Crime and Punishment in America - Autumn 1974
September 21, 1974
NYSE Massacre: 28 Hostages, 2 Police Dead in armed attack on Stock Exchange
At ten thirty yesterday morning a group of armed gunmen attacked the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, killing a total of twenty-three commercial exchange traders and NYSE employees, including nine security guards, and seriously wounding at least nineteen others in their initial attack. The exact number of attackers involved remains unclear; NYPD and FBI sources have placed the number between seven and nine heavily armed individuals. Their weapons included an M14 military issue rifle, two shotguns, at least three machine guns which had been modified for automatic fire, and an unknown quantity of hand grenades.
The attackers approached the NYSE building in at least two groups, entering through the main entrance off of Wall Street, and a second service entrance located to the side of the building. Once inside the men opened fire indiscriminately, killing security guards and floor traders in a fusillade of gunfire. At least one hand grenade was detonated during the attack. The armed group then took the surviving traders and exchange employees hostage. One witness reported that the gunmen shot at least two wounded traders to silence their cries for help.
New York Police responded quickly to the attack, surrounding the building and summoning tactical squad officers to the scene. Mayor Abraham Beame rushed to an undisclosed location near the scene to direct hostage negotiations and police efforts. The FBI was also summoned at some point during the crisis.
The gunmen wore black kerchiefs and sunglasses to disguise their features. During the first minutes of the siege they sought out any members of the press among their hostages, and identified James Kelvin of the Wall Street Journal in the group. One of their number then read a statement to a Kelvin, in which he identified their group as “the People’s Armed Resistance” and demanded “the dismantling of the oppressive capitalist system which enslaves the poor and downtrodden and perpetuates the condition of slavery for all people of color.” The gunmen’s demands included the dissolution of all corporations and the division of their assets among “all members of the oppressed proletariat.” In addition they demanded that “all capitalists exploiters and their political lackeys be put on trial in people’s courts for their crimes of enslavement and genocide against the oppressed.” The attackers then released Kelvin, along with a written manifesto. He was immediately taken into custody by police and FBI agents and questioned for several hours by authorities before being released.
The siege continued for another six hours, during which one of the wounded hostages died. The gunmen repeatedly refused to get medical treatment for their hostages, whom they termed “oppressors” and “overseers of the capitalist plantation.” Several hostages endured torture at the hands of the attackers as they were pistol whipped and otherwise mistreated. At one point a terrorist apparently engaged in Russian roulette with one hostage. This involves removing all but one bullet from a revolver, spinning the barrel and then pulling the trigger while the gun is aimed at the victim.
“These aren’t legitimate revolutionaries, not even close!” Mayor Beame said in sharply worded remarks. “They are animals -criminal scum- and we will treat them as such.”
Trained hostage negotiators from both the NYPD and the FBI tried to defuse the tense situation, but were unsuccessful. In addition to demanding the publication of their political manifesto, the attackers insisted that they be given one hundred million dollars and be allowed to fly to Africa aboard Air Force One. They demanded that a list of prisoners be freed and allowed to accompany them, including Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom (aka Jalil Muntaqim), convicted of the murder of two New York City police officers in 1971. Bell and Bottom are members of the Black Liberation Army, classified by the FBI as a terrorist group. Witnesses later reported that while a number of the gunmen were black, at least two appeared to be Hispanic.
Louis Farakhan, Minister at the Harlem Mosque, attempted to interpose himself into the negotiations, arguing that he might have better success. Mayor Beame and New York City Police Commissioner Michael Codd briefly spoke with Farakhan, but the Minister was turned away and not allowed to speak with the gunmen.
“We could end this peacefully,” Farakhan told reporters after his meeting with the Mayor and Police Commissioner. “But these men are being stubborn. They are going to end this with a blood bath just so that they can appear tough.”
At four p.m. a second grenade was exploded in the entrance of the stock exchange. It is not clear if this was in reaction to a provocation by the police or an act of frustration by the hostage takers. At four-forty the NYPD decided to storm the building, which took place between five and five fifteen.
