Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / May 12, 1970, edition 1 / Page 4
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Page Four THE DAILY TAB HEEL Tuesday. May 12. 1970 i I t i - - -s - - i r i r ,. i S O 'vvsLo - f I ' I.I - " I t - r - VD f it: ; ,: ' Black Panther on cross is symbolizing the persecution of black people by the U.S. government. He and other blacks joined the demonstration in Washington this weekend to bring the issue of black persecution into clearer focus. They said that the oppression of black people is one symptom of the same condition which led to the Kent State killings. (Staff photo by John Gellman) , Panther By Henry Hinkle " Staff Writer It was altogether a different mood that pervaded Saturday's rally and march in Washington. The optimistic, festival-like mood of Nov. 15 had given way to one of anxious anticipation. Of course there were the fun-seekers who turned from the crowded grounds of the Ellipse to swim in Washington's cool fountains and the Reflecting Pool, and then there were others who shied away from the area to lie under the shady trees of the Washington Monument grounds. But a certain restlessness was apparent in most of the protestors who sat or stood around the Ellipse and occasionally listened to the same rhetoric they had heard at all the other rallies. Many talked aniong themselves about the 3 p.m. rally at the Department of Labor that had been called by Students for a Democratic Society. Some pacifists among the protestors feared the ally would develop into the violent confrontation that everyone, including officials of Mobe, was expecting. When 3 p.m. came the SDS rally proved to be docile, except for the usual lip service to the Revolution, and the 2,000 people who had massed in front of the Labor Department on Constitution Ave. joined others to march up Constitution past the Justice Department. At one point the marchers were attacked by eight storm troopers of the American Nazi Party who tore down a flag bearing a peace symbol and called the marchers "communists." Two Washington policeman stationed nearby intervened between angry marchers and the storm troopers and finally arrested the latter on disorderly conduct charges. It was a victory for the protestors. They cheered the two policemen's actions and marched on. Although they were at that time marching on a section of a street where they had no permit, the police were not trying to halt their march. The march swung back toward the White House and at Vf y y 15th and H Street a sizable portion of the crowd turned left against the picas of Mobe parade marshaiisand walVed to the intersection of 16th and H. directly behind the White House. Mobe marshals again pleaded in vain for the crowd to turn north away from the residential mansion. A couple of minutes later about 25 people started rocking one of the buses that surrounded the White House. The bus was too heavy to even get up on two wheels. The crowd eventually moved on to 17th and Pennsylvania Ave. where it again was only a lew hundred yards from Richard Nixon's temporary "but still separated by a line of Washington police, th city's buses and National Guard troops behind the buses Again a few sat down in the intersection and others waited. Some threw a few bottles and beer cans and almost all of them chanted 4One, two, three, four-we don't want your war" and "free Bobby Scale," an obvious reference to the imprisoned Black Panther leader who is awaiting trial in Connecticut on a murder charge. It was at this point the police displayed a restraint which was to differ Saturday night when they d a smaller crowd of people to deal with. Capt. M.J. Callilone, who was in charge of police stationed at the intersection, said "The group can stay here as long as it's orderly." After about 15 minutes of chanting and waiting, a few people at the back of the crowd began throwing more bottles and cans. None of the police were hit but a few of the obstacles fell short of their targets and hit protestors. A cry of "Stop!" was put up by other protestors and eventually the crowd started to break up. A faint whiff of tear gas remained in the air from another almost-confroniation which had taken place earlier, but which, like this one, had failed to come off. Moderate students drifted off to begin their homeward journey, still unsure about what had and had not taken place. The more radical students, some of whom had come prepared with helmets and gas masks, waited around on street corners waiting for night to come. v V V'7 V QWo Seeme Of Only Major VioSeimee By Mike Parnell ' ' Staff Writer WASHINGTON, D.C.