The Overtown ghetto, inflamed by the swift acquittal of...

By ROBERT MCCLURE
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MIAMI -- The Overtown ghetto, inflamed by the swift acquittal of policeman Luis Alvarez, was sealed off again today when enraged blacks attacked white motorists with rocks and bottles.

Authorities had ordered the roadblocks removed and the streets reopened, proclaiming a return to 'business as usual' after 1,000 policemen rushed into the streets Thursday night to quell the outburst that greeted the verdict.

But within a few hours at least one motorist was slightly injured when rocks, bricks and bottles were hurled at passing cars. Police swiftly set up their roadblocks again, allowing only newsmen and residents of the area to drive on.

Sixteen people have been injured and more than 300 arrested since the violence began, police said.

Heavily armed 'response teams' secured the main thoroughfares of three slums, where hundreds of blacks screaming 'They let whitey go!' poured into the streets Thursday night when word came that an all-white jury had found Alvarez innocent of manslaughter in the killing of a young black man.

Sporadic violence and looting was reported on side streets throughout the night, but barricades were lifted in all ghetto areas at 7 a.m. EST.

'Everything is nice and quiet and under control,' said Allen Lowy, a spokesman for Metro-Dade County Police. 'We are remaining in a state of readiness, but right now things are quiet and we have lifted the blockades.'

Police Capt. Kevin Hickey said more than 300 people had been booked on disturbance-related charges ranging from loitering and looting. But Dade County Corrections Lt. N. Charron at the county jail said none was jailed.

'We gave them sandwiches and Kool-Aid,' he said, 'then the city of Miami took them home.'

Among the injured were two policemen cut by flying glass when gunfire shattered the windshield of thier patrol car, and two white men, one beaten and another hit by a thrown rock.

Police and fire department officials said at least nine people were treated for scratches from 'flying glass and such.' Two policeman were hit by pieces of glass early today and treated for a minor puncture wounds.

One of the jurors, Donald R. Moore, said it took less than 2 hours to find Alvarez innocent -- after eight weeks of testimony - because 'The state's case was mostly baloney.

'They didn't have a sufficient case to convict him,' Moore told the Miami News.

The News also reported that Alvarez went from the courthouse to the downtown office of one of his laywers to drink champagne toasts to their victory. 'For the first few days I'll relax,' the 24-year-old, Cuban-born officer said, 'then I'll come back down to reality and try to restructure my life.'

'Everything is calm and it will be business as usual today in Miami,' City Manager Howard Gary said at daybreak. 'The schools will be open and city offices will be open.'

The Overtown ghetto, which erupted in a three-day riot when Alvarez killed Nevell Johnson Jr. in a video game arcade there in Dec. 28, 1982, was sealed off to incoming traffic when the violence erupted Thursday night.

Parts of Coconut Grove were blockaded but only minor looting was reported in the Liberty City slum, where a 1980 riot, sparked by the acquittal of policemen accused of beating a black man to death, killed 18 people.

'What did they expect?' mused Bill Jameson, a black man standing on an Overtown street Thursday night. 'They had an all-white jury. They didn't want no blacks on the jury and they let that man go.'

'This city will be burning tomorrow.'

Rock and bottle throwing began even before the verdict was read at 9:20 p.m. EST and within minutes skirmishes were eruptingthroughout Overtown. Police moved swiftly into the emergency plan set up for such a verdict.

Dozens of prowl cars and police vans rolled slowly through the muggy streets of Overtown through the night, shotguns and rifles sticking out of open back doors.

Young blacks broke into a meat market and came running out, their arms filled with groceries. Three shots rang out when police arrived but apparently no one was hit.

The car of UPI reporter Jose Diaz-Balart was attacked on 20th Street by 'eight or nine kids hiding in the buildings,' he said. 'As you drive by they come up, throwing rock and bottles. They smashed our windshield. We turned a corner and there were about 50 or 60 people on the streets screaming and throwing rocks and bottles.'

UPI reporter Jeff Hardy saw five youths smash an empty car with clubs and bring up plastic bottles of gasoline to pour over it when 14 police cars screeched to a halt around them. Three of the youths were arrested.

'The trust in this community is torn,' said NAACP official John Due. But he called on 'the total community to be non-violent and to move to help change the system.'

Miami's black city manager, Howard Gary, said more than 1,000 officers from the city, county and the highway patrol were on the streets during the night and had 'restored some semblance of calm.'

Mayor Maurice Ferre said, 'I'm very sad. We were hoping to avoid all this.'

He said the violence was 'not as bad as '80 or '82, but it's not good.'

The unrest Thursday night, he said, was the result of racism, unemployment and 'a critical situation with the justice system. The anger is obviously very deep.'

Alvarez, 24, killed Johnson, 20, while he was arresting him for carrying a concealed weapon. The prosecution said he was 'a bad cop having a bad day' and tried to prove he killed Johnson accidentally through gross negligence. Alvarez insisted he shot Johnson in self-defense.

The Cuban-born officer told the jury he killed Johnson because the suspect was reaching for the 'Saturday night special' tucked in his waistband under his sweater.

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