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Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
Caught up In the dreams of reVolu tion
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
Edtorials printed in The Michigan[
or the editors. T
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1970
News Phone: 764-0552
Doily express the individual opinions of staff writers
Daily express the individual opinions of staff. writers
his must be noted in all reprints.
NIGHT EDITOR: ROBERT KRAFTOWITZ
By RICK PERLOFF
GRAB YOUR COAT, you'll need it tonight. Get your gloves, find a
hat; take out the contacts -tear gas can be dangerous. All right,
it's 8:30. let's go.
All these people, are they headed for the Diag? They are. They're
laughing, chanting about Huey, Bobby: it's going to be fun tonight.
Now the speeches, repression in Chicago, building the revolution: Right
on.
An argument ensues up front. The people should vote on whether
to trash, it shouldn't be decided by an elite. Half shout yes, half cry
no. They're leaving now, the flag's being carried away, the leaders
have made the choice. You'd better go. Everyone else is. Can't miss"
any of the action.
In the streets, 10 abreast, shouting, arm in arm, "The NLF is go-
ing to win. Free the Chicago 8." They're our streets, we stopped cars,
yes us, what a power trip, just like getting stoned.
The right to protest
GE's immorality
RESIDirtT FLEMING'S decision to call
in police for '.ednesday's GE disrup-
tions w a s an unaerstandable response,
but it clearly failed to weigh the relative
wrongs of the lock-in with the graver ills
perpetrated by the General Electric Co.
Indeed, it must be admitted that clock-
ing a recruiter can be a wrong action: it
deprives other persons of, their rights to
pursue a job they choose. But it loses
some of its tinges of evil in comparison
with what must be considered the repres-
sion of General Electric.
For GE is responsible for huge amounts
of military supplies for the war in Viet-
nam - a situation which commits the
most serious sin of all: murder.
WEIGHED AGAINST these matters,
blocking a recruiter sounds less im-
moral. This is, however, not to say it loses
all its shades of immorality. It does not.
But the issue of locking in the recruiter
- an4 subsequently forcing a confronta-
tion with police - does raise the very
crucial and fundamental question of
The Chica
A blow to AfA
THE GREAT Chicago conspiracy trial
has finally ended, but the issues it
has raised may linger to haunt us for
many years to come. Ironically, this trial
which Atty. Gen. Mitchell's J u s t i c e
Dept. insisted on prosecuting in an at-
tempt to destroy the radical movement,
may have left the movement stronger
than ever, with the judicial system as the
chief casualty.
Civil libertarians had originally hoped
that the trial might prove a test for the
constitutionality of he "Rap Brown law",
under which he original eight defendants
were indicted. Passed by Southern Con-
gressmen over the objections of then-
Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark, the anti-riot
clause of the 1968 Civil Rights Act was
aimed at "outside agitators" such as H.
Rap Brown and Stokley Carmichael.
HAT MAKES the act especially odious
is that, due to the accepted legal de-
finition of "interstate commerce," a per-
son is not really required to be a genuine
"outside agitator" in order to qualify for
indictment and conviction under the law.
Rennie Davis, one of the five defendants
conyicted yesterday, is a native Chicagoan
-- whose involvement in interstate com-
merce to promote the Democratic C o n -
vention riots consisted of travelling to
and from a Mobilization meeting in Cleve-
land, writing letters and making 1 o n g-
distance telephone calls.
Unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely
that the appeals courts for the Chicago
case will ever rule on the constitutional-
ity of the law. Tradition requires that an
appellate court rule first on the technical
correctness of the trial itself, then on
its applicability to the specific law, and
only finally on the constitutionality of
the law in question. Thus, unless the ap-
peals courts are more political than we
are yet willing to believe, the convictions
should be overturned on the basis of one
+i
1
when one should break the law and under
what conditions? .
There clearly comes a time when a per-
son must weigh the consequences of his
acts with the consequences of not acting.,
And in this case not acting means wait-
ing out more deaths, more manipulation
and more oppression.
WE HAVE WAITED, waded through the
protests of the early 1960s, where we
picketed peacefully - morally cognizant
of the fact that by disrupting we were
depriving others of their rights.
But now it is' clear that waiting will
result in so much harm, so much death
that we would be morally guilty if we
don't try to prevent it.
IT IS TOO BAD Fleming does not realize
this, that he does not look past the
simplistic "equality" of wrongness a n d
rightness to see the true ills of General
Electric. For if he did he would not only
have barred the police from the building,
but would have barred GE from campus.
-RICK PERLOFF
go verdict:
ierdean jusice
or more Judge Julius Hoffman's prejudi-
cial actions during the trial.
And this will serve to feed an unfortun-
ate tendency among many of us to believe
that Judge Hoffman is only an abera-
tion in an otherwise fair and equitable
legal system. We believe he is an abera-
tion, but he is certainly not the only
one.
IN PROTESTING the contempt sentenc-
es Judge Hoffman had imposed on
the defendants and their lawyers, William
Kunstler suggested that there was room
in the law for a "self-defense" mechanism
for defendants. Just as killing could be
justified in the defense of one's own life,
Kunstler said, so defendants in a criminal
case should have some way - more im-
mediate than waiting in jail for an ap-
peal - to defend themselves in a court
where the judge is as biased as Hoffman
obviously was.
Such an alternative hasevident merit,
and the appeals courts which deal with
the contempt charges might (do well to)
look toward establishing such a prece-
dent. Particularly in courts like H o f f -
man's - where the refusal ever to grant
appeal bond means a definite jail sent-
ence of up to two years even if the con-
viction is eventually overturned - de-
fendants may be compelled to speak up
in order to, attempt to guarantee t h e m-
selves the semblance of a fair trial -
and they should be able to do so without
risking the kind of contempt sentences
that even the two defendants judged in-
nocent by the jury are still facing.
