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Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
Day in court
3_ <.
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-05521
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers /
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1969
NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS
ANOTHER OPINION:
One dumb cop'
AS WEST POINT students study the bat-
tle of Gettysburg, future police re-
cruits should be required to study t h e
battle of Ann Arbor.
The, confrontations there the past few
nights are classic lessons in how not to
handle a youthful mob. And the name of
Douglas J. Harvey, sheriff of Washtenaw
County, should be inscribed as the chief
architect of mismanagement.
Nothing excuses the hippies, Yippies,
dropout toughs, young kids and the few
university students who have taken part
in the confrontations. They have clearly
and repeatedly violated the law, disobeyed
police orders, destroyed public and pri-
vate property, resisted arrest and, in some
cases, have incited others to riot.. They
deserve arrest and ,should be prosecuted
with no amnesty granted by the univer-
sity or the community.
But the whole "thing might never have
happened had it not been for the insis-
Reagan 'S
} regents,
P THE CHILDISH but frighteningly
vindicative manner that will win him
a place in history, Gov. Reagan bullied
h i s whims through a regents meeting
Friday and emerged victorious w i t h a
dictum for the immediate construction of
a soccer field on what a month ago was
"'People's Park."
Reagan's anger and hatred seemed so
misplaced coming only days after stu-
dents, police and street people marched
with pots of flowers and planted them in
the park. But Reagan felt that to leave'
the situation in its state of demi-resolve
was "a cop-out."
Chancellor Roger Heyns left the meet-
ing before the vote was taken, warning
the 'group: "This would be one of t h e
most serious mistakes we have ever
made." But in total disregard for the sch-
olar's advice, the board prostrated before
their leader-demagogue.
These men,have acted so irresponsibly
it seems silly to criticize them in sophisti-.
cated language. Their empire has become
so intolerant of the new culture, so in-
humane in the .repressing of new ideas,
so dreadful and dramatic in asserting its
own follies, that to think it can continue
ip this way much longer defies any ounce
of common sense.
AT THEY have done out of spite can
only backfire in their faces. For the
decision they made is not now as import-
ant as the way they made it, and any
irresponsibility they may have once
ascribed to the street people cannot pos-
sibly balance their own stupidity in this
act. And while they, as bureaucratic cow-
ards, build fences with the hands of oth-
ers and are hurt only as deeply as their
henchmen-police are felled, t h e street
people muster a courage and dedication
to their beliefs that cannot be surpassed
- for their beliefs are all they have left.
When the time comes again that people
die by the inhumanity of a bulldozer, re-
member that regardless of how absurd all
this inanity seems, it has been fired heav-
ily by the childish mind that somehow
rules California.
-JIM HECK'
tence of Sheriff Harvey not on law and
order but on showing one and all that his
battalions were invincible.
The people's park incident Monday
night was, in essence, a lark. As Ann Ar-
bor Police Chief Walter Krasney s a i d,
"We played ball with them." There was
no damage with the exception of o n e
window apparently broken accidentally.
TUESDAY NIGHT was, at the beginning,
more of the same. By around 9 p.m.,
with tough but gentle persuasion from
Chief Krasney's men and the state police,
it was to all intents and purposes over.
There were several hundred young peo-
ple on the streets, but no mob, no vio-
lence. It was mostly just people milling
around on a mild June night.
Then Sheriff Harvey decided to display
his, power. Over the next few hours ' he'
formed his legions into phalanxes, march-
ing up and down the streets, firing off
flares to land in trees and shooting smoke
and tear gas bombs.
At one p o i n t he even had his men
marching through their own t e a r gas
while the rabble watched from a safe dis-
tance.
Inevitably some were caught in run-
downs, and experienced reporters who
covered the 1967 Detroit riot and the Chi-
cage Democratic convention last summer
say almost as one that they had not seen
such bad police work. Instead of using
minimum force, some of the police used
far more. Taunted by obscenities, they
forgot they were supposed to be profes-
sionals.
AT ONE POINT, w h e n U-M /President
Robben Fleming asked Sheriff Harvey
to hold back, the sheriff told off the pres-
ident with an epithet which the sheriff
m o r e accurately deserved. Mr. Fleming
- has had far more experience, w i t h far
greater success, in handling these affairs
than has Harvey.s
Obviously, in an area cluttered w i t h
frat houses, and with the rabble being
driven back to the campus, students came
to watch. The crowd grew, a n d as the
county police battered victims the crowd
became more intolerant. Sheriff Harvey
had gotten just-what he seemed to want,
a full-scale confrontation.