After an intense exchange of gunfire, and the explosion of at least one more grenade, the police subdued the gunmen, reportedly killing seven. Two additional hostages were killed during the police assault, while two NYPD officers were reported dead and five seriously wounded. Initial accounts by some hostages indicate that at least one, and perhaps as many as two of the attackers might have escaped during the confusion caused by the police raid.
Civil rights groups have been quick to condemn the police action. William Kunsler, noted civil rights attorney commented, “the police decided to end this with a bloodbath; the death of the hostages killed during the raid are the result of the lack of patience by the Mayor and Police Commissioner.”
Marvin Younger of Hartford, Connecticut, the brother of Citibank trader John Younger, one of the two hostages killed during the police attack, told The Hartford Times that he will sue the New York Police and the FBI for the wrongful death of his brother.
“We had no choice,” Commissioner Codd told reporters. “They (the attackers) were getting frustrated, and that could have meant all of the hostages might have been killed. These people were unwilling to negotiate. Don’t forget, they shot a wounded man for sport!”
“I stand behind the police,” Mayor Beame said. “They acted to end a dangerous situation. My heart goes out to the families of the hostages killed by these terrorists, and to the families of the two brave NYPD officers killed in the line of duty.”
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, currently seeking a fifth term, commented during a campaign stop in Schenectady, New York. “Mayor Beame called these people animals, and I agree with that. We have to be tough on people who think they can use violence to achieve their goals. The minute they picked-up a gun they became the enemy of all law abiding citizens. That’s why I am campaigning to tighten our laws so that we can lock-up these kinds of thugs for good.” The Governor cut short his swing through upstate New York to fly to New York City for a first hand assessment of the situation.
Polls currently show Governor Rockefeller trailing his Democratic challenger, U.S. Representative Hugh L. Carey Jr. of Brooklyn, by nine to eleven points.
“This is an outrage, a vicious crime” Representative Carey commented at a campaign event in Elmira. “I support Mayor Beame and Commissioner Codd in dealing with this threat to the peace of our community. There’s no question that we have to be tough with criminals like these.”
The New York Stock Exchange will remain closed until at least Monday as police conduct their investigation. NYSE officials have already announced that a moment of silence will be observed when the Exchange reopens to honor the murdered hostages and New York Police officers.
The identities of the dead attackers are currently being withheld while authorities conduct their investigation.
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Governor Ronald Reagan (R-CA): We have to be tough on crime. When a criminal decides to pick-up a gun, he is declaring war on all the rules of society. He is a self-professed enemy of society and has to be treated as such. What happened in New York last week could have been prevented if the police had had the tools to get tough with these criminals before now. At least two of these animals had long criminal records – records of despicable, violent crimes. They should have been stopped before they caused this tragedy, and could have been if the police had had the power to do it.
Rep. Barry Goldwater Jr (R-CA): When a criminal picks-up a gun, he becomes our enemy. No different than an enemy on the battlefield. The police are our protection, our soldiers in the battle, and we have to give them the laws that will allow them to deal with this kind of attack forcefully. It’s not just about an abstract idea called law-and-order. It’s about your safety, and your family’s safety. Stop crime dead in its tracks!
Jerry Brown (D-CA): There’s no question that the thugs who attacked the New York Stock Exchange committed a very serious crime, and they should have been stopped before that happened. I am genuinely saddened by what the victims’ families have had to endure as a result of this horrible crime. We have to be tough on criminals, but at the same time we can’t be so tough that we lose sight of our responsibility to maintain a free society. Tough laws can only go so far, unless you want to stop crime dead in its tracks by creating a police state. I certainly don’t want to do that. I know Senator Goldwater, when he ran for President ten years ago, was outspoken on the point of preventing excessive intrusion by the state into people’s lives. We have to be tough on crime, but that doesn’t include trading away our liberty in the process. Instead, let’s be tough on the causes of crime – poverty, alienation, racism – as well. Then we’ll be building a safer community.