THE HANDLING by Judge Hoffman of
the Chicago conspiracy trial has cast
serious doubts upon the fairness and
equity of what many of us had consider-
ed to be the last bastion of decency in
government - the United States courts.
WE'RE ON FOREST NOW, there's the Ann Arbor Bank. Just a
stone's throw away, throw it, throw the stone. Right on, Others object.
Who cares for their objections? We're liberated. And what will the
crowd do? They approve. It's all part of the revolutionary aura. Peo-
ple throw stones, destroy something here, shatter a window there; it's
like music but just an overture - drums before the battle.
What are we fighting? The system, I suppose, yeah, we're battling
the system. Well, maybe not the system; the trial, the pigs, Fleming,
ourselves. Choose your cause, man choose your cause. The march is a
free for all, it doesn't matter what you protest, just as long as.you're
here. Got to protest, just got to protest.
Gotta be here, man, gotta be here. Just walk with us, chant,* be
one more body. Swell our numbers. The whole world is watching.
We're at the dorms now. "Join us, join us," someone's got music,
let's dance, in-the streets. What'd he say? "Everybody must get stoned."
Yeah, march and get stoned. Outtasight! Who organized the march?
What an idea! Look at them all back there, back for blocks. They're us,
they're us, we're doing it, making history.
WHY? TOLD YOU ONCE, to protest; the system is repressive. But
don't talk now, who cares anyway! We're on top of the world.
Hey, look at the cemetery fence over there.
"If we took the fence it'd be like a scene from the movie Sparta-
cus." Then take it - too freaking much. Busted some windows over
there, felt real good - can't believe I used to be a liberal.
There's South U, the front lines. We're nearing the enemy's terri-
tory. Man the battle stations. Watch for pigs. Get the bank! They hit
the stamp store. There goes Ulrich's. All part .of the same system -
who cares?
Really got the Bank this time. Keep on marching.
There's Andrea, she's here too, they're all here. What a party, what a
party. Makes you forget about repression and Chicago. Why did yo.u
come anyhow?
On Division now;'no more chanting, no more dancing. What hap-
pened?
Well, it's been over an hour. Things are getting dull. Walking block
after block. Where are we, 5th? Who cares? The walk will do yoi good.
But the County building's just up ahead; things will liven up then.
City Hall. The pigs are there, all lined in their sty. Get them with
bottles? What are they anyhow?
They're running, with dogs, all they do is oppress us - the people.
We should destroy them, the animals.
Fall back they're charging don't trip, someone did. Better get up,
did they beat him? Probably. "Don't run, walk." Remember Washing-
ton! Remember Chicago! We must walk, not run - that's the favorite
riot shout.
THEY'VE TAKEN THE STREET, the pigs, they beat us to it. What
can we do? Better discuss tactics. Back to the Diag and start all over
again.
No more gas. Wait till tomorrow. Run off leaflets. Spread the word.
The revolution is here. The verdict is in.
The leaflets say the verdict is in.
The verdict? Who cares.
r
-Daily-Jim Diehl
04
-Daily-Jay Cassidy
-Daiy-RanayEdmonas
-JENNY STILLER
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Reactions to Wednesday night's confrontation
I4
To the Editor:
WEDNESDAY EVENING about
10 p.m. I drove home a friend who
had dined with my family in my
home. Unfortunately my route
passed City Hall on Huron Street
where a protest demonstration
was being held.
My car was halted in this dense
foot traffic as several thousand
young people streamed past. Pre-
sently the demonstrators ran back
the other way in response to po-
lice "clearing them out".
I have never marched in a de-
monstration or carried a picket
sign and I don't consider myself a
radical, although I concede many
of my car. Since they were shout-
ing orders at me I rolled down
the window. One officer told me to
move by car, another to stop, and
a third to move.
One began ,to hit my car with
of the window and asked "what do
a rifle butt. I stuck my head out
you want me to do". One officer
with a shoulder patch "TAC unit"
or "TAC Squad" clubbed me in the
side of the head with his rifle butt.
I had done nothing to provoke
such action.
I can find fault with both sides
of last night's disruption.
The actions of the demonstrators
in breaking windows and destroy-
a/k-
automobiles need protection from
those who are supposed to be pro-
tectors of the public good.
I WILL BE going to City Hall
today to file a complaint with the
Police Department charging as-
sault and battery against my per-
son and wanton destruction
against my car.
I am frankly skeptical a b o u t
justice being done, i.e., my assail-
ant being punished or even appre-
hended. The policemen guilty of
assault and related crimes will
go free while any student com-
mitting the same will certainly be
tried and convicted in court.
Who will notnct us from the
"Engin student" who asked, "By
what authority does your group
deny me the right to make my
own moral decisions? If I want to
see a GE recruiter, shouldn't I be
free to do so? My right to indiv-
idual self-expression was violat-
ed!"
Jeers and "shut ups" were right
on cue, while some of the "radi-
cals" explained that if they did
not oppose GE recruiting while
GE was exploiting workers and
contributing t o militarization,
they would be as guilty as the
German people who acquiesed to
the Nazi takeover were.
TN TJ SECOND A CT the
MANY PEOPLE a r e probably
wondering who staged this little
skit and why. The answer: Those
who learned an important lesson
in trasher tactics during the Wed-
nesday night march. They s a w
trashers leading the march, break-
ing windows, and taunting police
with rocks and bottles until the
inevitable police attack, when
they suddenly disappeared a n d
were replaced as targets of the
police clubs by non-violent, con-
structive activists.
The latter will n o t be duped
again. They will no longer serve
as cannon fodder while the pro-
vacateurs skip merrily away. They
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