcher of Tompkins Square, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains incarcerated at the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island.
  Further clashes occurred during May Day festivities of 1990, the culmination of a "Resist 2 Exist" Festival, which featured notable local acts and artists. 29 protesters were arrested and 25 charged with felony charges; charges that were dropped for all except Kenny Toglia, who spent a year at Rikers for misdemeanor incitement.  These clashes are documented in the film Your House is Mine (2004) directed by Caroline McCaughey. 
  From June 3, 1991 to July 25, 1992, the park was closed to the public for restoration, but also to keep out the homeless and in attempt to calm tensions. The Tompkins Square Park Bandshell, a  key feature of the park, was one of the first targets of these renovations.
caption: Snow in February 2008
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