Sen. Barry Goldwater Sr (R-AZ): I don’t need Jerry Brown or anyone else putting words in my mouth. The best way to deal with a violent criminal is to put him down for good. You hear a lot of talk from liberals about trying to prevent recidivisms with this social program or that educational program, most of which don’t work. But I’ll tell you, I never heard of a dead criminal re-offending.
President Gavin (speaking at Gracie Mansion [New York Mayor’s residence], surrounded by the families of a number of the NYSE massacre victims; Mayor Beame and Governor Rockefeller standing close by): This is a tragedy beyond words. What these men have done is evil. No grudge, no past injustice, no feeling of oppression, can justify the mass murder of innocents. To those who call these thugs revolutionaries, I say, look at men like Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton. These were men who believed in a cause and took-up arms for it. But their cause was liberty, and they never attacked the innocent or made sport of violence in the name of revolution. They sooner took-up the pen in their cause, or forsake it altogether, rather than resort to indiscriminate violence and terror. No cause, no objective of redressing of wrongs, can disguise naked terrorism, which is what this crime was. To the families of the innocent gathered here, I pledge every effort of the Federal government to tracking down any who knew of this crime before it happened, and any who gave assistance or support to these thugs. I am especially concerned that we bring to justice anyone who was involved in providing the weapons to these killers. We will not rest until the guilty are brought to justice. Americans will not be terrorized by criminals, but with the just and certain belief in our laws and with the determination of our hard working and brave police and law enforcement personnel, we will win out and end the plague of violence which has recently gripped our cities.
Margaret Thatcher (during a BBC interview): All you have to do is look at what happened in New York to understand why preventive laws are necessary. We shall not allow such a thing to happen in Britain, and I venture if America had such laws, then they too could have prevented this evil act.
William Kunsler: I noticed that the President evoked the founding Fathers as his kind of revolutionaries. Never mind that Washington and Jefferson were slave owners and that Alexander Hamilton made his money from the slave trade. What happened at the stock exchange was tragic for the victims and their families, but it is the result of a long history of racism, violence and oppression in this country. When you keep a people down with force, the time will come when some among their number will explode against the injustice and intolerance that makes victims of them and their families. You want to prevent these kinds of events from happening? Then change what really caused them. You do that by addressing the real cause, injustice and racism. Let’s see President Gavin take that one on.
Sign seen along the I-5: “Stop’em dead in their tracks Barry!”
Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA): This is nothing but an attempt to turn our streets into a wild west shoot-out. They want increased police powers, why? To turn the police loose on those they don’t like – minorities, the poor, anyone who makes puts up a fuss against the system or makes a cry for justice. I don’t support what these criminals did in New York – that was a crime, no doubt about it. But I don’t support overreacting by turning every cop into a Marshall Dillon and turning the police force into the Gestapo or the KGB. That’s the wrong way to go.
California Bumper Sticker: “Republicans stink but Barry’s ok!”
California Bumper Sticker: “Stop Barry in his tracks!”
Goldwater for Governor campaign television ad: (image; thug wearing a kerchief and sunglasses, holding a gun – switches with photos of the Patricia Hearst murder scene): Narrator: Criminals want you to be scared. They want you to run and hide while they use violence to get their way. They don’t care about a peaceful community; all they want is terror. Some liberals - like Jerry Brown - want to treat them and cure them, as if they were the victims. Barry Goldwater doesn’t want to coddle criminals. He wants to give police the power to stop them and protect your family. (image: Goldwater addressing a large crowd): “It’s a choice between law and chaos, and I’m for law and order every time. I promise to stop this liberal nonsense of coddling violent criminals. My administration will stop crime dead in its tracks!” Narrator: Vote Goldwater for Governor on November fifth, and we’ll take the fight back to the criminals.
Muhammad Ali: When they draft a brother and put a government gun in his hands, and point him at the some poor farmer in Vietnam they call the enemy, and say shoot him, then he’s doing his patriotic duty. Killing for Uncle Sam is okay. But when that brother cries out “enough man; I ain’t takin’ anymore of your bull, I’m standing up to you” then he’s a criminal. I’m a Muslim, I don’t believe in violence, and what happened to the money traders was wrong, but I say, you let the violence loose, and it comes back at you.
