As for snipers, police responded to as many as nine calls for snipers in one afternoon but found that the jittery public was mistaking firecrackers and backfire for gunfire. Only one man was arrested as a sniper and it turned out he was firing at random in some woods instead of shooting at a chosen target.

One set of rumors is not being denied by police. Instead, they want to pin down whatever facts exist behind the rumors.

These are the rumors that businessmen are being told they must contribute to the Poor People's Campaign or some other cause or their buildings will be burned down.

Others, according to rumor, have been told to close today in observance of the late Malcolm X's birthday and some businessmen victims of the rioting have been warned that if they open for business again, they'll be burned out.

Plenty of rumors are reaching police but they're not getting the complaints from victims of the alleged extortion.

Wilson said that where the merchants have complained, police usually have been able to make arrests but their hands are tied when they don't know who is being victimized.

Since businessmen may be afraid to report these threats and extortion demands through the usual channels, precinct commanders are going to the businessmen in their precincts and telling them that police will accept their complaints as confidential and they won't have to go to court. The precinct commanders themselves will take the complaints.

Police also are trying to cope with another riot aftermath-juvenile gangs preying on merchants.

To curb the juvenile marauders, police have been ordered to step up enforcement of antiloitering laws and truancy regulations.

["Letters to the Editor" Washington Evening Star, May 21, 1968]
LET PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME

SIR: To prevent more civil disturbance, offending individuals must learn to substitute constructive acts for destructive acts. How? If their rearing has omitted training to respect the persons and property of others, public agencies must provide that training.

Since the offenders deal in physical acts, the initial training, to be understood, must involve tangible things, and it should relate directly to the nature of the offense. Let's start with having the offenders work (under the supervision of law-enforcement officers, if necessary) to clean up the areas they've damaged. Then teach them the skills to rehabilitate these areas. Eventually they might be taught to assist their neighbors whose businesses and homes have been destroyed or damaged. When these individuals who have upset us can show callouses of constructive work, we can welcome them as fellow citizens of the District. They can earn our forgiveness.

FLORENCE SIFFERD.

SIR: Citizenship is not just a question of rights; it is also civil responsibility. Let's pass out shovels to those who are so ready to leave others homeless and jobless and let them clean up the mess they made.

Mrs. GEORGIA COUNCIL.

SIR: Jail sentences are certainly in order for the militant leaders and more serious rioters but for the thousands of otherwise good citizens I have other ideas. Anyone who participated in any way with the mob violence against our established government should be punished in a constructive manner. If each of those individuals is sentenced to three or four hours a day at hard labor cleaning up the mess they have created, it would accomplish two purposes. First, it would save many hard-earned dollars and, second, it would make those people who participate in the reconstruction less apt to tear down the product of their own hard labor.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL, USAF.

NO RIOT AT WAKEFIELD

SIR: On Friday, April 5, some of the radio broadcasting stations reported rioting in many of the area high and junior high schools, including Wakefield. An

inexcusable wrong was committed to all the students of Wakefield High School as a result of this negligent and irresponsible reporting.

The Negro students of Wakefield deserve every honor for their behavior on that day. They, and many white students, assembled in a peaceful demonstration of their grief over the tragic murder of Martin Luther King. There were no fights and no sign of violence of any sort. Instead, there were some of the most eloquent and moving speeches by the students I have ever heard on the subject of racial problems.

Their behavior should serve as an example of what can be gained where people use reason instead of violence.

WHITE STUDENT AT WAKEFIELD.

AFTER 44 YEARS IN BUSINESS

SIR: We are owners of a hardware store in Northeast Washington. We write in behalf of the many who share our problems. We have obeyed the laws, paid our taxes, and insured ourselves, though it was expensive. We are more than equalopportunity employers, as the majority of our help is Negro, and has been for years. We have been father-confessor, banker, and adviser to our customers, with whom we have dealt honestly and fairly. We are charter members of the Business and Professional Association of Far Northeast, and have worked diligently for local improvements and closer cooperation between consumers and merchants. We are for civil rights for all men.

