people are not workers because they will not work. They live in the community in a different way. As I said, this type of element exists in every society, and the Communists have found it possible to utilize these people in the riots that the Communists would like to have develop. As the counsel pointed out this morning, of approximately 400,000 people living in the Harlem area, only about 1 percent were participants at all in the riot. That is, despite the opportunities available for footing and burning and anything else that anybody wanted to do, because police could not cope with everything at once. The CHAIRMAN. And that 1 percent is of the type you just described? Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Yes, sir. Many of those arrested were juvenile delinquents or people with criminal records who took advantage of the opportunity to attack the police or loot. But the bulk of the Negro people weren't at all involved in this and were apart from it. But even to reach this element of the community it was necessary for a propaganda campaign to be conducted over the years. Since the obvious enemy of the semicriminal or the juvenile delinquent is a policeman, the policeman became the target of most of the agitation that was conducted. The policeman was the visible representative of the white power structure, but he was also the man who actually made the arrest when the criminal action took place. This is an earlier document, this goes back to 1948 when Benjamin J. Davis, an official of the Communist Party, was a member of the city council of New York, an elected representative. At that time he took advantage of his position in the city council to issue this booklet entitled "Lynching Northern Style, POLICE BRUTALITY," giving alleged cases of police brutality against persons who had been arrested for various crimes. (Document marked "Romerstein Exhibit No. 1" and retained in committee files.) Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Taking it up to a more recent date: in 1963, within a period of 6 or 7 months before the Harlem riot, two Puerto Ricans who had been arrested by the police in Harlem were shot as a result of attempting to disarm the police officers in the police car. The Progressive Labor Party put out a leaflet in which they said this: а Police brutality in New York's Negro and Puerto Rican neighborhoods is a day by day, night by night, hour by hour, fact of life. This brutality is no accident. It is systematic brutality, organized at police headquarters and sanctioned by Wagner the "liberal," the "reformer," the "friend of the people." It goes on later: POLICE TERROR IS A SYSTEM-NOT AN ACCIDENT Wagner's cops-who are also Rockefellers and Kennedy's cops are engaged in a systematic, organized attempt to intimidate New York's Negro and Puerto Rican workers. Wagner fears the Negro and Puerto Rican people's struggle because their struggle threatens him and the landlords, the business interests, the big money that he represents. This refers to Mayor Robert Wagner, Governor Rockefeller, and President John F. Kennedy. Within this one leaflet is the basic concept, the police are deliberately brutal. They want to hurt people and they are the representative of the white structure. When you hit that blue uniform you are hitting the entire Government of the United States. It doesn't matter what sort of government it is; whether it is liberal, conservative, or what, whether it is Mayor Wagner, Governor Rockefeller, or President John F. Kennedy; these are all the enemy and the policeman was the visible example of that. (Document marked "Romerstein Exhibit No. 2" appears on p. 982.) Mr. ROMERSTEIN. In connection with the same shooting of these two people, a group called the East Harlem Tenants Council headed by Ted Velez, who has been involved in many of these demonstrations, issued leaflets and statements saying basically the same thing-that the police are deliberately murdering Puerto Rican people and that demonstrations should be conducted against the police department. The Progressive Labor Party magazine, which also bears the name Progressive Labor, in its issue of March 1964, had a headline to an article written by Fred Jerome, who was identified this morning at the hearing, entitled "Cops Kill Again in Harlem." This refers to a Puerto Rican who had been shot by the police while carrying out a criminal act. The Communists in this way attempt to identify themselves as the defenders of the petty criminal who gets in trouble with the police and try to create a climate of opinion that says that the police are the enemies of society and the petty criminal is the friend of society, or part of society. When the newspaper Challenge was published in June of 1964, before the riot, the first headline that they printed, and they printed it in red, was "POLICE WAR ON HARLEM," trying to create an impression that the fight was not between the police and the criminals but between the police and the ordinary citizens of Harlem. As we pointed out before, they were not successful in winning over the ordinary citizens of Harlem, but they were able to inflame a certain segment of the population that was prepared to engage in antipolice activity. Once again, on July 4, 1964, within a few weeks before the riots, "COPS TRIGGER TWO MORE MURDERS." Again on July 11, "COPS BEAT PICKETS IN THIRD ST. 