Tompkins Square Park Riot (1988)
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty ImagesPolice retake Avenue A at St. Marks Place during the Tompkins Square Park Riot.
Harmon LeonAvenue A at St. Marks Place, as seen in 2018.
In the late 1980s, Avenue A in Manhattan’s East Village was where junkies would score and homeless people, squatters, and punks would hang out. It was a virtual tent city, a symbol of New York City’s socioeconomic problems and the widening class gap as gentrification began to take hold. Eventually, more than 150 homeless people called Tompkins Square Park home and Mayor Ed Koch called the area a “cesspool.”
In 1988, in an attempt to stop people from sleeping in the park and kick out the homeless, Manhattan Community Board 3 advised the New York City Parks Department to adopt a 1 a.m. curfew for the previously 24-hour park.
In retaliation, on Aug. 6, a protest against the curfew formed as participants waved banners that trumpeted: “GENTRIFICATION IS CLASS WARFARE.” In response, roughly 400 police officers arrived on the scene.
The protest erupted into a riot with the police – who proceeded to beat many of the homeless people who were squatting there. Some officers even put tape over their badges to hide their identities as they clubbed and beat protestors and bystanders. The full-on brawl lasted until 6 a.m. the next morning.
“Without the two Tompkins Square Riots (1874, 1988),” said Mitchell, “the social geography – as well as the built landscape – over the Lower East Side would have been a quite different beast than it is.”
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