-Cannisters of tear gas whistled through the warm night air of the nation's capital. Several thousand young people began to flee advancing platoons of helmeted policemen. Fires in the street lit up the area like the noonday sun. Just hours before, administration officials in Richard Nixon's government had commended the crowd of demonstrators, protesting the Vietnam war, for their restraint and the lack of violence. Shortly after midnight, on the campus of George Washington University, the quiet of night was shattered. Students and police were to battle throughout the night. The peaceful protest was over. More than 100,000 persons had come to tell President Nixon they didn't agree with his recent decision to send American troops into Cambodia. The violence last Monday which killed four students at Kent r State University had caused tension to rise. There were scattered eruptions during the late afternoon, but they didn't amount to much. A small crowd tried to turn over a bus which was blocking the entrance to Lafayette Park, a block from the White House. The police accidentally gassed the crowd and, although people returned to see whether or not more action would ensue, the scene remained quiet. There was also some gas at the Justice Department after several protestors threw rocks through windows, but once again the crowd was quickly dispersed. Those who came to Washington to foment violence were not satified as the night began. The students at GWU and the protestors spending the night there settled down for concerts and talk. As the crowd began to grow, so did the tension. The alcohol and dope present began to relax the crowd but at the same time, people became a little braver than they normally might be. After the concert, a small band of youths went into the GWU library and began .to throw the furniture out into the street. A barricade was constructed and the police were called. As a busload of CDU's (Civil Disturbance Units) drove up, the crowd became unruly. It is unclear what happened next but a Volkswagen was set afire and tear gas was spewed unto the GWU student union, scattering protesters. Students claim the police set the Volkswagen afire but police say it was a band of demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails. The tear gas sent the crowd down the street to an intersection, where a wall of people was formed to halt the police. -v. v V r zv3 J Vy . ----- - - Ginsbe Allen Ginsberg "Om's" while a Kent State student reads a statement about the killings at Kent State. Both happened a block from the White House where thousands of students from all over the country protested US involvement in Cambodia. (Staff photo by John Gellman) ' Allen Ginsberg, renowned poet-leader of the "hippie movement," stood with a group of people chanting "Om" his poem which supposedly tranquilizes people. However, the mob was not quieted as rioters stoned the CDU's with rocks and bottles. A Hertz rent-a-truck pulled down the street and tried to make it through the crowd. The driver fled and a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the back of the van. As more explosives were hurled at tthe truck, the sky became bright with the light of the two fires. At this point, the police moved in. Lobbing tear gas (actually, pepper gas which burns the eyes, nose and throat and clings to the skin, causing intense pain), the police tried to disperse the crowd. A brisk wind blowing with the demonstrators prevented the gas from reaching full effectiveness, however. ' When the mob realized this, it began to surge forward. The intensity of the demonstration at this point was high, as bottles and rocks smashed through windows of homes and cars. The CDU's then used a rocket launcher to hurl the gas at the crowd. This caused the cannisters of gas to whistle through the air exploding among, around and behind the crowd. The crowd panicked and people began running in every direction. Some sought the safety of classroom buildings, while others raced into the dorms to escape the sickening gas. Shortly thereafter, the police barricaded the campus and called a curfew for the night. But small bands of youths still roamed the area throwing bricks through windows of buildings and smashing car windows with iron rods. The gas was used several times to disperse crowds and control the riot. Fire engines roared through the area all night attempting to put out the many fires started. Medical assistants from up and down the East Coast had gathered in the GWU medical building and offered aid to striken students throughout the night. There were no serious injuries but many of the students suffered nausea and burns from the gas. The UNC strike Steering Committee said seven students from Chapel Hill were among the 125 arrested during the riot. Most were released on S 10 bond and ordered to appear in court in the capital this Friday. Sunday was hot and humid and the stench of the eas still hung in the air. The burned out vehicles had been removed from the center of the street but remained on the sidewalk as a reminder of the violence the night before. Nuns and small children wandered through the area picking up glass and rocks and depositing debris in bags to be hauled away. A few students wandered through the streets looking at the mess but most packed up early and left. The lark was over. I ii ii. ,-... . - . I U V ' - , mtV j' t I ' ' ) !' J .- 1 V-'l- ' i ' " : '.. f s -. A policeman stands behind the buses which were lined iose-to-nose around Lafayette Square. He was a member of the police force placed between demonstrators and the White House whose job it was to make sure demonstrators never got too near the President. The gas mask came in handy when tear gas was used to keep demonstrators from rocking the buses the police used as a barricade. y v V V
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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May 12, 1970, edition 1
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