The Algiers Motel IncidentIn 1967 three black men were killed and nine other people brutally beaten by, as John Hersey describes it in The Algiers Motel Incident, an "aggregate of Detroit police, Michigan State Troopers, National Guardsmen, and private guards who had been directed to the scene." Responding to a telephoned report of sniping, the police group invaded the Algiers Motel and interrogated ten black men and two white women, none of whom were armed, for an hour. By the time the interrogators left, three men had been shot to death and the others, including the women, beaten. |
Contents
How to Attack a Building 235 | 235 |
Everybody Downstairs 237 | 237 |
Phone Calls 242 | 242 |
State Police 244 | 244 |
Conduct Becoming an Officer 251 | 251 |
Up and Down the Line 253 | 253 |
Just in Time to Pray 257 | 257 |
Enter Warrant Officer Thomas 259 | 259 |
Under Indictment | 327 |
A Mother Speaks | 328 |
The Net Is Thrown Again | 336 |
The Myth | 338 |
Fuel for the Fire Next Time | 344 |
Harassment? | 353 |
The Paille Appeal | 359 |
A Numbness | 361 |
Conspiracy? | 363 |
Padlocking | 368 |
A Cutting | 373 |
A Winter of Waiting | 379 |
Three Men at Work | 381 |
The Legal Maze | 386 |
Last Words | 392 |
What Is Wrong With the Country? | 395 |
Do You Hate the Police? 7 | 7 |
A Dangerous Account 30 | 30 |
Too Hot to Handle 38 | 38 |
July 235 | 63 |
Snake 82 | 82 |
The Second Day 109 | 109 |
An OutofDoors Man 121 | 121 |
The Third Day 128 | 128 |
Quiet and Respectable 143 | 143 |
An Alarm of Snipers 157 | 157 |
The Fork in the Road 167 | 167 |
Could You Get My Statement Back? 207 | 207 |
The Algiers Motel Incident July 256 | 217 |
The Snipers 219 | 219 |
A Game of Chess 227 | 227 |
Man Theyre Going to Shoot 231 | 231 |
Interrogations 264 | 264 |
The Knife Game 269 | 269 |
Skin Show 271 | 271 |
The Death Game 273 | 273 |
The Death Game Played Out 277 | 277 |
Out 281 | 281 |
Aftermath July 31 and after | 285 |
A Matter for Investigation 287 | 287 |
First Man in Court 302 | 302 |
Logical to Be Nervous 304 | 304 |
Senaks Peninsula 307 | 307 |
These Are Not Little Boys 309 | 309 |
The Law Was Made by People 318 | 318 |
Law and Order for All? 322 | 322 |
Under Indictment 327 | 327 |
A Mother Speaks 328 | 328 |
The Net Is Thrown Again 336 | 336 |
The Myth 338 | 338 |
Fuel for the Fire Next Time 344 | 344 |
Harassment? 353 | 353 |
The Paille Appeal 359 | 359 |
A Numbness 361 | 361 |
Conspiracy? 363 | 363 |
Padlocking 368 | 368 |
A Cutting 373 | 373 |
A Winter of Waiting 379 | 379 |
Three Men at Work 381 | 381 |
The Legal Maze 386 | 386 |
Last Words 392 | 392 |
What Is Wrong With the Country? 395 | 395 |
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Common terms and phrases
ain't Algiers Motel Algiers Motel Incident arrested asked Attorney Auburey Pollard Auburey's beat boys building called Carl Cooper colored court David Senak Detective Detroit Police Detroit Police Department Dismukes dollars door Euclid feel fellow fire floor Fred Temple friends Gill going Guardsmen happened heard Hersey John Hersey judge July July 26 killed Kurt Luedtke Larry looked looting Michael Clark morgue morning murder Negro night picked pimps pistol Police Department police officers policemen Pollard told Precinct Prosecutor prostitutes pulled racial Ray Girardin riot Robert Greene Robert Paille Roderick Davis Ronald August scout car shooting shot shotgun snipers Sortor told started stay street Sunday talked Tanner tell thing took Trooper trouble Twenty Grand walked Warrant Officer Thomas Wayne County Weiswasser white girls Woodward Woodward Avenue
Popular passages
Page 269 - He said hello to me when he saw me, and he asked me what I was doing there. I told him I had been summoned to testify, but that I didn't know for which case.
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Page xvii - The American Negro problem is a problem in the heart of the American. It is there that the interracial tension has its focus. It is there that the decisive struggle goes on. This is the central viewpoint of this treatise. Though our study includes economic, social, and political race relations, at bottom our problem is the moral dilemma of the American '-the conflict between his moral valuations on various levels of consciousness and generality. The "American Dilemma...
Page 50 - ... only a sordid page in our history. I know this is a tall order. One thing should be absolutely clear: this matter is far, far too important for politics. It goes to the health and safety of all American citizens — Republicans and Democrats. It goes to the proper responsibilities of officials in both of our Parties. It goes to the heart of our society in a time of swift change and of great stress. I think the composition of this Commission is proof against any narrowness or partisanship.
Page 348 - For nearly 500 years the illusion that Jesus was white dominated the world only because white Europeans dominated the world. Now, with the emergence of the nationalist movements of the world's colored majority, the historic truth is finally beginning to emerge — that Jesus was the non-white leader of a non-white people, struggling for national liberation against the rule of a white nation, Rome.
Page 2 - Crabgrass-Roots Politics: Race, Rights, and the Reaction against Liberalism in the Urban North, 1940-1964," Journal of American History 82 (September 1995): 522-50, and 551-78.
Page 50 - So, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Vice Chairman, let your search be free. Let it be untrammeled by what has been called the "conventional wisdom." As best you can, find the truth, the whole truth, and express it in your report. I hope you will be inspired by a sense of urgency but also conscious of the danger that lies always in hasty conclusions. The work that you do ought to help guide us not just this summer, but for many summers to come and for many years to come.
Page 349 - Christians suffering oppression in a white man's land, do note need the individualistic and otherworldly doctrines of Paul and the white man. We need to recapture the faith in our power as a people and the concept of nation, which are the foundation of the Old Testament and the prophets, and upon which Jesus built all of his teachings 2,000 years ago. Jesus was a revolutionary black leader, a Zealot, seeking to lead a Black Nation to freedom, so the Black Church must carefully define the nature of...
Page 344 - the order was improperly disseminated and was never made clear to the men on the street. As a result the Guard was involved in a total of eleven deaths, in which nine innocent people died