FSE 101: FIRE PREVENTION RESEARCH PROJECT THE HAPPY LAND FIRE BY RAY CHESNEY EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY Introduction: The Happy Land Fire was an arson fire that killed 87 people on March 25, 1990 in the Happy Land Social Club, The Bronx, New York. Most of the victims were young ethnic Hondurans. Event History: 87 people died of smoke inhalation at the “Happy Land Social Club”. The fire was started by a 36-year-old man who earlier had been ejected from the club after an altercation with his former girlfriend, who worked at the club. He went to a nearby gas station, filled a plastic container with a dollar’s worth of gasoline, and returned to the club.
When Hardwick had failed to show up for the citation hearing , Torick issued a warrant for Hardwick’s arrest. Torick proceeded to serve the arrest but Hardwick was not home. Once Hardwick came home and had realized that Torick had been at his house, he immediately went to pay the citation off, but once he arrived , the clerk had said that the warrant had to be processed for 48 hours before anything could actually happen. Weeks later once the warrant was surely processed by Torick, he intended to go arrest Hardwick at his home. Upon entering his house, he notices a “friend” of Hardwick’s sleeping off a hangover on the couch.
They chose Chicago because they wanted revenge on the Chicago Police Department, who had brutally beaten several demonstrators (lead by the infamous "Chicago 7" during the 1968 Democratic Convention. In the midst of the evening on October 6th the Weathermen blew up a statue dedicated to policemen in Chicago's Haymarket Square. Hundreds of window shattered from the shockwave of the explosion. The cops were aware of their presence and had a tight eye on the crew. On Wednesday evening an anticipated thousands of demonstrators failed to show and left the Weathermen with only 300 people or so.
Rioters began violence at the famous corner of Florence and Normandie where they threw beer cans at surrounding cars and attacked any passing people. Around the same time, protesters gathered and rallied around news stations like KTLA. Daryl Gates, the chief of the LAPD, originally claimed the police had the issue under control, but it progressed into the declaration of an official "State of Emergency." Two thousand National Guard troops are deployed to popular spots to prevent violence. Later that day, Gates announced that there were four thousand more National Guard members requested and intended to be deployed the next day.
The Stonewall Inn, at that time was run by the Mafia. It welcomed an assortment of patrons, but it was known to be popular with poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation in Stonewall Inn, and attracted a crowd that was incited to the riot. Gay residents began with more protest with New York City police the next evening and several nights later. Village residents quickly organized into activist groups by gathering gays and lesbians to concentrate efforts on establishing places for them to open up their sexual orientations without the fear of being arrested.
The Steubenville Ohio is a case that tears the thoughts of the people of the small town. What had happened is that two boys that were on the Steubenville high school football team went too far into their glory and immortality at the time a committed the crime of raping a 16 year old girl from Weirton, W.Va. It all started on a late summer night, a group of football players were going from party to party. Two of those player were special though, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, both 16 at the time saw this girl on the sidewalk leaning over, drunk out of her mind and carried her against her will to a bunch of other parties before settling down in someone’s basement where they proceeded to rape her. I think that this case is just an example
By the 8th of that month, eight corpses had been discovered. The next day nine more were dug up, found in Dean’s boatshed. More and more decomposed bodies were found near High Island Beach and near Lake Sam Rayburn, all in Texas. Wayne whined to the detectives, saying that it was all his fault, as he had led the teens right to Dean Corll’s house events. Some were wrapped in plastic and encased by a layer of lime; others had cords wrapped around their necks and tape around their mouths.
In Los Angeles alone, HUD received nearly 800 complaints of housing discrimination in 1987. The Fair Housing Congress reported an additional 700 cases of al leged racial discrimination. The problem is a persistent one, as more recent examples indicate. In a suburb south of Chicago, the owners and managers of Town and Country Villas Apartments were ordered to pay $308,200 in damages for refusing to rent apartments to blacks. In Toledo, Ohio a married couple sought to finalize a lease arrangement when the homeowners became flustered by the fact the couple was interracial.
My friend was arrested and left with some marks. Another incident, I remember back in August 2007 it was one night we were all at the carnival and a big fight broke out. Again everyone scattered everywhere. This time it was one of my best friends, she was trying to gather everyone so we can leave the carnival but two of us were missing. We all split up, me and her stayed around each other and the officers came telling us to leave we told him “Officer were just looking for our friend so we can leave” but he was not hearing us, he just kept yelling and yelling.
In 1976, Trenchtown was impacted by a wave of violence and was no longer safe. There were a lot of ghetto wars going on at the time due to political differences. There was separation of political groups in the village, sort of like a north versus south standoff. Violence was a daily thing for Trenchtown with constant shootings and often stabbings. In December 5, Marley decided to perform the One Love Peace concert at Kingston’s National Heroes Park (2).