[8] In the years leading up to 1988, the East Village — and Tompkins Square Park in particular — had become a gathering place and home for the wayward and contingents of the homeless and rowdy youth,[9] growing into a large tent city.

[10] Neighborhood residents, voicing their preferences through at least four community organizations, had differing perspectives on the evolving nature of the park, and what actions should or should not be taken.

On July 11 the police, under the direction of Captain Gerald McNamara of the 9th Precinct, confined homeless people to the park's southeast quadrant, and evicted all others.

[9] That night, police entered the park in response to alleged noise complaints, and by the end of the call several civilians and six officers were treated for injuries, and four men were arrested on charges of reckless endangerment and inciting to riot.

[12] Sarah Lewison, an eyewitness, said the protest was over rumors of a midnight curfew at the park and another witness, John McDermott, said the police provoked the melee.

"It's time to bring a little law and order back to the park and restore it to the legitimate members of the community," said Captain McNamara.

"[9] The city was on edge and in the midst of this, the park was turned into what Times reporter McFadden described as a bloody "war zone.

"[13] Around 11:30 p.m., 150 or 200 (police estimates were 700) protesters came through the St. Mark's Place entrance to the park, holding banners proclaiming "Gentrification is Class War".

[9] Despite NYPD protestations that their actions were measured, "The police panicked and were beating up bystanders who had done nothing wrong and were just observing," said poet Allen Ginsberg, a local resident and witness.

[13] Jeff Dean Kuipers, a reporter for Downtown Magazine, was clubbed after an officer told his African-American companion, Tisha Pryor, to "move along, you black nigger bitch.

[9] Another video made by freelance cameraman Paul Garrin shows officers swinging clubs at him and slamming him against a wall.

Photographer John McBride, taking still photos of the riot that were to be published in The Village Voice, was also struck by a policeman's nightstick in the same attack taped by Garrin.

Fish, a travel promoter out for an evening on the town, attempted to hail a taxi on Avenue A near Sixth Street when he was suddenly struck on the head.

A witness said the mob rammed a police barricade through the glass door of the Christodora House, a high-rise luxury building on Avenue B.

They overturned planters and tore a lamp out of the wall, threatened residents and staff with bodily harm, and screamed and chanted "Die Yuppie Scum".

[16] Video and images of "police officers striking demonstrators with nightsticks and kicking other apparently defenseless people while they were lying on the ground" were flashed continuously across the media.

New York Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward issued a scathing report laying the blame for the riot squarely on the precinct.

[16] A city review of the riot turned up numerous problems with the police department's actions that night, including a failure to contact either Commissioner Ward or Mayor Koch.

A temporary headquarters was set up right in the middle of the park, causing officers unfamiliar with the East Village—who rushed to the scene from throughout the city—to push their way through demonstrators to reach it.

"[18] Hundreds of officers were called out on a steamy Saturday for the worst violence the city had seen in years, yet Koch did not know about it until the next day and said he did not speak to Ward about it until Monday.

"[19] However, Koch's support eroded as evidence mounted that municipal disorganization and a lack of police leadership that night likely sparked the riots.

[9] Board 3 and the nonprofit social service organizations supported the goal of clearing Tompkins Square Park of the drug dealers, drunks, addicts and anti-social elements that considered it home.

[24] Instead, the police riot ripped open old wounds about brutality and the neighborhood's housing problem many longtime residents faced.

"[24] Thirty-year resident Barbara Shawm protested the East Village's dangerous reputation: "A 90-pound woman can easily fend off a down-and-outer or an addict.

"[24] The industrial anarchist Missing Foundation were active in the riots and their logo—an overturned martini glass and "1988 - 1933"—was found everywhere on the walls of the East Village.

The band's singer, Peter Missing, sang through a bullhorn and claimed industrial society was on the verge of collapse and that a police state was imminent.

The overturned glass signified the band's slogan "the party's over," and the dates an allusion to the year the Nazis took over the Weimar Republic.

On November 7, 2004, about 1,000 people gathered in Tompkins Square Park to attend a concert by the punk band Leftöver Crack.

[29] On August 6, 2006, a fight broke out in a mosh pit when Leftöver Crack again played the riot anniversary concert.