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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

should you care that this black guy is accosting this white woman? Would you feel the same way if it were a black woman?” I don't know. I suspect not. I wouldn't walk away, I don't think -- I hope I wouldn't. But I wouldn't think the situation would be so dangerous, so to speak, if it were a black-black situation. But I hope I would come to her defense as I would to the defense of that white girl. I hope so.

It's that kind of situation which bothers the hell out of me and keeps people out of the park.

Now those ten guys don't live in the area. There's no reason to be collecting there on Thanksgiving Day, so to speak, right? They come from, let's say, Harlem or wherever the black community normally is. Supposing ten tough white guys went up to Mount Morris Park, which is in Harlem, and stood there and gave the impression of lethalness that these black guys gave, but it's vis-a-vis a black community. Wouldn't they get upset? They'd say, “What are ten white guys, who don't live in this community, doing in Mount Morris Park today? And why is one of them accosting that nice black girl and making her walk very slowly as he walks backwards in front of her?” Would the community tolerate it? I don't think so.

Well, anyway, that's the nature of Washington Square Park today. And as I told you, as you walk through the park, people offer you heroin, marijuana. And when I spoke with Captain Fortune on Christmas Eve (he had invited me over; I was over there at 4 o'clock) he said that they have made 35 arrests since my





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