Sen. Birch Bayh (D-IN): There are a lot of people who want to politicize this, they want to turn a tragedy into a crusade for all kinds of tough measures to stop crime – to stop crime dead in its tracks, as one irresponsible campaign would have it. This was a horrendous crime, about that no reasonable person can argue. But do we do the victims any justice by making it into a political football? They say that two of these thugs had long criminal records, and should have been stopped before this. They don’t add that three were veterans of the war in Vietnam, and that another had been in the National Guard. Violence surrounds us, and you don’t learn its skills just in the underworld or on the mean streets of New York or any other city. Let’s stop and think about that for a second. Two of these criminals learned violence on the streets, four did so in the service of our government, of you and me. Does this mean we should ban the military? Of course not, because their military experience didn’t cause these men do this horrible crime. They did it because they had a grudge, a sense that they could achieve something with mindless violence that they couldn’t through peaceful means. They were wrong. But why did they believe this? I don’t have an answer for that today, but I believe we have to find that answer. We have to look at why four men who served our country in uniform took to violence against our citizens. Then we can begin to stop this violence for good, not dead in its tracks, but gone for good.
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October 1, 1974
Farakhan warns US of Muslim backlash to Syria Operation
Louis Farakhan, the controversial Minister of the Harlem Mosque in New York City, has warned the Gavin Administration that the current military operation in Syria may “raise anger among the Ummah (the world community of Muslims) for their trespass in an (Islamic) homeland.” Farakhan added that what he called “the armed incursion of non-believers” into Syria has “deeply enraged” the Muslim community, and turned many Muslims against the United States.
In an address before the National Urban League – to which he had been invited to address issues of urban poverty relief and unemployment- the Muslim community leader compared the multi-national incursion into Syria to the crusades of the Middle Ages. “Our brothers throughout the world see in this invasion by outside powers a resumption of an old injustice against all followers of Islam. Non-believers seek to make laws and governments for their interests in a land that belongs to brothers in Islam, and this is an insult to all the Ummah that cannot be tolerated.”
“While most of the Ummah are peaceful in their faith, there are always those whose righteous anger at this injustice will be so roused as to lash out at their oppressors. They will see the need to resort to violence to restore Allah’s divine and merciful law in the lands of believers. I say this not as a threat, but as a warning for western leaders to heed, or ignore at their peril.”
Farakhan said that the only solution was for a complete withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Middle East. He also called on the United States government to pay reparations to the Syrian people for the damage caused by “an unjust war against the innocent.” He said that “while brothers of good will are struggling to prevent violence, there is no guarantee of their success.” He added, ominously, “the anger is building, and not the United States nor any combination of earthly powers can withstand the tide of an aroused Islam. You need only look to the Romans and their fate to understand this.”
He was referring to the Byzantine, or Eastern Roman Empire, which was defeated by Islamic forces in 1453. The capital city of Constantinople, named for the Roman Emperor who first embraced Christianity, was renamed Istanbul and became an important center in the Islamic world. Istanbul is today the largest city in the Muslim nation of Turkey.
“I warn all leaders, stay out of Islamic lands, or the peace will be broken, and what happens after that will be on your heads.”
The State Department, Defense Department and the White House refused to comment on Farakhan’s remarks.
Vernon Jordan, the President of the National Urban League, said, “we encourage dialogue between many points of view,” which was why “Minister Louis Farakhan was invited to address our members.” Jordan said that while his group was interested in Minister Farakhan’s comments, the National Urban League “in no way endorses his remarks on U.S. foreign policy. These are not our views.”
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October 10, 1974
Nixon: “Absolutely not guilty, so help me God.”
“Absolutely not guilty, so help me God,” were the words spoken by Former President Richard Nixon when asked to enter a plea on a seventeen count federal indictment against him. DC Federal Judge John J. Sirica accepted the former President’s plea without comment and released him on his own recognizance, provided that he surrender his passport. A date for preliminary hearings has yet to be set.
