Publications and Research
Document Type
Book Chapter or Section
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
From the mid-1960s into the 1980s New York City experienced a wave of political violence and urban terrorism. Groups planted bombs, hijacked airliners, and engaged in assassination and attempted assassination to advance political, racial, or nationalist agendas. They included the Jewish Defense League, the Weathermen, the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army, FALN and other advocates of Puerto Rican independence, the United Freedom Front, Omega 7 and other anti-Castro Cubans, and Croatian nationalists. Juries often failed to convict these individuals, and others received light sentences. Judges scrutinized police actions for abuses of constitutional rights, and attorneys like William Kunstler used the trials to advance political ends.
Recommended Citation
Kroessler, Jeffrey A., "Bombing for Justice: Urban Terrorism in New York City from the 1960s through the 1980s." In Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Annual, Volume 6 (New series, volume 1), edited by Larry E. Sullivan, Staci Strobi, and Dana Greene, 63-112. Brooklyn: AMS Press, 2014.