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Hard Hat Riot
[edit]On May 4, 1970, four Kent State University students protesting the American invasion of Cambodia and the Vietnam War were shot dead by National Guard troops.[1] Shortly thereafter, anti-war protesters announced a rally near City Hall to memorialize the four dead students. Brennan decided to organize a counter rally of construction workers to show support for Nixon's Vietnam policies and the American soldiers fighting in Vietnam.[2]
Just before noon on May 8, 1970, near the intersection of Wall Street and Broad Street, about 200 construction workers pushed through a police line into about 1,000 high school and college protesters, striking them with fists and hard hats. Some of the workers moved on and entered City Hall and a Pace University building. The riot lasted a little over two hours, and ended of its own accord. More than 70 people were injured, including four policemen. Six people were arrested. The disturbances became known as the Hard Hat Riot.
Brennan led a second rally on May 20 in which more than 20,000 construction workers showed their support for Nixon's Southeast Asia policies.[3]
At 7:30 a.m. on May 8, several hundred anti-war protesters (most of them high school and college students) began holding a memorial at Broad and Wall Streets for the four dead students at Kent State. By late morning, the protesters—now numbering more than a thousand—were demanding an end to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, the release of "political prisoners" in the U.S., and an end to military-related research on all university campuses. At five minutes to noon, about 200 construction workers converged on the student rally at Federal Hall from four directions. At first, the construction workers only pushed but did not break the thin line of police. After just two minutes, however, the workers broke through the police line and began chasing students through the streets.
The workers selected those with the longest hair and swatted them with their hard hats. Attorneys, bankers and investment analysts from nearby Wall Street investment firms tried to protect many of the students but were themselves attacked. Onlookers reported that the police stood by and did nothing. A postal worker rushed onto the roof of City Hall and raised the American flag to full mast. When city workers lowered the flag to half-mast, the construction workers stormed City Hall, overwhelming the police. Deputy Mayor Richard Aurelio, fearing the building would be overrun by the mob, ordered city workers to raise the flag back to full mast. The construction workers then ripped the Red Cross and Episcopal Church flags down from a flag pol at Trinity Church.
At least one eyewitness, however, described two men in grey suits using walkie-talkies and hand signals to direct the construction workers during the riot. See Bigart, "War Foes Here Attacked By Construction Workers," New York Times, May 9, 1970.</ref> However, many organizations claim that Peter Brennan provoked the construction workers into action.