Prior to April, 1968, we had lost money on bad checks, burglary, shoplifting, and vandalism, all repaired or replaced at our expense. We have taken needed hours from our business to sit in court at the request of police, only to see the judges postpone the cases or dismiss the defendant. We are constantly in need of more reliable help. We have had trouble for years.

Since April 5, 1968, we have been the victims of repeated looting, and vandalism. Our store was closed for two weeks in order to repair the major damage done to us on that date. Since we reopened for business, we have been broken into twice and have had numerous broken windows and doors.

Insurance may or may not cover a portion of these expenses. The bills for repairs to our property, and merchandise and equipment that was damaged or stolen are arriving daily. We have lost our expected busy spring season. We are frustrated with the past and pessimistic about the future.

Now, we receive word that the insurance on our building is to be canceled. Since conditions in the District are so bad, this could be the end of our business. We can obtain jobs in the suburbs and lower our standard of living. We can do without the responsibilities of owning a business and all that entails. We can manage. We will not need welfare.

But the taxes the District collects will be lost. All of our years of endeavor will be wasted. Our employees will probably need some financial assistance. Our customers will lose the convenience and service they depend on.

To our way of thinking, this benefits no one and hurts many. Is this what is to become of us after forty-four years in business, Is this what is to become of our employes who have been responsible supporters of their families? Is the city to be left an empty shell of families living on relief?

Citizens must be protected. Criminals must be jailed. The police must have the men and the methods to do this. Businessmen must be able to obtain insurance. We are willing to pay for it. Of all the groups now clamoring for help, how many are offering to help themselves as we have done and hopefully will continue to do? We and all the others in our predicament are watching our life's work go down the drain, along with our children's education and our security.

ABRAHAM AND IDA WOLF.
HARVEY AND FREEDA WOLF.

[From The Washington Post, May 21, 1968]

8 PERCENT OF $145,667 RIOT FUNDS SPENT

(By Robert G. Kaiser)

Private contributors gave more than $145,667 to the Urban Coalition's emergency fund for victims of last month's riot, but only $11,269.95, less than 8 percent, of that had been spent as of May 15.

Flaxie Pinkett, local real estate agent and chairman of the emergency fund committee, made the figures public yesterday.

The Urban Coalition's executive committee will meet Thursday to decide what to do with the $134,000 left in the fund, Miss Pinkett said.

She announced three weeks ago that the emergency fund committee thought the money should be saved for future use. She said she will make this proposal to the Coalition's executive committee.

Miss Pinkett has said that the emergency fund provided money to all victims of the riot who could not get assistance from public sources or other private

sources.

Winifred G. Thompson, director of the District's Department of Public Welfare, confirmed this yesterday. Miss Thompson said everyone who sought help as a result of the riot got what he needed.

"There was not the real demand for crisis money that we thought would grow out of the disorder," Miss Thompson said. "Most of the damage was done in the area of commercial property," she added, and said a surprisingly small number of private citizens needed assistance after the riot.

There were fewer families burned out than expected, Miss Thompson said. She added that although her Department was "very generous" with its own cash assistance to eligible victims of the riot, not as much of her emergency fund was spent as she had expected.

[From the Washington Evening Star, May 29, 1968]

RIOT CASES OVERTAX COURT, CURRAN SAYS

(By John Fialka and William Basham)

The chief judge of the U.S. District Court here said today that the impact of about 400 anticipated felony cases stemming from the April riots will almost nullify his court's "crash program" to reduce its backlog.

Chief Judge Edward M. Curran told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that U.S. Atty. David Bress has estimated that a special grand jury now hearing riot cases will indict 500-600 persons in about 400 felony cases.

Curran also urged the subcommittee to push for legislation to set up a new court for felony cases in the District.

