1987 Tampa riots

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. 1986 & 1987 would also be a time of racial tension in Tampa as well.

It would be similar to nearly 20 years earlier when Tampa was the site of rioting for several days that was started after a 19-year-old African American man named Martin Chambers was shot and killed by a white police officer of the Tampa Police Department, James Calvert.^[1]

Background[]

During a period spanning from November 1986 to April 1987 four African American males would be killed during encounters involving white officers of the Tampa Police Department.^[2] At the time, 25% of African Americans who lived in Tampa resided at public housing projects. In the census tracts where the College Hill and Ponce de Leon housing projects, the population of them would increase 17% between 1970 to 1985 which was at twice the rate of other black neighborhoods in the city.^[3] In July 1986 the unemployment rate would be reported as being 10.4% for black people in Hillsborough County while for whites it would be at 5.2%.^[4]

Blacks who were middle class would move to different neighborhoods apart from College Hill and Ponce de Leon while white families who lived in the area prior to arrival of blacks in general had moved to the suburbs.^[3]

February 18-21, 1987[]

Incident[]

The riot started after a 23-year-old African American man named Melvin Eugene Hair who had paranoid schizophrenia would get into a fight with his family and would die after being restrained by the police when they intervened. The fight would start after Hair would start reading cards from other players who were playing a card game. His mother would tell him to stop and then attempted to burn someone with a cigarette. A fight would later break out and a guest would end up calling the police to get him to a mental health center. The guest would say on the phone he had a knife to get a quicker response despite the fact he didn’t have one. Officers who responded would get into a fight in trying to restrain him. Eventually one of the responding officers, David D’Agresta would put Hair into a carotid artery restraint that he had learned when he went to police academy. Later on attempts were made to revive him but it would be unsuccessful.^[5]

Course of events[]

The teenagers who had gathered at the street corner would grow angry because of Hair’s death and a recent news story airing on local TV stations about the city attorney blaming Dwight Gooden with starting a fight with white Tampa police officers. A crowd would start to gather and later became a violent mob that set fire to a dumpster along with rock and bottle throwing starting. The riot would end up lasting for 3 days.^[6]

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 after being hit by a brick. The crowd would start to shrink at 11:30 PM according to Mayor Sandy Freeman who visited the scene at 11 PM. Also during the same day, copies about a report pertaining to Gooden's arrest would be released by the city attorney. In the report it stated that officers had unsuccessfully tried to put Gooden into a chokehold when he and 4 others with him fought them.^[7]

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.^[3]

Interim[]

Tampa would hold a mayoral election on March 4, 1987 with incumbent mayor Sandy Freeman winning the 5 way nonpartisan race becoming the first elected female mayor in the city's history. Freeman had served as mayor since July 1986 when Bob Martinez, resigned his position to run for Governor. Freedman would end up winning all of the precincts in the city with the exception of one. She would get 379 votes in the precinct covering College Hill compared to the combined total of 21 for her opponents despite opponents of her attacking her about the riot that happened in College Hill.^[8]

Anthony Perkins who was African American would be shot and killed by a white police officer named Scott Johnson during a chase on March 23. The chase started in a pizzeria's parking lot where he allegedly stole a woman's purse. Perkins had a pistol with him at the sight of the robbery and had fired his weapon after the robbery according to witnesses. "Officials" would say Perkins had the gun at the restaurant but didn't fire it and had dropped it before getting shot on Interstate 275.^[9][10]

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. The police were responding a report of a suspicious person and ended up encountering Miller who would be with a shopping cart that had aluminum cans in it. He was described as behaving in a hostile manner towards two officers, Roxanne Wollam and Michael D. Noyes who responded to the case as Miller spited on Wollam’s shoes two or three times.^[6][11] A fight would start as both officers tried to handcuff him and Miller died a few hours later.^[11] "A preliminary medical report" would not be able to identify the exact cause of Miller's death but did rule out a chokehold or head injury. Miller did have a chronic heart valve disorder.^[11] Miller would end up getting revived but died in a hospital on April 6 when a surgery was being done on him to try and find the source of his "chest bleeding".^[12]

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.^[6]

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.^[13] 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^[10] until officially becoming the police chief on May 26. Newberger would serve as police chief until he left his position on September 27, 1991.^[14] 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 it's 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.^[15][16] McLane left the Sheriff's Office in 1999 before joining another one where he did fraud investigations until finally retiring in 2011.^[16] McLane would die on January 15, 2021 at the age of 81.^[15]

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.^[5]

Disciplinary and legal actions[]

After the death of Hair the usage of chokeholds by the police would be banned.^[17] 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.^[5] 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.^[11] 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".^[10]

College Hill and Ponce de Leon areas[]

The College Hill and Ponce de Leon housing projects would be scheduled for demolition during the 2000s as a part of the Hope VI program that begun in 1993 by the United States federal government to demolish public housing projects that were getting old, dealing with poverty, drugs and violence.^[18]

Further riots[]

Several other riots would happen in College Hill in the 1980s. After the arrest of a robbery suspect a disturbance would occur in April 1988. Another riot would happen in the College Hill area on February 1, 1989 after the arrest of an African American man in that area who was a drug dealer named Edgar Allan Price by undercover police officers. At the time of Price's arrest he was carrying 25 pieces of crack cocaine and a derringer in his pockets. He would resisting arrest violently with one officer getting there nose broken. Initially two officers responded but later one officer called for backup through his police radio and 6 others would arrive as reinforcements after which Price would be subdued.^[19] After Price's arrest, he would collapse in a police cruiser and later die at St. Joseph's Hospital^[20] from what would later be disclosed as cardiac arrest.^[19] During the riots 100^[21][19] or over 100 police officers would respond to the situation.^[20] Three injuries apart from one coming from Price's arrest would occur during this outbreak of rioting. 30 firefighters would also end up responding to the situation as well.^[19] A crowd consisting of about 150 youths would participate with a grocery store being looted, burned and stoned. The riots would end up lasting for one hour in total and the College Hill area which spanned 22 blocks would be cordoned off. A news van would be fired upon twice by a shotgun.^[21]

See also[]

• 1967 Tampa riots

External links[]

Video footage[]

• 1987 SPECIAL REPORT: “Tampa Riots” Part 1] on YouTube
• 1987 SPECIAL REPORT: “Tampa Riots” Part 2] on YouTube

References[]