University of Virginia Library

Riot Control

Two related stories in the newspapers
this past weekend point out uncomfortably
well the rigid attitudes toward the problems
of the American Negro that doubtless
will lead to another summer of ghetto rioting.

The first concerns a report issued by the
Southern Regional Council on the recent
disturbance in Orangeburg, S.C., in which
three Negro college students were killed.
In a 42-page report entitled "Events at
Orangeburg," the Council warned of "the
frightening spectacle over the escalation of
police and military force."

Among the report's specific conclusions
were that Black Power movements had little
to do with the outbreak, that the protest
over the segregated bowling alley began in
a non-violent fashion only to be met by
police violence, and that the police neither
fired warning shots nor used nonlethal means
of riot control such as tear gas.

The most ominous part of the report
was the prediction that what happened in
Orangeburg was a microcosm of what could
happen throughout the nation when municipalities
depend on force "to suppress people
rather than honestly dealing with the social
problems at the source....."

Although one of our letter writers has
a different interpretation of what happened
at Orangeburg, we tend to believe
the Southern Regional Council, a well respected
research organization supported
in part by the Ford Foundation. Its criticism
of "white over-reaction" coincided with a
story in the Washington Post about the
millions of dollars various American cities
like Detroit have put into buying such exotic
riot-control equipment as armored cars,
electronic "curdlers" that emit mind-rattling
shrieks and slippery fluids to cover streets.
At a time when the needs of the urban
slum dwellers are still far from being met,
this sort of expenditure seems shortsighted
indeed.