She would bring Aubreys pennies to school and use them for in-class assignments. You have reached your limit of free articles. She recalled the torture of the seven black men and two white women who were cruelly beaten by officers at the Algiers Motel that fateful evening. One of the cops then threw a knife and told the men, here, defend yourselfpick it up so I can blow your goddamn head off. None of the men would pick the knife up, knowing full well that if they had, they would be killed on a trumped up charge of self-defense. Early voting beings Monday in Jacksonville. Theyll come back and kill you.". Your journalism is outstanding and rare these days. - Mark S. This description comes from his own 2011 memoir, In the Trenches: Guerilla Warfare and Other Trial Tactics. Its on prominent display in his office alongside another favorite: Warriors Words, whose quotes particularly those about self-confidence are highlighted. Police entered the building. Aw, Ma, you worry too much. I havent seen the movie. But there are some key things to think about before evacuating. Eight black men and two white women were lined up against a wall. But when the officer sat down with his union attorney, August claimed he shot the unarmed teen when Pollard lunged at him. Im very good to women. Was he on the wrong side of history? Norman Lippitt and the police acquittals absolutely had a major impact on race relations both in the 1970s and today, says McGuire, the Wayne State professor. Norman had no reservations about representing police officers in matters that werent always popular. Its a form of cynicism that is breathtaking.. Mary Jarrett Jackson investigated the Algiers Motel incident, on which the new film "Detroit" is loosely based. According to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), the ferry that has been out of service since January 25 is resuming service on May 3 following scheduled maintenance as required by the U.S. Coast Guard. Two years later, he got the police union contract. One of the biggest topics if you live along the coast or in low lying areas is preparing an evacuation plan. It was a half-century ago today, July 25, 1967. When the Guard returned fire, police officers then reported being under attack by snipers. Patrolman David Senak, 23, became for all purposes the leader of the raiding party. Senak, said a witness, ripped the clothes off one with the barrel of his shotgun and ordered the other to undress before the officers. Late into the night, police received a call of gunfire near the Algiers Motel complex. A decade later, in 1985, he was appointed to a judgeship in Oakland County Circuit Court, the more affluent county north of Detroit, where he lasted 3 years before transitioning to commercial law. In a final attempt to hold the three officers and Dismukes accountable, the U.S. Department of Justice charged them with conspiring to violate the civil rights of the young men and women who were beaten and killed. Magazines, Kathryn Bigelows take on that citys violent summer of 1967, Or create a free account to access more articles. DOWNLOAD: THE LAW ENFORCEMENT TODAY APP Nonprofit Farm Share, which touts itself as Florida's largest food bank, announced in a press release it will be distributing fresh produce and canned goods to food insecure Floridians in the Jacksonville area Friday and Saturday this week. People dont remember, these were violent times, says Grant, the retired police union leader. The film opens nationally on Aug. 4. The incident started when Army National Some were beaten with the butts of guns while called racial epithets. Norman Lippitt hasnt passed a lot of mirrors without stopping to say hi, says Al Grant of the Retired Detroit Police Officers Association, who started with the force in 1970. Thats our Normy, one says. Now, on to the second cast of characters, the force which responded to the call of shots fired. By morning, three black teens, According to trial testimony, newspaper accounts and a book, , Amid the violence, several black teens, including, Eight black men and two white women were lined up against a wall. WebThe Detroit officers in charge of the raid were David Senak, Ronald August, and Robert Paille. The anger of the black community, fueled by decades of social injustice, police brutality and institutional racism, finally burst at a blind pig on 12th Street and Clairmount. Despite the racially charged environment, Jackson persisted. A Georgia man led police on a pursuit across five counties from Florida to Georgia after robbing a Palm Coast gas station before being shot by a Camden County gas station clerk, according to the Flagler County Sheriffs Office. The stories that began that summer have continued to gain chapters. It was first founded to help address the causes of the civil unrest and prevent it from ever happening again. The Algiers, was a noted location of what some would consider to be shady, or dangerous, often attracting unsavory characters like prostitutes, drug dealers, andpetty criminals. His first statement said nothing about self-defense. They enforced a social order that separated blacks and whites, says Thompson, the U-M professor, Rather than hearing what the community was saying that the police were operating like a renegade army they kept doubling down with brutality, says Thompson, who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for a, That was the atmosphere leading to the night of July 23, 1967, when police raided