Clifford Glover was a 10-year-old

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

boy who was fatally shot by Thomas Shea, an on-duty, undercover policeman, on April 28, 1973. Glover's death, and Shea's later acquittal for a murder charge, led to riots in the South Jamaica section of

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York.

Shooting

At 5 a.m. on April 28, 1973, 10-year-old Clifford Glover was shot when he decided to join his stepfather for some work on a weekend and his stepfather was stopped by two

undercover officers A covert operation is a military operation intended to conceal the identity of (or allow plausible deniability by) the party that instigated the operation. Covert operations should not be confused with clandestine operations, which are perform ...

, Thomas Shea, and his partner Walter Scott. The two officers believed the boy and his stepfather had just committed a robbery. Glover and his stepfather were afraid of the two officers and ran from them, believing they themselves were about to be harmed. Shea testified that he drew fire on the boy who appeared to have a weapon. Glover was hit by at least two bullets. When Glover was hit, the officers claimed his father took the alleged weapon from him, which was never recovered. According to Scott the boy told him "Fuck you, you're not taking me".

Rioting

Immediately following the shooting, there were several days of riots in the South Jamaica neighborhood. At least twenty-four people, including fourteen policemen, were injured; in addition, twenty-five protesters were arrested. There were also smaller demonstrations accusing Shea of racism outside the courthouse during the trial. The day after Shea was acquitted, hundreds of people began a riot, turning over cars, breaking windows, and stealing cash registers; one protester was arrested in the aftermath and rioters injured two police officers.

Trial

Thomas Shea was put on trial for murder. The jury of eleven white people and one black person acquitted Shea. He was the first New York City police officer ever to be tried for murder while on duty. Shea was declared not guilty on June 12, 1974.

Cultural impact

The killing of Clifford Glover and subsequent acquittal of Thomas Shea feature prominently in "Power", a 1975 poem by Caribbean-American poet

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," wh ...

and "NYC Cops", a 2012 song by rapper

Heems Himanshu Kumar Suri (born July 6, 1985), better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapper from Queens in New York City. Best known for being part of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, Suri is also the founder of Greedhead Musi ...

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

reference the shooting in their 1973 song " Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)" on the album '' Goat's Head Soup''.

Thomas Hauser Thomas C. Hauser (born February 27, 1946) is an American author known for his biographies and novels. Biography Hauser graduated from Columbia College in 1967 and Columbia Law School in 1970. He made his debut as a writer in 1978 with ''The ...

writes about the shooting and the investigation in detail in ''The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea'', which was published by Seven Stories Press in June, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glover, Clifford 20th-century American trials African-American riots in the United States Criminal trials that ended in acquittal Deaths by firearm in Queens, New York Deaths by person in New York City 1970s in Queens Murder trials 1973 in New York City Riots and civil disorder in New York City African Americans shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct April 1973 events in the United States Incidents of violence against boys