Home / Full timeline / Chicago detective James A. Alfonso, a member of the city police’s gang intelligence unit, was shot while on the city’s south side in an unmarked police car. Some Chicago Blacks contended that the recent wave of violence grew out of a widespread pattern of police brutality.
Chicago detective James A. Alfonso, a member of the city police’s gang intelligence unit, was shot while on the city’s south side in an unmarked police car. Some Chicago Blacks contended that the recent wave of violence grew out of a widespread pattern of police brutality.
1970 (Aug 13)
Chicago detective James A. Alfonso, a member of the city police's gang intelligence unit, was shot while on the city's south side in an unmarked police car. The next day, Chicago police said that they had arrested four members of the "Main 21," the ruling body of the Black P. Stone Nation, a confederation of sixty Black street gangs based on the old Blackstone Rangers. One of those held, twenty-three-year-old Charles E. Bey, identified himself as vice president of the "nation" and a member of the "Main 21." Some Chicago Blacks contended that the recent wave of violence grew out of a widespread pattern of police brutality, including incidents in which police had slain Blacks, most notably, members of the Black Panther Party. Thirty-year-old Alfonso was the fourth Chicago police officer slain in the city's Black neighborhoods since mid-June; he died from his wounds four days later.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.