a black-owned, after-hours speakeasy on 12, City police, state troopers and National Guardsmen arrived at the motel. Magazines, Digital When a hair found on the weapon matched Petersons cat, Lippitt opted for a different defense. Nobody is going to bother me, he said, with the certainty of a teenager whose future seemed to stretch beyond the horizon. Severe storms this afternoon and late tonight. Guilty of working days and nights with little or no rest. Friends, family and the Glynn County community showed enormous support in Brunswick Saturday for the 19-year-old who was in intensive care because of an incident at a house party on St. Simons Island on March 21. In a way, Norman Lippitt helped get Coleman Young elected., Its an argument that Lippitts former partner calls ridiculous.. The Baker County Sheriffs Office has now adapted and received many tools to help in cases like Peyton Blodgett's. How to Attack a Building 17. And hes upset. Guilty of being shot (at) in the street. The decoy unit consisted of officers posing as bums or drunks to lure muggers. Peterson initially claimed the man, Robert Hoyt, 24, pulled a knife. They were going to shoot us one at a time Michael Clark would later testify. Again, the jury was all white, an easier accomplishment at the time, before the U.S. Supreme Court made it harder to strike potential jurors on the basis of race. NPR's Michel Martin At first the police denied knowing how any of the three had been shot. Rebecca Pollard knew justice was unlikely, but she did not expect the extent of the injustice she encountered. Police had received word that a gunman was seen near the Algiers Motel, on Woodward Ave. about a mile from where the fighting began days earlier. In order for this information to be accurate and unbiased it must be underwritten by its readers, not by special interests. - Larry S. Not many other media sources report on the topics Bridge does. - Susan B. Enter and Exit: State Police 20. But it was the brutal deaths of three black teenagers killed by police at the Algiers Motel that garnered the most attention. Pollard was dead. For Detroit they decided to begin wide and with broad brush strokes and then hone in on a trio of black teenaged boys killed by white police officers at the In the end three young black men were found dead and many others were badly beaten [4]. It was a war! He started the Detroit riot. After that, accounts diverge. The Algiers Motel shooting occurred at the height of the rioting of July on Detroits central thoroughfare. He says he wasnt making enough money as an assistant prosecutor. The all-white jury returned with a not-guilty verdict in less than three hours. When Gardner was a teacher at two now-closed Detroit schools, McKenny Elementary and Coffey Middle, she said she was especially good at reaching what she calls exceptional or challenging children. WebOn the evening of July 25, 1967, on the third night of the 12th Street Riot, Detroit police raided the Algiers Motel. To this day, they dont believe they ever got it. First-time donations to our spring campaign are matched by the Herrick Foundation! Eight black men and two white women were lined up against a wall. I dont think so.. He was always there for me.. He and his wife heard more about what happened at the Algiers from Aubreys friends who made it out of the motel alive. Blacks were so outraged by the killings that prominent leaders, including Ken Cockrel and civil rights icon Rosa Parks, participated in a symbolic, It was a war! About himself. Lippitt got the federal conspiracy case moved to Flint, claiming he couldnt get an impartial jury in Detroit because of the publication of The Algiers Motel Incident book. Im going to get me a couple of them before this is over.. If we talk to each other and we acknowledge that we could live together that would be a good thing.. Or beat up today?. August, who is white, admitted killing the black youth with a single blast from a shotgun on July 26, 1967 in the Algiers Motel. She just wailed, Thelma recalled. It seemed as if his career had consisted of one case after another in which a man or woman had confronted him with some obscene gesture or lascivious remark. We had roundtable discussions, discussion groups and I was a part of it, so that we would never have a riot again. The chaos of the initial rush into the motel ended with Cooper and Temple dead from multiple shotgun blasts. Recipients will receive fresh produce and non-perishable canned goods. He only had to do a couple of things: Discredit the witnesses and get the whitest jury you could get, says McGuire, the Wayne State professor, who has interviewed Lippitt several times. A police shooting Sunday night and another shooting Monday morning are the latest in a string of incidents in the Arlington area involving gun violence. Here are some tips on how to prepare. She was coming up on 10 years inside the predominantly white police force when the civil unrest began on July 23, 1967. We were looking at her family photos when she came across a photo of Aubrey in the kitchen. Would he be considered a nice guy now if he did a shitty job with those cases?. Please try again later. On the other back entrance of the motel, a force of officers kicked their way in and found Fred Temple laying in bed. Initially, two officers were charged with murder, but Lippitt persuaded a judge to drop charges against Paille. For assistance with WJXTs or WCWJ's FCC public inspection file, call (904) 393-9801. The police dispatcher relayed the message: Army under heavy fire. Actually, only a few shots had been heard, and Negro witnesses later claimed that these had come from a blank-cartridge pistol; no gun of any kind was ever found at the motel. A car with a body inside was recovered from a retention pond near Palm Harbor Parkway and Cris Lane in Flagler County on Monday, according to the Flagler County Sheriffs Office. A Deltona man is dead Saturday after being thrown out of an overturned Can-Am side-by-side vehicle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Senak then handed a pistol to August, saying Do you want to kill one now? Ronald August grabbed hold of the gun and then dragged Aubrey Pollard into a rear room of the Motel. For 17 years, until 1984, he was lead counsel for the Detroit Police Officers Association, where he defended numerous officers accused of brutality and murder. The moments in question earned only three sentences in TIMEs original report on the riots, but the writer John Hersey began work almost immediately on what would become the 1968 book The Algiers Motel Incident. Let me ask you a question, he says with a smile. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says a man in his 30's is dead after his motorcycle was hit by a pickup truck near the St. Johns Town Center shopping center. WebThe Wayne County Prosecutor exonerated police officers and military troops in all of these homicides except for the three Black teenagers killed at the Algiers Motel, and then only after the DPD coverup unraveled. Just past midnight on July 26, a flurry of Detroit Police officers, National Guardsmen, Michigan State police and a private guard stormed the Algiers Motel after hearing a report of gunfire nearby. Some were beaten with the butts of guns, Police played a gruesome game to find out who fired the gun. The day's top local stories plus breaking news, weather and sports brought to you by the News4JAX team. Back then, Lippitt looked like Godfather-era Al Pacino, in his Ralph Lauren suits, perfect hair and sideburns. Charles Stanley, a prominent televangelist who once led the Southern Baptist Convention, died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta at age 90. Aubrey was my protector, Thelma told me recently from her sunlit living room in Metro Detroit. I cant believe all the shit Ive done in my life, says Lippitt, who spoke to Bridge Magazine for six hours about a career thats included a judgeship, celebrity clients and a thriving commercial law firm, That made him the public face and defender of the citys white ruling class, says. If you care about Michigan, please support our work. But Herseys work, and his ability to win the trust of the witnesses he interviewed, won praise for processing a complex and tragic series of events in poignant fashion. His first statement said nothing about self-defense. One woman, however, is not in a rush to remember that particular event. She saw the bodies of 17-year-old Carl Cooper, 19-year-old Aubrey Pollard and 18-year-old Fred Temple, the three teens killed that horrifying night on Woodward Avenue in Detroits Virginia Park neighborhood. Thelma walked the phone into her mothers bedroom and handed it to her. A film by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, simply titled Detroit, chronicles the events that led to the shooting deaths of three black men at the Algiers Motel during the citys unrest. WebThe Detroit Police Department killed the most people and operated under orders to "use discretion" to shoot looters. Aubrey Pollard, handsome and lithe at 19, came home to his parents two-story brick house on Oregon Street that he shared with his four siblings. Just in Time to Pray 23. Police had been subjected to sniper firing, and one cop had already been killed. Nevertheless, some 16 state and local police and National Guardsmen converged on the motel. A special meeting of the Duval County School Board has been postponed, as the district continues to investigate misconduct by multiple teachers at Douglas Anderson. Sortor testified that the men in uniform were not only stripping women down and beating the men, some of them were just standing back. Above all, one could scarcely find, in journalism or in fiction, a more revealing portrait of a certain type of policeman. I know they made fun of me, but as I talk to them now, many of them, retired police officers, they say, You did it by the book, Jackson said. He was acquitted. Thelma answered. WebExclusive travel discounts for Military & First Responders on hotels, rental cars, cruises, tours and more. Suspended Detroit Patrolman Ronald August took the witness stand and told the jury at his trial that he killed 19-year old Auburey Pollard in self-defense. A teen was arrested in connection to the shooting death of Jermarien Edwards after a 20-day search, the Palatka Police Department announced Friday. Copyright 2023 News4JAX.