New York City Squats and Homeless

In the late 1980s, New York City had turned a corner and was gradually starting to come out of a long economic slump. Both squatters and homeless people felt like they had to fight to hang on to whatever spaces they had claimed. A lot of tension focused on Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side. In the summer of 1988, the New York Parks Department implemented a 1 a.m. curfew at the park. The curfew sparked protests, which turned into riots. Many squatters were part of the altercations. One rubber ball was thrown and hit one of the cops in the head.