The Grand Jury has already returned 35 indictments. About 860 felony cases resulted from the riots. The majority of suspects were charged with seconddegree burglary in the looting.

Most of the remaining cases, Curran said, would be sent back to General Sessions Court for trial as misdemeanors.

He said that by using visiting judges from other jurisdictions on civil cases and by concentrating District judges on criminal cases, the court's backlog dropped from 1,100 cases last October to 700 just before the riot began in April. "Now we'll almost be back where we were," Curran told Sen. Joseph D. Tydings, D-Md., who chaired the subcommittee hearings.

Curran said he will assign three judges to a special "Emergency calendar" to hear the riot cases, which, he said, could be disposed of at a rate of two per judge per day.

The chief judge also told the subcommittee that next Monday he will hold a meeting of District Court judges and propose a plan to give immediate trials to defendants up for bail hearings whom the judges feel present a danger to the community.

Under the Bail Reform Act, he said, judges cannot consider danger to the community when they set bail. Both Curran and Tydings agreed that the act needs "tightening up."

SPACE SITUATION ACUTE

Curran said the District Court space situation was so critical that some new judges may have to commute to their courtrooms from chambers across town in the new U.S. Court of Claims building on Madison Place NW, where he has borrowed office space.

He added that the administrative office of the federal court system has offered to provide the District Court with rented space at the Dodge Hotel, near the Capitol. Curran said he didn't think the hotel was a "proper place" for a federal court because among other non-judicial features, he said, "they've got a bar in there."

Earlier, Judge Edward M. Curran, told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that his efforts to cut the backlog of criminal jury cases would be nearly nullified by the riot.

Curran said U.S. Atty. David Bress has estimated that a special grand jury now hearing riot cases would indict in about 400 of more than 800 cases in which one or more persons are charged by police with felonies.

The additional caseload would bring the current backlog of 700 cases back up to 1,100-the same number the District Court had last October when more judges were placed on criminal trials in what Judge Curran described as a "crash program" to cut the backlog.

Curran said he will assign three judges to a special "emergency calendar" to hear the riot cases which, he said, could be disposed of at a rate of two cases per judge per day.

Both Judge Curran and Sen. Joseph D. Tydings, D-Md., who presided at the subcommittee meeting, agreed that the District's current Bail Reform Act "needs tightening up." Under the act, a judge cannot consider the potential danger a defendant poses to the community as a factor in setting bail.

Curran said that he felt the ultimate solution for court backlogs in the District would be to set up a new Superior Court of Criminal Jurisdiction to try felony cases. The court, he proposed, would require 11 judges.

[From The Evening Star, Washington, June 4, 1968]

JUDGE IN RIOT CASES CRITICIZES DISTRICT
(By Donald Hirzel)

A judge criticized District officials yesterday for what he termed their failure in the early stages of the April riot to order police to make arrests and enforce the law.

Judge Alfred Burka made the comment in the Court of General Sessions at the conclusion of the first group sentencing of persons arrested in connection with the riot. Burka has scheduled group sentencings for various dates this month.

Some defendants have been sentenced on riot-connected charges by other judges, but this was a group sentencing.

"I have questioned several police officers," Burka said, "and there is no doubt in my mind they operated with implicit or implied orders not to make arrests."

He added that there appeared to be no effort to instill in the public mind the idea that looters would be arrested and prosecuted, and he referred to the fact that seven persons sentenced by him yesterday said they had no fear of arrest when they went into the streets.

He also condemned those who took part in the rioting, declaring: "People we were depending upon to uphold law in the District were involved in the disorder and very few of them were caught."

PROBLEM FOR JUDGES

Burka said judges are greatly concerned about sentencing rioters because so many of the defendants have no previous police records and are family men with steady jobs.

"If we don't send them to jail, it is a sign to everyone with a clean record that he is entitled to one free ruling, but if I do

His words trailed off, and then he looked at the last man in the group he sentenced yesterday and said: "Here is a man with a wife and four children and another on the way who is working steadily to support his family . . .” Again his voice trailed off in the middle of the sentence.