'WAR."" The cops are always wrong. The cops are always picking on innocent people, according to the Communists, and they attempt to infiltrate the society against the police. Might I suggest, sir, that perhaps these particular issues of Challenge might be further examined. They are rather classic examples. of this type of propaganda. Mr. WATSON. Mr. Chairman, may we ask the witness at this point, earlier I believe someone stated that they probably had a subscription of around 2,000 or 2,500 to Challenge, whatever this thing is. I believe it was the testímony given by Mr. McNamara. Do you know how many they actually print and circulate? I assume that the subscription list would include primarily the paying subscribers. Do you know how many of these they actually circulate? Mr. ROMERSTEIN. No, sir. I think the indication was that that was the actual print order, 2,500 to 3,000, except in the one big issue, which is this one of July 25, 1964, where 10,000 were printed. When they say subscriptions, many of them are given out free on the streets or sold on the streets in an attempt to disseminate them. Of course, it was ROMERSTEIN EXHIBIT No. 2 1963 TWO NEW POLICE KILLINGS On Friday night, Novombor the 16th, Vieter Rodriguos, 26, and Maximino WE KNOW HOW NECESSARY" THESE KILLINGS WERE Police brutality in Now York's Nogro and Puerto Rican neighborhoods is a The answer is cloar beyond disputo: The double murdor of Victor Rodriguez POLICE TERROR IS A SYSTEM-NOTAN ACCIDENT Vagnor's cops who are also Rockofollers and Konnedy's cops - are ongagod in a systematic, organizod attempt to intimidato Now York's Negro and Puerto Rican workers. Wagnor foars tho Nogro and Puerto Rican poople's strugglo becauso thoir struggle threat ons him and tho landlords, the business interests, tho big money that he reprosonts. WAGNER'S POLICE TERROR MUST END e Der nd: 1. THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY INDICT EDMUNDSON FOR MURDER and let his guilt or innocence be decided by a jury. If justice is not obtained in this case, the Puerto Ricans will be left with no protection in this city. Where will they find a police force to defend them from the cops! 2. A FULL INVESTIGATION OF POLICE BRUTALITY and police excesses by a Issued by: West Side Progressive Labor Club, IN PUBLIC. 68 W. 106 St. not merely the issues of the paper, but the leaflets as well, which dis seminated the same line. This issue came out during the riots. This actually was distributed during the riots and contains the first riot pictures that were taken at that time. It contains the specific picture that was described in the testimony of Miss Warden. The policeman appears to be attacking the man on the ground. But the policeman is not swinging his club at the man on the ground. The policeman was running and a man tripped and fell in front of him. The policeman attempted to stop himself from falling on the man and simply swung around. The picture indicated, or it looked like the policeman was swinging his club at the man when he was not doing any such thing. He was trying to keep himself from falling. The policeman's club is past the man himself and he could not be swinging at the man on the ground. But the impression given by Progressive Labor is that this is an example of a policeman deliberately clubbing a man who is lying on the ground. There have been instances in the past of pictures taken by newsreel cameramen and then cropped to give a totally different impression, taking one frame out of a newsreel shot and giving a completely different picture of the situation than would actually be the case. Mr. WATSON. In just casually glancing at one of these publications, Saturday, July 4, 1964, they even point out in comparing capitalism and socialism, the author of this says, under "Capitalism": "Everybody hates a cop." Under "Socialism": "Policemen will carry no guns." They will be friends of the people. I assume that that is generally the line they carry forward to advance their revolutionary principles. Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Yes, sir. Although of course the policemen in Red China do carry guns. Mr. WATSON. But the publishers of this aren't interested in telling anybody the truth, are they? They are only interested in resorting to any means, lies or anything else, to advance their cause, and that is violent overthrow of this Government and agitation of various explosive situations. Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Yes, sir; Detective Hart testified this morning he was given specific instructions by Fred Jerome to slant all stories he wrote to push the line that Progressive Labor wanted to push. This newspaper, in effect, is not a newspaper as we know it, a paper giving the news. It is a propaganda organ to create a climate of opinion, to leave the readers with certain impressions that may not be true, but nevertheless will leave them with a hatred for the police or hatred for the power structure. I think in the copy you are now reading, sir, there is a picture on the previous page of a man with a bandage on his eye. Mr. WATSON. Yes. Mr. ROMERSTEIN. That is Mr. Benny Brazier. If you just read the captions under the picture you get the impression that bandage was there because the police beat him up, when in fact he testified during the Epton trial he was slashed by an unknown person on the street and the bandage covered a slash that a razor put near his eye. Mr. WATSON. And the police did not do this, but someone on the street? Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Yes, sir. But the impression left by the newspaper Challenge is that this is another example of the police beating an in nocent man. 88-083 0-68-pt. 2-5 Mr. WATSON. There is no question about it. It states, "Latest Victim"-"New Victims of Murphy's Mob," and I guess Murphy was the police commissioner. Mr. ROMERSTEIN. He was police commissioner at that time. Mr. Tuck. I notice a cartoon labeled "Bull Murphy." I remember when they had some kind of difficulty in Alabama that there was a "Bull" Connor. This shows the method or tactics they pursue are the same throughout the country. Mr. ROMERSTEIN. This was essentially the precrowd phase, the disseminating of material throughout the community that would create a climate of opinion that would allow a riot to take place. Under certain circumstances a crowd would gather and a riot would take place. The incident that, of course, triggered off the 1964 riot was the shooting of a Negro boy by a police officer. Now an extensive investigation was conducted concerning this incident by a grand jury of New York County, and a report was prepared by the district attorney's office of New York County concerning the shooting incident. If I may, I would like to read a few excerpts: At approximately 9:30 on the morning of July 16, 1964, James Powell, a fifteen year old boy, was shot to death by Lieutenant Themas Gilligan, a New York City police officer. The office of the District Attorney of New York County immediately commenced an investigation. An exhaustive search for all possible witnesses was conducted. On July 21st the second July Grand Jury began hearing evidence * The grand jury now has concluded that, on the basis of the evidence and the applicable rules of law, Lieutenant Gilligan is not criminally liable for the killing of young Powell. In view of that determination and in light of the great public interest evinced in the case, the District Attorney's office has prepared this report, summarizing in detail what has been learned in the course of the investigation. Appended hereto is a statement of the controlling legal principles. In this report the district attorney's office summarized the evidence and concludes that this was a justifiable homicide. The 15-year-old boy was approaching the officer with a knife, refused to cease and desist, refused to drop the knife, and the officer was compelled to shoot in selfdefense. (Document marked "Romerstein Exhibit No. 3." See pp. 10061019.) Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Coincidentally, at this time the Progressive Labor Movement had asked for a permit to hold a street-corner rally. They asked for the permit the day before the shooting. They told the police department that the purpose of the rally was to discuss the civil rights bill and its amendments. The application was signed by David Douglas and asked for a street corner Mr. ASHBROOK. Is that the same Douglas referred to this morning by Detective Hart? Mr. ROMERSTEIN. Yes, sir; it is. The street corner that they requested was 115th Street and Lenox Avenue, for the 18th of July 1964. Now we had some testimony this morning concerning the speeches of William Epton at this rally. There were some excerpts put into the record concerning the speech of Epton. I would like to point to one more excerpt that is rather interesting. While Epton was speaking he suddenly noticed in the audience a New York City detective who had interviewed him at one time and had identified himself as a detective, Detective John Rivera. He turned to him and said: |