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. The Detroit officers in charge of the raid were David Senak, Ronald August, and Robert Paille. According to trial testimony, newspaper accounts and a book, The Algiers Motel Incident by John Hersey, the short version goes like this: Amid the violence, several black teens, including a music group, the Dramatics, along with two white teenage girls, took refuge in the motel. Lippitt was a jock who excelled in sports. Among the officers Lippitt successfully defended was Patrolman Raymond Mad Dog Peterson. Lee Forsythe was noted by Coopers mother as having wounds so deep in his head, she could see his skull. Michigans nonpartisan, nonprofit news source. I never spent them.. There was never any justice, Thelma Pollard Gardner said. The slayings of Aubrey Pollard, 19; In his first order as Detroits first black mayor, he disbanded the STRESS unit. There were some white girls there, with the young men. Please attempt to sign up again. Early that Wednesday morning, the Algiers Motel was stormed by three branches of law enforcement: the National Guard, Michigan State Police, and Detroit Consequently, nerves were strained when an overwrought National Guardsman sent word of shots being fired from the area of the motel with its largely Negro clientele. Detroit is an asylum, he wrote in 1967. You, too, will be asked why you donated and maybe we'll feature your quote next time! Viola Temple died in 2002. He left work and drove to the morgue, where he identified his second-born son, a fleet-footed teen who loved to box, swim, dance and draw and was just about to turn 20. The Algiers Motel was razed in 1979 and is now a park. Duval County School leaders are calling for accountability as investigators look into several misconduct claims against multiple Douglas Anderson School of the Arts teachers, including longtime music teacher Jeffrey Clayton, who resigned after he was removed and charged with lewd acts involving a student. He ended up dead, under circumstances that suggested the second cop didnt know he was supposed to fake Pollards execution. The News4JAX I-TEAM has obtained body camera video showing the initial response from Jacksonville police when a local homeowner discovered strangers had moved into her house. The Detroit officers in charge of the raid were David Senak, Ronald August, and Robert Paille. As an attorney, you have an obligation to pursue everything on behalf of your client., Even with an all-white jury, Lippitt says, he did a hell of a job, was better prepared than prosecutors and cut the witnesses to shreds.. Share the article you just read on Twitter, Share the article you just read on Facebook, Share the article you just read via email, Michigan rejects Camp Grayling expansion, instead offering annual use permits, Despite vows, Democrats do little to improve Michigan government transparency, No criminal charge? And judges, colleagues, retired newspaper reporters who covered his career and even critics agree hes a hell of a lawyer. Shooting victims are removed from the Algiers Motel in Detroit, July 26, You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Then, she scooped up a small handful and let them fall softly back into the box one by one. In his first order as Detroits first black, Over the years, he represented Ambassador Bridge mogul Matty Moroun in a suit with his sisters over the family business (Lippitt loosened up one of the sisters in a deposition by asking if she thought he was handsome); prominent trial attorney, As the 50th anniversary of the Algiers shootings. All the officers except Senak, who was represented by a different lawyer, are dead. Aubrey would do anything for me, she said. For example, when police officers shot out the citys streetlights to avoid detection, Guardsmen stationed a block away heard the gunshots and the glass shattering and believed it was from a sniper. This is what happened in those first days of that war in Detroit while the mayor and the governor and the president were indecisive.. By sunrise, two other teens were also dead: Carl Cooper, 17, and Fred Temple, 18. Lippitt leans back in his corner office in downtown Birmingham. She paused, flattened her palm, closed her eyes and exhaled. They even fired at the police. I would have had an all-white jury in (the Detroit) Recorders Court as well., I dont apologize for that. The Baker County Sheriff's Office arrested two people for the abuse and neglect of their 6-month-old son. Police entered the building. Lippitt was a swashbuckler, a stick-your-chin-out and take-the-first-swing personality who worked harder than most and had an easy rapport with jurors, says his former partner, Robert Harrison, a Bloomfield Hills attorney. I go out with a lot of real nice girls and I just cant seem to, you know, get really attached to them. When Hersey asked him if he thought women are essentially evil, Senak replied: Who gave who the apple?, What particularly seemed to enrage the police at the Algiers Motel, according to the Negroes Hersey interviewed, was the presence of two young white prostitutes. Yeah, it was an all-white jury, Lippitt says. A Jacksonville teen was remembered Saturday at the second annual Talen Charles Birt Walk-a-Thon. Jacksonville firefighters and police close off area of Myrtle Street and Swan Street due to crash. The Duval County Public Schools special meeting was abruptly canceled Friday, leaving some former Douglas Anderson School of the Arts students disappointed that they didnt have a chance to discuss their ideas as the investigation into longtime music teacher Jeffrey Clayton, who is now charged with lewd behavior involving a student, continues. The Florida Highway Patrol says one person was killed in a crash on Southside Boulevard. I feel something should be done about it. Officer Senak began the show of cruelty by first taking the two white women out of the line and tearing their clothes off. Part of HuffPost Black Voices. I investigated cases that arose, like the