Brennan organized a rally of construction workers to show support for Nixon 's Vietnam policies and American soldiers fighting in Vietnam . At 7:30 a.m. on May 8 , several hundred anti-war protesters ( most of them high school and college students ) began holding a memorial at Broad and Wall Streets for the four dead students at Kent State . By late morning , the protesters — now numbering more than a thousand — were demanding an end to the war in Vietnam and Cambodia , the release of " political prisoners " in the U.S. , and an end to military-related research on all university campuses . At five minutes to noon , about 200 construction workers converged on the student rally at Federal Hall National Memorial from four directions . At first , the construction workers only pushed but did not break the thin line of police . After just two minutes , however , the workers broke through the police line and began chasing students through the streets . The workers selected those with the longest hair and swatted them with their hard hats . Attorneys , bankers and investment analysts from nearby Wall Street investment firms tried to protect many of the students but were themselves attacked . Onlookers reported that the police stood by and did nothing . A postal worker rushed onto the roof of City Hall and raised the American flag to full mast . When city workers lowered the flag to half-mast , the construction workers stormed City Hall , overwhelming the police . Deputy Mayor Richard Aurelio , fearing the building would be overrun by the mob , ordered city workers to raise the flag back to full mast . The construction workers then ripped the Red Cross and Episcopal Church flags down from a flag pole at Trinity Church . They then stormed two buildings at nearby Pace University , breaking windows with clubs and crowbars and beating students . More than 70 people were injured , including four policemen . Six people were arrested . President Nixon held an emergency press conference to defuse the situation before tens of thousands of students arrived in Washington , D.C. , for a protest rally on May 9 . It is generally believed that the action by construction workers was not premeditated . However , many organizations claim that Peter Brennan provoked the construction workers into action . The disturbances on May 8 became known as the Hard Hat Riot
Hard Hat Riot
Hard Hat Riot
Peter J. Brennan