{"product_id":"2940013196759","title":"MOB RULE IN NEW ORLEANS","description":"+SHOT AN OFFICER+\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bloodiest week which New Orleans has known since the massacre of the\u003cbr\u003eItalians in 1892 was ushered in Monday, July 24, by the inexcusable and\u003cbr\u003eunprovoked assault upon two colored men by police officers of New Orleans.\u003cbr\u003eFortified by the assurance born of long experience in the New Orleans\u003cbr\u003eservice, three policemen, Sergeant Aucoin, Officer Mora and Officer\u003cbr\u003eCantrelle, observing two colored men sitting on doorsteps on Dryades\u003cbr\u003estreet, between Washington Avenue and 6th Streets, determined, without a\u003cbr\u003eshadow of authority, to arrest them. One of the colored men was named\u003cbr\u003eRobert Charles, the other was a lad of nineteen named Leonard Pierce. The\u003cbr\u003ecolored men had left their homes, a few blocks distant, about an hour\u003cbr\u003eprior, and had been sitting upon the doorsteps for a short time talking\u003cbr\u003etogether. They had not broken the peace in any way whatever, no warrant\u003cbr\u003ewas in the policemen's hands justifying their arrest, and no crime had\u003cbr\u003ebeen committed of which they were the suspects. The policemen, however,\u003cbr\u003esecure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they\u003cbr\u003ewished, approached the two men, and in less than three minutes from the\u003cbr\u003etime they accosted them attempted to put both colored men under arrest.\u003cbr\u003eThe younger of the two men, Pierce, submitted to arrest, for the officer,\u003cbr\u003eCantrelle, who accosted him, put his gun in the young man's face ready to\u003cbr\u003eblow his brains out if he moved. The other colored man, Charles, was made\u003cbr\u003ethe victim of a savage attack by Officer Mora, who used a billet and then\u003cbr\u003edrew a gun and tried to kill Charles. Charles drew his gun nearly as\u003cbr\u003equickly as the policeman, and began a duel in the street, in which both\u003cbr\u003eparticipants were shot. The policeman got the worst of the duel, and fell\u003cbr\u003ehelpless to the sidewalk. Charles made his escape. Cantrelle took Pierce,\u003cbr\u003ehis captive, to the police station, to which place Mora, the wounded\u003cbr\u003eofficer, was also taken, and a man hunt at once instituted for Charles,\u003cbr\u003ethe wounded fugitive.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn any law-abiding community Charles would have been justified in\u003cbr\u003edelivering himself up immediately to the properly constituted authorities\u003cbr\u003eand asking a trial by a jury of his peers. He could have been certain that\u003cbr\u003ein resisting an unwarranted arrest he had a right to defend his life, even\u003cbr\u003eto the point of taking one in that defense, but Charles knew that his\u003cbr\u003earrest in New Orleans, even for defending his life, meant nothing short of\u003cbr\u003ea long term in the penitentiary, and still more probable death by lynching\u003cbr\u003eat the hands of a cowardly mob. He very bravely determined to protect his\u003cbr\u003elife as long as he had breath in his body and strength to draw a hair\u003cbr\u003etrigger on his would-be murderers. How well he was justified in that\u003cbr\u003ebelief is well shown by the newspaper accounts which were given of this\u003cbr\u003etransaction. Without a single line of evidence to justify the assertion,\u003cbr\u003ethe New Orleans daily papers at once declared that both Pierce and Charles\u003cbr\u003ewere desperadoes, that they were contemplating a burglary and that they\u003cbr\u003ebegan the assault upon the policemen. It is interesting to note how the\u003cbr\u003etwo leading papers of New Orleans, the _Picayune_ and the\u003cbr\u003e_Times-Democrat_, exert themselves to justify the policemen in the\u003cbr\u003eabsolutely unprovoked attack upon the two colored men. As these two papers\u003cbr\u003edid all in their power to give an excuse for the action of the policemen,\u003cbr\u003eit is interesting to note their versions. The _Times-Democrat_ of Tuesday\u003cbr\u003emorning, the twenty-fifth, says:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Two blacks, who are desperate men, and no doubt will be proven burglars,\u003cbr\u003e  made it interesting and dangerous for three bluecoats on Dryades street,\u003cbr\u003e  between Washington Avenue and Sixth Street, the Negroes using pistols\u003cbr\u003e  first and dropping Patrolman Mora. But the desperate darkies did not go\u003cbr\u003e  free, for the taller of the two, Robinson, is badly wounded and under\u003cbr\u003e  cover, while Leonard Pierce is in jail.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47147508564208,"sku":"2940013196759","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013196759_p0.jpg?v=1763578241","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013196759","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}