RIOTS: THIS ONE WAS PLANNED

The riot that transfixed Cleveland last week was more ominous, in a sense, than any of the upheavals that have rent American cities in the hot summers of the '60s. In the stark statistics of death and destruction, it was less than cataclysmic. But all the other ghetto uprisings have been the result of chance or bad judgment, some random local incident or emotional shock, such as Martin Luther King's murder, that put the spark to the fuse. Cleveland's battle was planned.

The conflict erupted when one of the city's bright yellow tow trucks stopped at the corner of Beulah and 123rd Street, at the edge of the Glenville ghetto, to haul away a junked 1958 Cadillac. Guns opened up from every side. One of the truckers called for help on his two-way radio.

Rain of Bullets. Squad cars arrived within minutes, and within seconds thereafter became the targets of a well-coordinated ambush. Police, most of them equipped with only the standard .38 revolver, were outgunned. "It was worse than Saipan or Tinian!" exclaimed Detective Robert Bennett, a veteran of both. "They shot at us from every direction imaginable." Three policemen—two patrolmen and a lieutenant—were dead and another 14 wounded within 30 minutes. "We were sucked in," said Detective Gerald Viola. "They were just waiting for us." Three men tried, one by one, to rescue Sergeant Sam Levy, who had been hit in the chest and one arm and lay in the street. One by one, each was wounded.

The pitched battle lasted for about four hours, as shadowy snipers ran from house to house. Eventually several commandeered a neat two-story frame house on Lakeview Road. Now more than 100-strong and armed with automatic rifles, police bombarded the dwelling with bullets and tear-gas grenades. During the early morning, flames burst out of one of the windows. A gunman shouted from the top floor: "It's hot up here!" "Then why don't you give up?" asked a cop. The man began firing once more. Within minutes the whole house was ablaze. Two charred bodies were later found in the ruins.

Bold Gamble. Though fewer than a score of black guerrillas were engaged in the battle, the slum telegraph swiftly rapped out reports, igniting a full-scale riot. Looters and arsonists rampaged through a six-square-mile area, as well as in nearby Hough, which suffered a five-day riot in 1966. Mayor Carl Stokes, who as the Negro candidate for the office last year inspired the slogan "Cool Cleveland for Carl," hoped that he might again stave off trouble. He was reluctantly forced to call on Ohio Governor James Rhodes for help. Within twelve hours, 2,700 National Guardsmen were on the streets.