Massachusetts: Violence in a Factory Town

It had been a long, hot, quiet summer-ominously quiet. Then came the most banal of incidents: a dispute over a shattered windshield. "One thing led to another," said Police Captain Samuel Aliano. Soon a section of the fraying factory town of Lawrence, Mass. (pop. 62,770), was a battleground of ethnic animosities. On consecutive nights last week, Hispanics and whites pelted one another with rocks, bottles and fire bombs. Some 40 local policemen, backed up by state troopers and SWAT teams, used tear gas and nightsticks against the mob. The authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed a ten-hour curfew, halted...

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