51: Tompkins Square Park Riot
Ghost Town: Strange History, True Crime, & the Paranormal
Ghost Town
3.7 • 938 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2019
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 was a true class war fighting the gentrification of New York City's East Village.
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Transcript
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| 0:26.0 | Tees and C's eligibility criteria and geographical restrictions apply. |
| 0:29.4 | This riot was no walk in the park. |
| 0:32.1 | I'm Rebecca Leib. |
| 0:33.0 | I'm Jason Horton. |
| 0:35.0 | And this is Ghost Town. One year after the same neighborhood erupted in a riot after the city tried to enforce a curfew. |
| 0:57.0 | That night, police and squatters battled each other for four hours. |
| 1:01.0 | An amateur videotape captured police hiding their badges or removing them to prevent identifications. |
| 1:06.0 | When it was all over, hundreds were left bloodied and battered and only a handful of officers were reprimanded. A year ago, police were armed with helmets and riots here and many had their badges covered |
| 1:21.0 | as they enforced the curfew in Tompkins Square Park. |
| 1:24.0 | It turned into a pitched battle with the homeless and their supporters and innocent passers-by. |
| 1:29.0 | As police brass and Mayor Koch later acknowledged acknowledged a police riot. |
| 1:33.0 | All right, I'm getting doubt, I'm getting down, I'm getting down. |
| 1:39.0 | Paul Garin took this videotape of what critics called a police force out of control. |
| 1:44.0 | 50 people were injured. |
| 1:45.0 | 121 complaints were filed with the civilian complaint review board. |
| 1:49.3 | Most of them remain on... |
| 1:50.5 | I got two coach tickets to New York City if you want to go. I love New York. |
| 1:54.8 | Actually it's standby you have to go standby so I know that's what we're working with. |
| 1:59.7 | I don't get time. Did I mention that these tickets for this plane also goes back in time? |
... |
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