What was going on in New York when it was completely cut off from the light (7 photos)

July 13, 1977, at about nine o'clock in the evening, two powerful lightning strikes seriously damaged power lines and substation, which were responsible for light throughout the city. What happened next was called Night of Fear - Night of fear. By the way, the famous New York blackout inspired filming films such as "The Judgment Night" and "Escape from New York".





The poor people of the Bronx and Harlem rushed to supermarkets and rich houses. Cafes, warehouses, houses and restaurants caught fire. About 200 thousand people looted that evening, and "for business" Went with the whole family.



No iron shutters or bars helped - they were simply rammed with cars and trucks that were stolen right here on the street. Jewelry, appliances, clothes, money from cash registers - they took out whatever was handy.

But the worst thing was not even mass robberies and riots, but mass rapes. The thugs attacked the lonely women whom darkness overtook on the street.





The city authorities immediately raised the entire police force. The prisons were hundreds of those arrested, hundreds of crippled and wounded in hospitals. But before the brutal crowd, the police were powerless, and the mayor banned the use of firearms, since in this situation shooting could only worsen the situation and start street fighting. The city announced emergency. Several hundred cops and firefighters were injured.

"We caught five robbers, and to replace them with the same the store immediately ran up to profit from the good another hundred. Do nothing It was simply impossible," recalled one of the officers.

There were 8,000 policemen, and more than a hundred thousand looters.



On Broadway, absolutely every store was robbed. Many businessmen were ruined because the losses were irreparable. Rumor about that you can rob a store and nothing will happen for it, scattered for give me a sec. After the robbery, the store was immediately set on fire, and firefighters they simply could not get to the building because of the crowds of marauders. Burned down more thousands of shops.



Only the national districts of New York could fight back: "little Italy" came out to defend their belongings, houses and women, with bats and fittings. Puerto Ricans from the Queens area went ahead and armed machete.



The light was restored the very next day, and the robbers immediately began to sell the loot in their own yards. They sold things at a very low price and made good money on their looting. The total damage suffered by the city amounted to more than 1.5 billion dollars.



Morning July 14, 1977.

What could be the reason for such massive lawlessness? Yes, New York seems to have always been in the status of the richest city in the world, but in 1977 he was in a serious crisis. Lack of work growing depression in people, it is natural that crime grew as yeast. The press, in turn, did not give reasons for calm, covering in detail the case of a serial maniac who hunted at that time for girls. The society was as excited as possible and a sudden blackout, seemed to have broken a thread.

"We have brought blacks to such a state that they perceive themselves not as people, but as predatory animals," he said in a statement. interview to the magazine "Time" the teacher of one of the schools in New York.

It is noteworthy that in 1965, when a similar situation, people took to the streets, helped each other and tried to save relatives and neighbors from crime. It only took 12 years to turn the inhabitants of the ghetto into brutal madmen.