Talk:Fort Chaffee crisis

Fort Chaffee crisis: Additional Disturbance in 1981

Ft Chaffee Crisis, Additional Disturbance

The events associated with an additional Ft. Chaffee disturbance in 1981 have been confused and conflated with the earlier 1980 disturbance in at least one news account. KFSM-Channel 5 News, Fayetteville, produced and broadcast a documentary in August of 2024 entitled "Chaffee in Crisis" which erroneously attributes events to the wrong year.  The additional disturbance of 1981 is never mentioned in this documentary, and 1981 events were incorrectly attributed to 1980 in that same reporting. Note that KFSM has removed the documentary from its website and they are reportedly working to correct these errors (as of Spring, 2026).

The 1981 Ft. Chaffee disturbance occurred on April 18 and 19 (Easter Sunday weekend) of that year. A precipitating event for this disturbance was the April 18 shooting of a Cuban Refugee by a Federal Protective Service (FPS) officer. Note: This shooting did not take place in June 1980, as has been incorrectly reported.

Shortly after this shooting, a large crowd of refugees began to assault FPS officers with stones and other thrown objects. Soon, refugees and officers were engaged in hand-to-hand struggles, night sticks were employed by FPS officers and the situation escalated rapidly. For example, one FPS patrol vehicle was tipped over onto its roof by the crowd while officers were still inside the vehicle. All FPS officers then withdrew to the refugee compound perimeter gates, and military units arrived to help secure those gates.

There were several instances of refugee groups rushing the gates in attempts to break out of the fenced refugee compound area. FPS and military members successfully repulsed all of these efforts, often while being heavily stoned. As a result, gates and some sections of fencing were heavily damaged. However, the perimeter held and - unlike the 1980 disturbance when the compound had not yet been fenced - refugees were successfully restricted to the compound area throughout the 1981 event.

FPS officers and the military personnel made several attempts to re-enter the Refugee Compound during the afternoon of Saturday, April 18 in order to restore order and to respond to calls for assistance and rescue any civilian workers who may have remained in compound buildings. Despite meeting stiff resistance from large crowds of stone-throwing refugees, some areas of the compound were successfully cleared and secured with several civilians located and evacuated. Some of these evacuations were accomplished with the assistance of a number of refugees who were not engaged in any violence.

Military units used tear gas as part of these efforts, which proved to be somewhat effective. Still, a large part of the compound remained under control of unruly crowds until the compound quieted as Saturday evening fell, and as refugees returned to the barracks where they were housed.

On Sunday (April 19), which was Easter morning, a smaller crowd of refugees engaged in stone-throwing directed at officers and military members, with threats of additional violence. One crowd leader attempted to incite additional refugees to join the crowd, but the group remained much smaller than the day before. This crowd largely dissipated after negotiations with federal authorities AND after a group of other refugees acted to end the violence by confronting and engaging the disruptive crowd. (It should be again noted that - on both April 18 and 19 - a number of refugees who were not engaged in violent behavior provided assistance in protecting civilian personnel and with safely escorting them to safe areas).

The 1981 violence at Ft. Chaffee resulted in property damage and destruction to numerous Refugee Center buildings, and some looting of those buildings also took place. Although crowd members threatened to burn down several buildings, to include the FPS Operations Building, no buildings were burned during either day of this disturbance. Dozens of government vehicles - mostly those being operated by FPS - were extensively damaged (several were set afire) and a number were declared a total loss. Dozens of personal injuries (mostly bruises and contusions) were suffered by refugees, FPS Officers and military members. No deaths resulted from 1981 disturbances; the Cuban Refugee who had been shot did survive his injury.

~2026-* (talk) 13:31, 29 May 2026 (UTC) GREG1600 (talk) 15:21, 29 May 2026 (UTC)