Apartheid. USA 1988

December 23, 1986:

The Howard Beach murder remains much in the news. ‘I know racism hasn't been eliminated,’ Julius Staten, a retired postal worker, said as he polished the back of his car across Pacific Street. ‘But you would think people would be more brotherly... Ours is supposed to be a free society.’ Standing in a nameless corner luncheonette, the manager of the local gas station, Bernard Fullins, said the incident made him think about his school days, ‘when the white kids used to chase us home with their dogs.’^8.

The car that killed Michael Griffith was driven by 24-year-old Dominick Blum, a Court officer from Brooklyn. He, and three companions, Jon L Lester (17), born in South Africa, Gregory Lasak (17) and Scott Kern (17) were arrested and being held on a general charge of felonious assault, with the degree not specified. Benjamin Ward, the black Police Commissioner of New York City, and Queens District Attorney, John J Santucci said that the suspects would be prosecuted to the limit of the law.^9.

8. The New York Times, from report by Robert O Boorstin

9. The New York Times, from report by James Barron