Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 3

Monday. Oct. 2, 1989 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 3 E3 mm Jil Wl WW I tips By Jack McGuire ran away on foot. Police nabbed all five suspected assailants and charged them with multiple counts of aggravated and simple assault, ethnic intimidation, possessing instruments of crime, terroristic threats, recklessly endangering others, disorderly conduct and conspiracy. They were identified as William Rizzo, 22, and his brother, Matthew Rizzo, 24, both of 11th Street near Johnston; John Race, 20, of 12th Street near Johnston; Joseph Maz-zola, 22, of Pine Street near 17th; and Anthony Imperata, 21, of Beulah Street near Johnston.

They finally broke away and fled, telling the story to a nearby policeman, Sgt. Robert McCarthy. While the officer was collecting information a6out the attack, his walkie-talkie crackled with the report of another fight on Front Street near Lombard, a block away. There, the same group of whites had set upon a rented limousine occupied by several whites from South Jersey, police said. They clobbered Scott Holder, 26, of Collingswood, on the head with a bottle, police said, and were fiercely punching the other passengers when police arrived.

The limo driver got out and Meanwhile, two passers-by, both black men, tried to break up the fight. The white men turned their attention to the good Samaritans, police said, and the whites hollered racial obscenities as they punched, kicked and stomped the black men to the pavement. By now, the car containing the black men who already had been punched sped off, leaving the whites beating on the two passers-by. Then along came a group of several Hispanic men and women. They, too, tried to break up the fight.

And they, too, were trounced by the whites, said police. They weren't choosy about their victims. They were, however, particular about who they insulted. Police say the whites hurled racial slurs only when fighting with black men. No one was hurt badly enough to be sent to a hospital.

According to police, the mayhem commenced at 1:15 a.m. Saturday, when the whites shouted racial slurs at several black men sitting inside a car stopped on South Street near Front. One of the whites reached into the car and punched the driver in the face, police said. Another white punched a back seat passenger. Daiy News Sta Writer In their rampage of Society Hill fistfights, the five white guys buffeted blacks.

They hammered Hispanics. They even whipped up on whites. They were equal opportunity thugs, say police, who fought anybody who got in their way regardless of color. Within a few minutes early Saturday, police said, the white men engaged in four brawls, stopping only when police caught them. They were charged with assorted crimes, including assault and ethnic intimidation.

mm wwjmmmjww w.nuwiiu. nil i4inu.il wi. lumjn. A 'luiwu miuaimmnimui JIWIM.JJIUUIHJ i Km i mummMmLmmmimuM, nwi iuL.nmuj.in iwkilL. i i 1 1 it 1 IS it I SAM PSORAS DAILY NEWS 'community leader Christine Washington beams with pride in front of restored brownstone houses in the 1700 block of Diamond Street Excessive Force Used in Arrests By Mark McDonald Daily News Staff Writer Logan Carter was sleeping soundly in his Overbrook rowhouse when the early morning quiet was shattered by screams and thumps.

Pulling on his pants, the 49-year-old insurance agent ran downstairs in time to see his son struggling with a stranger and his wife engaged in a pushing and shoving match with another. The strangers turned out to be plainclothes detectives from Lower Merion Township who were trying to arrest Carter's visiting daughter, Alison Washington, on a forgery charge. Carter calmed things down, and the suburban cops retreated from the home on 62nd Street near Haddington, leaving Carter and his family, including another daughter, shocked and angry. Then, minutes later, the Carters heard a loud thud on the door. He thought the detectives had come back, and recalled "telling Alison she was going to have to go with the officers.

I started to turn the doorknob when they came But this time, "they" were at least 16 Philadelphia police officers, responding to a call for assistance from the Lower Merion detectives. Carter's son was quickly handcuffed and removed. With a baton to his throat, Carter recalled, he watched helplessly as police officers beat his wife, Juanita, and daughter Pamela, 17, with batons and fists, spewed racial epithets (the Carters are black), and threatened to shoot his wife. The Carters filed a federal lawsuit contending they were beaten and humiliated by Philadelphia police in the Oct. 31, 1985, incident.

Their attorney, Donald Temple, a Washington, D.C., lawyer and North Philadelphia native, presented photographs of Juanita Carter with massive bruises on her leg and See LAWSUIT Page 21 estored Diamond St. Starts to SparEde Again By Linn Washington work is being done by the Advocate Community Development Corp. and the Philadelphia Housing Authority. The Diamond Street Historic District project also includes the construction of 17 new town-houses on the south side of the 1700 block, at a projected cost of $2 million, and the development of a new $160,000 sitting park at a vacant lot at 18th and Diamond. "We are excited because Diamond Street is a major thoroughfare and renovation there will have a major impact in the neighborhood," said Bilal Qayyum, chief executive officer of the city's North Philadelphia Revitalization Plan.

"This project provides both home ownership and rental opportunities," said Qayyum. "Our long-term plans call for rehabbing Diamond Street from Broad to the Fairmount Park." The $2.2 million renovation of seven brown-stone and five brick three-story rowhouses in the 1700 block recently won an Award of Merit for Urban Design Excellence from the Foundation for Architecture. The historically certified renovations are being conducted by the Advocate Community Development a community organization that has completed about 200 units of housing since its founding in 1968. Eight of the 12 renovations are now complete, and the houses are being sold for $55,000 each. "Those properties are very, very large, so we converted them to duplexes.

The owner will occupy one bi-level unit, and the owner must rent the second unit to a low-income family," said ACDC Director Christine Washington, the wife of the Rev. Paul Washington, retired pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Advocate at 18th and Diamond streets. "Projects like this give some hope and show there is pride in our community," said Christine Washington. "Hattie Williams has been trying to get something done in her block for so long." PHA is renovating 44 apartment units in 16 other historic buildings in the three blocks of Diamond Street for between $50,000 to $80,000 See DIAMOND Page 21 Daily News Staff Writer The sounds of power saws and hammers filling the air on Diamond Street between 17th and 18th is sweet music to the ears of Hattie Williams, who has lived there since 1944. For years, all Williams heard was the drumbeat of deterioration on the once-elegant North Philadelphia block.

But now she hears the rhythms of rejuvenation, arising from the rehabilitation, of more than a dozen dilapidated houses. "It's wonderful. I think it's the best thing to happen in years," Williams said. "Once I didn't think this block would come back because it had sunk so low, but I see it coming back now." Diamond Street from 15th to 18th was one of Philadelphia's grandest residential addresses at the turn of the century. The city's Office of Housing and Community Development is funding the multimillion-dollar rehabilitation of houses in the three blocks.

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