Historical+Rabbit

 Historical Kylie Lizardi

The hostilities towards Boston police began in the 1970’s, when buses of African Americans were being forced upon an almost completely why society. South Boston had become known as a city of national and racial hostility, where the color of a person’s skin became the reason for the city’s problems. The citizens would “point to Black people and white people as the source of each other’s problems” (Saba). Boston parents and teenage gangs stoned the buses and children, injuring some. The violence eventually became so out of hand that 300 police officers were sent into the city, equipped with M-16s and M-1s. They were given the right to look for threats, whether it meant looting apartments or attacking tenants, which they rightfully did.

The people of South Boston eventually revolted against the heinous law enforcement. Police targeting specific groups of people, such as homosexuals and blacks. On an October night in 1974, a brick came hurtling through a Tactical Police Force cruiser. The police chased the culprit into the Rabbit Inn, but lost his trail. The next night a call came in from the Rabbit Inn reporting that the police force had attacked the bar, leaving people injured and unrightfully arrested. “The police said they were responding to a call of trouble from the saloon, but most in Southie thought the raid was retaliation” (Chesson). $20,000 worth of damage was done and several people were hospitalized. This event was to be known as the Rabbit Inn incident.

Works Cited

Chesson, Michael. "The Athens of America." The American History News Network. N.p., 16 Apr. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

Saba, Paul. "Boston Busing Struggle Sharpens." Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line. Nov. 1974. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.