Algiers Motel case, said Jackson, who also served as the former Detroit police crime lab chief. As the trial closed, another victory for the defense: Beer told jurors they could only convict August of first-degree murder or acquit him, leaving them with no option for a compromise verdict of manslaughter. It was a paycheck. There was lots of evidence, but they didnt want that brought out.. The National Transportation Safety Board released the cause of a plane crash into the St. Marys River that killed an 18-year-old recent high school graduate and a plane instructor in 2021. If convicted, Overheul faces a minimum mandatory 15 years, up to 180 years, in federal prison, a release from the DOJ stated. Guardsmen dispensed an estimated 155,000 rounds of ammunition in five days. A Clay County man was found guilty Friday of conspiring to transfer unregistered machine gun conversion devices that were referred to as auto key cards.. Those who opted for the latter stayed on the jury. He became famous defending Algiers Motel cops. The Columbia County Sheriffs Office arrested Brandon Hopkins, 18, and charged him with the death of Dionne Leslie, 17, who was shot and killed in 2021. WebThe officers leading the way of the interrogation were Ronald August, Robert Paille, and David Senak. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. And then a window broke. 2023 Bridge Michigan. No problem! There was a social movement that was very complicated and far greater than Norman, Harrison says. His strategy, which hed employ in other brutality cases over the years, was to remove blacks from juries, poke holes in witness testimony and criticize police administration for failing to better train the officers. Gardner married, had one child and earned bachelors and masters degrees from Eastern Michigan University. It should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.. She called her husband, Aubrey Pollard Sr., a city worker, August, a city patrolman, was charged with the murder of Pollard, mainly because he confessed to shooting him. She took pride in being tough, but fair. Jackson was assigned to the Algiers Motel case that summer. Ronald August is guilty of working under those conditions. Even J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI at the time, saw the cops report for what it was: an effort to cover their activities and the true series of events.. Senak made the women pull each others clothes off of one another, tearing at them himself as he got frustrated with their stalling. He defended Detroit officers in the infamous STRESS (Stop The Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets) unit, formed to crack down on street violence in 1971. Theyd hoped it would show police overreacted. Lippitt refuses to give critics the satisfaction of rationalizing his work defending police accused of murder or even mouthing platitudes about the justice system requiring a vigorous defense for all defendants. Police had received word that a gunman was seen near the Algiers Motel, on Woodward Ave. about a mile from where the fighting began days earlier. In those days, many prominent law firms were reluctant to hire Jews. Several months after the unrest ended, a priest and a mother banded together to create what is known today as Focus: HOPE, a nonprofit organization that provides education and career training in the Detroit area. He demanded to know why they preferred Negroes as clients. There was nothing positive to say about the police department then, says Bell, who is African American. I dont want to necessarily revisit that, she added. They raged through the motels tattered halls and rundown rooms with shotguns and rifles, kicked down doors, flipped furniture and beat and brutalized motel guests seven young black men and two white women in a desperate and futile effort to find a sniper. As Senak, Paille and August continued their abuse of the women, more officers from the national guard began spilling into the motel. City police, state troopers and National Guardsmen arrived at the motel. Lippitt got Augusts murder trial delayed several times, citing pretrial publicity and raw feelings about the incident in Detroit. Forty-three people died that week. Jackson was assigned to the Algiers Motel case that summer. Thats him, Pollard said to Raven. What bothers him is that so many people are reacting negatively.. She also knew that what began as an outburst of rage and resentment against racial discrimination and economic exploitation just two days earlier on 12th Street now felt like a state-led assault against African Americans. Boxes of news clips saved by Lippitts mother include fashion spreads he posed for in The Detroit News Sunday Magazine. The mothers fought for justice for years. They watched the police officers laugh and pat each other on the back. While the men were wise not to take the bait on the knife, they endured severe beatings for their refusal. All rights reserved. Karen Malloy recounted that the hell began with the officers beating and pistol-whipping the men down the line, repeatedly hitting them and making them get up. A Thursday afternoon crash in St. Johns County has closed multiple northbound lanes of Interstate 95 near State Road 207. After several hours of talking to Bridge (I love this), Lippitt has one more revelation about the Algiers. All Rights Reserved. August, a former clarinet player for the police band, was at police headquarters, giving his statement about the deaths.