Documentary based on recording made during the August 6-7, 1988 police riot in Tompkins Square Park, the heart of NYC's Lower East Side.
Producer: Paul DeRienzo Uploaded by: Paul DeRienzo
Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Rodney King, before these names became household words there was Tompkins Square Park. Videtapes showed cops with badges covered, nameplates removed swinging wildly at residents protesting a park curfew. The mayor called it a police riot and for three years a protest encampment of hundreds of homeless people seized the park. All the more relevant today as the numbers of homeless people on the streets of NYC rise and food pantries run dry feeding 90 million meals -- more than ever before.