12th JULY 1967

On this day in 1967 in Newark, New Jersey, a series of riots begin, lasting a total of six days, following the arrest and intense beating of an African American cab driver, John Weerd Smith by police officials John DeSimone and Vito Pontrelli. Preceding the riots, young African American community members felt that they were not being accepted by the city of Newark, despite the fact that Newark was among one of the first black majority cities within America, alongside the likes of Washington, D.C. Following his arrest, Smith was taken to the nearby 4th Police Precint, which was across the street from the large public housing complex Hayes Homes, the residents of which believed that an incapacitated Smith had been killed by the police officers. This rumour ultimately sparked the beginning of the rioting, looting and destruction of Newark.

At the conclusion of the riot rampage there were a total 26 dead, 1100 wounded and 1300 arrested, with a total property loss of just over ten million dollars.

Despite all this, Newark was one of the first U.S cities to hire black police officers. Whilst this was the case, the members of the force, and indeed the city's population, did not see eye to eye such that the relations between those of African American descent and the white members of the police force were poor. At the time only 145 of the 1322 police officers were black, a mere 11%, whilst a similar statistic was paralleled in the city's population, with more than 50% of the population being black.

In 2000, the Newark Police Department consisted of 37% black, 27% Hispanic and 36% white force members. However the city's population remains at majority black, with 53% black, 30% Hispanic and 17% white.

I guess we really don't think about stuff like this any more. I mean, sure we look at race as being a highly dominated factor in most things. We try to ignore it but we still consider it to be influential in the decisions that we make. I was talking about this the other day to a friend. I asked her whether or not people from Asia would ever go home at the end of the day and make Italian for dinner. To ask her this question I began by saying, "I don't mean to be racist...". Is that being racist though? In saying that I don't want to be racist, have I just been racist? It's a seriously tricky area to get into and I don't think that we will ever be fully able to not look at it from a racial perspective.

As hard as we try.



Image available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/nyregion/08riots.html?_r=1