| May Day Riots Of 1919 |
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As they marched to Cleveland's Public Square , one of the units was stopped on Superior Avenue by a group of Victory Loan Workers , who demanded that they lower their flags. The marchers refused to do so and immediately mass fighting broke out. Chaos quickly spread throughout the downtown area. Ruthenberg's party headquarters on Prospect Avenue were ransacked by a mob. Law was finally restored by mounted police, army trucks, and tanks. Casualties amounted to two people killed, forty injured, and 116 arrested (one of them Ruthenberg himself on a charge of "assault with intent to kill"). Local newspapers quickly pointed out that only eight of those arrested were born in the United States . In response to the riots, the city government immediately passed laws to restrict parades and the display of Red Flags . Overall, the occurrence is seen as the most violent of a series of similar disorders that took place throughout the U.S. as a result of the first Red Scare . SEE ALSO
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