Sworn to before me this 10th day of September, 1900.
GEO. P. HAMMOND, JR., Notary Public (164), N. Y. County.
----
_City and County of New York, ss._:
John Hains, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I reside at No. 341 West 36th Street. I am a laborer, and am at present
employed as a longshoreman at Pier 16, North River. On the evening of
August 15th, 1900, I went to bed as usual at 9:30 o'clock. About two
o'clock in the morning I was awakened by somebody beating me on the
back with a club. When I awoke I found six policemen in the room; they
had broken in the door. They asked me for the revolver with which they
said I had been shooting out of the window. I told them I did not have
a revolver. One of the officers said that he had seen me shoot out
of the window. Three officers then began to club me, while the other
three were searching the house. They found an old toy revolver, which
was broken and not loaded, and could not shoot if it had been loaded,
and said that that was the pistol I had used. I denied that, which was
the truth. They dragged me out of the house, and proceeded to take me
to the station house. I was only in my undershirt, being asleep at the
time they broke into the house, and begged them to allow me to put on
my trousers and my shoes. They only sneered at this, and one of the
officers said, "You'll be d----d lucky if you get there alive." Here
another of the officers pulled out a revolver and said, "Let's shoot
the d----d nigger," to which a third officer replied, "We can take the
black son of a b---- to the station house as he is." When I got to the
station house I was bleeding from my head and other parts of my body,
as a result of these clubbings. There were only two other persons in
our apartments that evening--William Seymour, from whom I rent my
apartments, and Walter Gregory. When they saw the officers running
into the house, acting as they did, they ran out of the house, leaving
me asleep. They did not shoot out of the window, and we never kept
any weapons in the house. Mrs. Lucy Jones, who lives next door to us,
saw the officers beat me. She was in the house during all this time,
and saw no firing from our windows. Her affidavit is hereto annexed.
When I arrived at the station house, after the entry had been made on
the blotter, I was placed in a cell. Before this I was struck by one
of the officers in the station house in front of the sergeant's desk,
and in his presence, without any interference on his part. After T was
placed in the cell somebody (I believe the police surgeon) bandaged my
head. The next morning the police loaned me a pair of old trousers, so
that I could be taken to the Police Court. Officer Ohm, one of the
officers who struck me and abused me, as aforesaid, made the charge
against me; he charged me with firing a pistol through the window. I
was brought before the magistrate and he asked me if this was so. I
told him it was not, and endeavored to explain matters to him, but he
would not listen to me and sent me to the Penitentiary for six months.
There were a great many similar cases before him that day, and he was
very impatient. I did not have a lawyer to represent me, and I was
given no opportunity to deny the false charges of the officer. While
I was being taken to the station house one of the officers said to
another officer who was clubbing me, "Club as hard as you can; this is
a d----d hard head." Another said, "I will teach you d----d niggers to
club white people. We will kill half of you." I have the sheet which
was on the bed on the night in question. It is full of blood stains. I
had six stitches put into my head by a surgeon at the building in which
the Magistrates' Court is located on 54th Street. This was before I
was taken to Blackwell's Island. After I had been there ten days I was
released. I do not know the reason why. Sentenced August 16th, released
August 25th, about eight A. M. The only one of the officers I
could recognize is Officer Ohm, who made the formal complaint in the
Magistrates' Court. I was almost beaten into insensibility that night,
and all of the officers were in uniform. Last summer I was employed for
the season as a butler by General O. O. Howard, at his summer home in
Burlington, Vermont, and I have a recommendation from him. I am not a
drinking man, and never was arrested before in my life.