1987 Tampa riots facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 1987 Tampa riots |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location |
Tampa, Florida
|
|||
| Caused by |
|
|||
| Parties to the civil conflict | ||||
|
||||
The 1987 Tampa riots were two riots in Tampa, Florida that occurred in February and April 1987 that started after two African Americans died in encounters with the police. Several other riots would happen in College Hill in the 1980s.
The 1987 Tampa riots were similar to those taking place nearly 20 years earlier when Tampa was the site of rioting for several days.
Contents
February 18-21, 1987
The riot started after a 23-year-old African American man named Melvin Eugene Hair died after being restrained by the police. During the evening of February 19 a group of about 200 people would participate in rioting which was first reported as beginning at 8 PM. Approximately 75 police officers wearing riot gear would cordon off the area and one office would be injured. The crowd would start to shrink at 11:30 PM.
A police command center would be set up at the intersections of East Buffalo Avenue and 18th Street. A local grocery store would end up being looted, along with homes occupied by white residents and a McDonald's in the area would be hit by rocks and broken into. With violence escalating the Ku Klux Klan would get involved. The riot would end up lasting for 3 days.
April 6-7, 1987
Another riot would start on April 6 after an African American man, Otis Bernard Miller died after an encounter with the police on April 5th. This riot would be much smaller than the one sparked by Hair’s death. 11 blocks would end up being cordoned off with the disturbance lasting for a total of 5 hours along with 5 arrests being made.
Results/Legacy
The results and legacy of the riots would be multifaceted.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would investigate the police department for their practices several times and the mayor would try to increase the number of black officers on the police force. Tampa's police chief Donald Newberger would resign on May 5 citing 6 recent police shootings involving 1 Hispanic and 5 black men. Newberger would say that he did not want to serve any longer because "I didn’t want to do anything that would further negatively impact on the 700-some-odd people in the department". Assistant police chief Austin McLane who had served for 2 years in that position would be Newberger's replacement serving as the acting police chief until officially becoming the police chief on May 26. Newberger would serve as police chief until he left his position on September 27, 1991. As chief he would attempt to improve the department's community relations overall and especially with black residents. Once leaving Tampa's police department he would join Augusta, Georgia's Police Department to serve as its chief until 1996 when voters would approve consolidating both the city of Augusta and Richmond County. After consolidation he would serve as the deputy chief of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office. McLane left the Sheriff's Office in 1999 before joining another one where he did fraud investigations until finally retiring in 2011. McLane would die on January 15, 2021 at the age of 81.
Freeman would introduce a home loan program for poor residents in the city along with a racial slur policy. Hair would be buried at the same cemetery that Martin Chambers, whose death had sparked another riot in 1967.
Disciplinary and legal actions
After the death of Hair the usage of chokeholds by the police would be banned. David D’Agresta would be suspended without receiving any pay and the State Attorney's Office for Hillsborough County would charge him in connection with the event but an all-white jury would acquit him. Both officers who were involved with Miller's case would be cleared of any wrongdoing on April 27, 1987 as assistant prosecutor, Charles A. Caruso would say his death was a result of cardiac rhythm disturbance. Officer Johnson would quit his job on May 6 saying his reason was that he and his wife decided they wanted to return to St. Louis, Missouri where they had both lived prior to living in Tampa. A memo had been released by the municipal government that day saying Johnson's actions were not illegal, unconstitutional nor racially motivated but did end up violating Tampa's policy which limited using deadly force only to when a suspect posed "the threat of grave injury".
See also
- 1967 Tampa riots