He then sentenced the man, Nathaniel Dodds, 51, of the 1100 block of 10th Street NW, to a suspended 360-day jail term and placed him on probation for a year for attempted burglary II (looting).

Dodds is in a sense both typical and untypical of the rioter.

WATCHED THE PEOPLE

He told the court he is a dishwasher and makes $58 a week. He came here from Mississippi 15 years ago after serving a six-month jail term there in 1935 for manslaughter.

He had no arrest record since being in Washington, until April 5, when he got off work and went home and sat on the porch drinking beer and watched the people milling about on the streets.

When he saw people carrying television sets and other items up the street, he asked where they got the goods and was told they came from a nearby store.

"I saw others taking things, and I thought of the things my kids needed," he told the court. So he joined the looters but was arrested before he got anything. "Would you have gone if you had been warned that looters would be arrested or shot?" Burka asked.

"No sir," Dodds replied. “People told me the police weren't arresting anybody and I thought it was all right since everybody else was doing it."

He said he saw "lots of police around, but nobody was being arrested."

DIDN'T EXPECT ARREST

The others sentenced yesterday also said they did not expect arrest. They also said they went into the streets because everybody else was looting.

The others sentenced had good-paying jobs, unlike Dodds, with one making $4 an hour as a cement finisher. None of them graduated from high school.

Jessie J. Hinson Jr., 23, of the 500 block of 7th Street SE, a truckdriver charged with attempted burglary II and petty larceny, received a suspended 360-day jail term and was placed on probation for two years.

He had one previous arrest for breaking and entering in Lancaster, S.C. in 1962 but no arrests since to came to Washington. He told the judge "I got with the wrong crowd" during the rioting and was arrested. He is married and has two children.

A. D. Huff, 36, of the 2100 block of 4th Street NE, had no arrest record. He told Burka he completed the second grade before going to work on his father's farm. He has been in Washington eight years and works as a cement finisher.

He received 180 days for petty larceny and rioting, with the sentence suspended. He was placed on probation for one year.

John H. Walker, 22, of the 3400 block of 14th Street NW, charged with attempted burglary II and petty larceny after his arrest in a clothing store, received a suspended 180-day sentence and was fined $100 and placed on probation for one year.

Walker, a machine operator with a fifth-grade education and a native of Washington, was bailed out after his arrest by his employer who then wrote a letter to the court in which he described Walker as "honest, trustworthy and a loyal employe."

The letter stated, according to Burka, that Walker on numerous occasions had been left alone in the plant with large sums of money and never took one cent. His boss wanted him back on the job.

Walker said that when he entered the clothing store there were policemen two doors away, but "I didn't think about police. It never occurred to me that I would be arrested."

"How do you feel about what you did now?" Burka asked. Walker replied: "Bad."

Charles E. Dean, 19, and Dempsey H. Bowie, 23, came to Washington from Alabama years ago and live in the 500 block of 3rd Street NW. Both are employed as cement workers earning $3.17 an hour and neither had an arrest record.

Dean completed the ninth grade and Bowie the seventh grade. They said they "saw a bunch of other people walk out of the store" and then they were arrested. Both were charged with attempted burglary II and received suspended 360-day terms and were fined $100 each.

ONLY ONE GETS JAIL

Only one man received a straight jail term. He was James McDonald Carroll, 31, of the first block of Bryant Street NW. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a permit.

He received 360 days in jail after Burka reviewed his conviction record, including charges of petty larceny, assault and carrying a dangerous weapon.

A lifelong resident of Washington, Carroll is a laborer with a sixth-grade education.

He claimed he had just bought a .22-caliber pistol from a youth on the street when he was arrested. Police said they recovered the gun and 26 rounds of ammunition. Carroll said he planned to take the gun home.