Wednesday night w a s a repeat per-
formance, this time thankfully in mini-
ature. During a noon rally to drum up
support for a pitched battle, the biggest
hands went to r. Fleming and the stu-
dent leaders who called for cool. Sheriff
Harvey didn't hear. When one youth was
injured by a car Wednesday night, Har-
vey formed his phalanxes and again
stormed the barricades. And again when
it was all but over.
It is small wonder that the students
consider Sheriff Harvey Public Enemy
No. 1. A greater wonder is that Mr. Flem-
ing could limit his comments to saying
t h e sheriff "certainly doesn't listen to
anyone's dvice."
jF ANYONE HAS EARNED the, right to
offer advice it is Mr. Fleming. He came
to Ann Arbor with a good record from
Wisconsin, and while campuses were
erupting all around and the SDS was be-
ing organized at A n n Arbor itself, Mr.
Fleming kept his campus calm. Now his
best-laid plans have been undermined by
one dumb cop.
-Detroit Free Press
June 20, 1969
YESTERDAY in District Court, Linda J.
Storr beat The People.
The People in this case were assistant
prosecuting attorney Thomas Shea, deputy
police chief Harold Olson, a police ser-
geant and a sheriff's detective. The legal
designation of this group of law enforce-
ment officials as representatives of The
People caused me to resolve that I would
never again scoff any radical group that
claims to be The People.
Linda Storr was arrested last Tuesday
night by one of Sheriff Harvey's detectives
on the corner of Forest and South Univer-
sity. She was charged with the misde-
meanor of making a contention or a dis-
turbance.. Specifically, the prosecution
ineptly argued that Miss 'Starr was guilty
of creating a disturbance because she was
in the streets after Olson ordered the
crowd to disperse.
But defense attorney Peter Steinberger
of the Legal Aid Society convinced the
jury that Miss Storr's presence in the
streets did not constitute a disturbance. He
showed that the prosecution's focus on the
"obscenity" and stone-throwing of other
people in the crowd did not cast guilt upon
Miss Storr.
Steinberger also raised some important
questions as to the wisdom of Olson and
the police in turning out in such large
numbers and deliberately waiting for a
large crowd to assemble. He effectively
showed that the police came prepared for
the violence and that the people in the
crowd did not.
MY PERSONAL INTEREST in the trial
stems from the fact that I was asked
to testify for the defense. I did not know
the defendant or even see her being taken
into custody by the sheriff's detective.
Roughly speaking, I simply went at the
request of Steinberger to give my account
of what happened before the police charge.
This function was performed for the prose-
cution by Mr. Olson.
While on the stand, I testified that I
did not hear Olson give the crowd eight
or ten warnings to disperse, that I saw no
signs of political agitation in the crowd.
that the only people that I saw on South,
U prepared for violence were the police,
and' that the police struck me as being
noticeably tense before they swept down
South U.
Before Mr. Shea cross-examined me,
he requested and was granted a short re-
cess. At this time he secured some back
copies of The Daily and found some articles
that I had written.
When court reconvened, Shea brought
out the articles. It is ironic that he did
not have the front page editorial that I
co-signed about the .South U. incident, for
it would have been more relevant to his
case than the articles he found. Shea
asked me, in regard to an article I wrote
about the use of CS teargas on South U,
if I though that something was wrong
with using that kind of teargas during the
incidents I responded that personally I
felt that its use was obnoxious.
SHEA THEN pulled out a recent editorial
that I had written which asked for a
return to "law and order" in government.
He asked me point by point if I had
written specific ideas about such things
as General Hershey's refusal to follow
court instructions and FBI wiretapping of
the phone of Martin Luther King.
I gathered it was'an attempt to try to
portray me to the jury as a radical, pre-
sumably one whose testimony must be
discounted. It was rather comic that Shea
seized upon rather liberal-type statements
to assert my radicalness.
Before I left the stand, Shea asked me
about shaking my fist toward some people
in the courtroom during the recess. I re-
plied that I was wishing a group of ten-
ants good luck in their upcoming case
upstairs. This exchange between me and
the prosecutor was greeted with laughter,
in the courtroom.
In his summation, Shea asserted that
my appearance showed that I was not
"very friendly to the establishment." Mr.
Steinbeirger noted that perhaps it was not
so bad that I liked Martin Luther King
better than J. Edgar Hoover.
I doubt that my testimony was a major
factor in the jury's decision. Steinberger
presented a beautiful case, showing through
testimony that Miss Storr and her friends
did not go to South U that night to cause
any kind of disturbance.
