One thing is a constant; police get away with murder. Abraham Zabutinski, Harlem cop and serial killer.

‘Police Killer of Laurie Also Murderer of Boy’ by Cyril Briggs from the Daily Worker. Vol. 12 No. 75. March 28, 1935.

Zabutinsky Is Cop Who Shot Young Santos Fernandez in Cold Blood September 5–Officials Whitewash Both Acts

Patrolman Abraham Zabutinski, who murdered the Negro worker, Edward Laurie, early last Saturday morning at 136th Street and Lenox Avenue, is the same police killer who, on Sept. 5, last, committed the cold-blooded murder of Santos Fernandez, a Porto Rican school child, in the backyard of a chain store at 52 Lenox Avenue, Lower Harlem.

Zabutinski was at that time assigned to the West 123rd Street police station. His murder of little Santos Fernandez evoked such indignation among the Latin-American workers of Harlem that he was transferred from the station, after the police authorities had white- washed the shocking crime.

A tough guy and a ruthless killer, Patrolman Zabutinski was transferred to the West 135th Street station, in the heart of Negro Harlem, to join the other police thugs of Mayor LaGuardia in terrorizing the Negro people of Harlem.

Shot in Cold Blood

Little Santos Fernandez was shot down in cold blood by Patrolman Zabutinski, when the latter found him and another boy playing in the backyard of the chain store at 52 Lenox Avenue. Zabutinski accused the two children of trying to break into the store, and before the frightened boys could explain their presence in the yard, Zabutinski shot down Santos and turned his smoking gun on the other kid. The latter’s screams “Please don’t kill me,” attracted the attention of workers in nearby tenement buildings. Their shouted protests saved the intended second child-victim of LaGuardia’s police thug.

The body of the killer Zabutinski’s latest victim, the Negro worker, Laurie, lay yesterday in the funeral parlor of Erie C. Phillips, at 106 West 136th Street. Friends of the murdered worker have been collecting funds for his funeral, which will take place today at noon from Phillips’ Funeral Parlor. Laurie leaves an aged mother, who is living in Key West, Florida, and a wife and four children from whom he had been separated for some time.

Witnesses to be at Hearing.

The Mayor’s Committee to Investigate Social and Economic Conditions in Harlem, which has already admitted that the March 19 outbreak was caused by the widespread hunger and misery in Harlem, is holding an open hearing Saturday morning, 10 o’clock, in the 7th District Municipal Court, 447 West 151st Street. Unemployed Harlem workers who have been slugged and beaten up by police at the home relief bureaus, the eye-witnesses of the police shootings on March 19, of the police murder of Laurie, will attend this hearing and demand to be heard.

Wednesday night’s protest meeting at Madison Square Garden is called jointly by the American League Against War and Fascism and the American Civil Liberties Union. The protest action has received the endorsement of many organizations, including the Communist Party, the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, the International Labor Defense and a number of trade unions.

Investigation Demand Backed

The demand raised last Sunday by the Daily Worker, in a telegram to District Attorney Dodge, for an investigation of the police murder of Laurie and for the arrest of Patrolman Zabutinski, has also received the support of numerous organizations in Harlem and throughout the city. Protest resolutions have been sent to Mayor LaGuardia, District Attorney Dodge and the Mayor’s Committee to Investigate Social and Economic Conditions in Harlem. In a telegram to District Attorney Dodge, the New York District International Labor Defense demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of Zabutinski, and of the policemen who fired on Harlem workers on March 19. The organization demanded an investigation of the police department, to be conducted by agencies outside of the police.

The Unemployed Teachers Association wired Mayor LaGuardia a demand for a thorough investigation of school conditions in Harlem, pointing out that overcrowded schools, lack of playgrounds, etc. were contributory factors in the indignant outburst of the Negro people of Harlem on March 19. The Association, through Isadore Begun, chairman of its Executive Board, offered the testimony of Harlem teachers if assured by the Mayor of protection against reprisals. The telegram concluded: “You promised to clean up the Board of Education. Do so now. We offer full co-operation.”

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n075-NAT-mar-28-1935-DW-Q.pdf