A Blast From The Past
From May 8, 2006
And a special helmet tip to VSO for reminding me!!
_____________________
Happy Hard Hat Riot Day!
Construction Workers, Stock Exchange Suits, New York's Finest.... just two words; HELL YES!!

Hat Tip to Relapsed Catholic

"A lot of us are World War II vets and fathers and purple hearts. We're from a generation that believes the flag over everything." - Electrician Morty Grutman, quoted in the New York Post, May 9, 1970.

36 years ago today, communist led anti-war hippie scum (better known as The Great Unwashed) staged themselves at the George Washington statue on Wall Street and were waving Communist Viet Cong flags and burning, urinating and defecating on American flags, just like what had recently happened in Washington DC.

New York city construction workers (better known as The Hard Hats) had had enough. They proceeded to charge the hippie base camp and set up American flags, then pursued and thumped the living shit out of said Great Unwashed. What happened next, no one expected... the construction workers were unexpectedly joined by white collar office workers (better known as The Suits) from the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE literally emptied as Suits fought shoulder to shoulder along side the Hard Hats.

Mayor John Lindsay ordered that all flags on City buildings be lowered to half mast due to the Kent State shootings, which the construction workers of New York overwhelmingly opposed. They threatened to overwhelm City Hall unless the flag was raised to full mast, which it was... by the construction workers themselves.

In an other unexpected turn of events, 150 NYPD officers assigned to City Hall didn't interfere while the Hard Hats and Suits taught the Great Unwashed a thing or two about manners, decorum, and patriotism. As the American flag was raised to full staff over City Hall, the construction workers asked Police Officers remove their riot helmets in respect. They did.

The Hard Hat Riots were followed by a series of pro-war rallies in New York almost every day during May. These rallies culminated in a large Wednesday, May 20, 1970, rally. Over 100,000 hard hats, stock brokers and other workers peacefully marched through the streets of downtown New York City. The rally was organized by the local New York City construction workers union to show support for President Nixon and the Vietnam War.

Funny, schools never teach about this.