Richard Nixon was indicted for charges including charges of obstructing justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, tax evasion, perjury and other counts by a Grand Jury on February 5th of this year; however procedural manoeuvring between Mr. Nixon’s lawyers and the U.S. Attorney’s office have delayed the arraignment for eight months. After denying a motion by Nixon’s legal team that their client could not receive a fair trial in the District of Columbia, Judge Sirica ordered that a formal arraignment go forward.
The offences charged in the indictment occurred largely between September 1971 and July 1972, when Nixon was serving as the 37th President of the United States. Crucial to the US Attorney’s case are the transcripts of meetings recorded in the White House between President Nixon and various members of his staff, including then Attorneys General John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst, and chief prosecution witness John Dean. Dean was the White House Counsel during this period, and has been expected to corroborate much of the allegedly incriminating material heard on the tapes. According to informed sources the conversations on these tapes make Nixon’s guilt “quite evident.” A special master had been appointed by the Court last year to transcribe the tapes and hold them secure while Mr. Nixon challenged their use as evidence under the fifth amendment. The Supreme Court, in United States v. Nixon, ruled that the tapes were admissible as evidence, though the Supreme Court also held that their contents remain sealed from public disclosure until Mr. Nixon had a chance to defend himself at trial.
The so-called Oval Office tapes became controversial again last summer when portions of the transcripts were published in The Manchester Guardian. Since the transcripts were to be held under guard by the special master, their publication meant that someone on the special master’s staff had given the protected documents to the British newspaper. The FBI has been investigating the leak, but thus far has not made public any detailed information about who might have leaked this information. Anyone involved in leaking the transcript to The Guardian would be guilty of a federal crime. In the meantime the special master and his staff have been replaced by the DC Court.
Nixon’s attorneys had argued before Judge Sirica that the illegal release of the transcripts and their publication undermined their client’s ability to receive a fair trial, as reporting of the tapes contents would prejudice any potential jury pool. At first they argued that this was sufficient to quash the indictment. When Judge Sirica ruled against this argument, Nixon had asked for a change of venue, which was also denied. Nixon’s attorneys had intended to argue at trial that a jury should not hear the tapes in their entirety as they involve conversations of “national importance”, including “matters of national security.” The publication of transcripts of their contents, they claim, has undermined their ability to present a defense for their client.
A publication ban issued by the DC Federal District Court prevents the publication of the transcripts anywhere in the United States, although there has been substantial reporting of their being published in Europe, and contraband copies of these European publications are readily available throughout the United States. They can also be purchased legally in Canada and Mexico.
Citing the publication ban, Judge Sirica dismissed this argument and ruled that the arraignment and pre-trial motions proceed. “I’m sure we can find twelve people who haven’t read smuggled newspapers or been to Canada recently,” he said in his ruling.
Richard Nixon was grimfaced as he left the Federal Court house flanked by his attorneys, Edward Bennett Williams and Leonard Garment, and two Secret Service bodyguards. The former President had no comment for the press.
Senator Robert Dole (R-KS) meanwhile questioned the timing of this proceeding. “It seems awfully convenient that this was brought forward so soon before the election. It makes you think that the Democrats have been contriving to get this out there just before the election, to confuse voters about what the real issues are.”
“That’s absurd,” rebutted Democratic National Committee Chair Robert Strauss. “The U.S. Attorney prosecuting this case is a Republican – one appointed by President Nixon I might add - and Judge Sirica was appointed by President Eisenhower. If anything, we should be asking if there is too much bias on Mr. Nixon’s behalf in this court; after all Judge Sirica let him go without imposing bail. If it was you or me, we’d have to mortgage our house to get the privilege of walking out of “Maximum John’s” courtroom.”
One ironic aspect of the case is that Nixon’s prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Richard Scholl, was originally appointed to his post by then President Nixon in 1971. President Eisenhower appointed Judge Sirica to the DC District Federal Court in 1957. At the time Richard Nixon was serving as the Vice President of the United States. Judge Sirica has been nicknamed “Maximum John” in reflection of his stringent sentencing practices.
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