* * *
Perhaps the trial of Linda Storr on a
misdemeanor is a relatively unimportant
one: There will be many other people who
will be tried on felony charges, based on
the more tenuous claim that what amounts
to presence in the streets constitutes "in-
citing to riot."
But at the same time, the acquittal of
Linda Storr offers us some sign of en-
couragement in the aftermath of the
South. U affair. If nothing else, it paints
out that the courts can provide justice
even if the police cannot.
Those who are really guilty of creating
a disturbance on South University last
week will not be brought to trial. These
are people like Harold Olson and Douglas
Harvey. But the important thing is not
that they will go unindicted but rather
that innocent people like Linda Storr will
not have to take the blame for their 'guilt.
4
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Righting the recordon the Diag' rally
To the Editor:
I WOULD LIKE to express my
serious disappointment and dis-
agreement with the ad signed by
five student leaders that appeared
in Saturday's paper. I am well-
acquainted with each of the sign-
ers and must say that I am sur-
prised at the lack of judgment
they exercised in sponsoring such
a spurious, ill-advised statement.
Their assertion that =The 'ef-
forts of President Fleming a r e
greatly appreciated by the ma-
jority of students" may indeed be
a correct reading of student senti-
ment, and it also implies that the
signers agree that what Flening
did was commendable.
It is difficult for me to under-
stand such feelings. Anything that
President Fleming did on Tuesday
night and Wednesday to aid stu-,
dents should have been expected
of him, and the steps that he did
take were minimal and in his own
interest.
I was with the group of students
who went to Fleming's house at
least an hour after police began
gassing students and storming on-'
to the campus. Fleming seemed
basically unconcerned and obliv-
ious to what was occurring and
said that there was nothing he
could do.
HE FINALLY agreed to call city
officials in order to set up a meet-
ing at which negotiations could
take place. It was only an hour or
so later,'after police lobbed two
gas grenades on his lawn t h a t
Fleming was persuaded to go out-
side. With considerable pressure
from students, the president talk-
ed with the squad of police mov-
ing up South University and got
them to retreat.
He didnegotiate with police sev-
eral times in the course of the ev-
ening, but it was mainly in the
form of seeking a truce and not in
lodging complaints about police
actions.
The one time he did object was
in a discussion with Harvey, in
which Fleming urged the sheriff
to use moderation, claiming that
he would publicly denounce Har-
vey if police charged again. Har-
vey rebuffed Fleming and the only
public response I have,seen from
the president was something to
the effect that "Sheriff Harvey
doesn't listen to people's advice."
Even one of the Detroit papers
commented that this was certain-
ly a lukewarm statement given
Harvey's behavior.
The efforts of Fleming on Wed-
nesday, most notably at the Diag
rally, were confined to trying to'
keep peace. I am unaware of any
steps he took to publicly protest
police over-kill, pursuit of stu-
dents onto campus, and to speak
to the issue of South University
itself.
While Fleming is correct in
maintaining that he has no legal
power in this area, he does have
immense power of influence. In
short, Fleming did only what-he
had to and could have done much
more by acting nore quickly and
vociferously.
AFTER TALKING with one of
the ad's sponsors, my suspicion
that they were misinformed con-
cerning the role of SGC officers
was confirmed. First of all, t h e
rally was not called by SGC of-
ficers. It was initiated by an ad
hoc committee, and Marty Mc-
Laughlin and Marc Van Der; Hout
happened to be on the committee.
McLaughlin voted against form-
ulating any demands but was in
the minority. Van Der Hout was
chairing the meeting, so could not
vote. Once the demands' were
formulated, Van Der Hout, who
also served as chairman of the
rally, was obligated to present the
demands to the students. McLau-
ghlin stated in an article in Sat-
urday's Daily (written before he
saw the ad) that "The people have
articulated no demand and to
spur them on to further struggle
is sheer egotism, the manipulation
of a spontaneous event for the po-
litical purposes of the radical mi-
nority."
The ad implies, by stating that
the vote on the demands was vot-
ed upon three times, thatthe lead-
ers were perverting the democratic"
process. In fact, the vote was only
held twice, and that was because
the voice vote did not supply a
clear indication of the students'
feelings.
The ad also charges that "the
leaders of t h e rally disregarded
the results of their own mechan-
ism - a democratic vote." I as-
sume that this refers to the re-
port in The Daily that a group of
students left the rally to march
on city hall and present the de-
mands.
Neither McLaughlin nor Van
Der Hout went to city hall and
they did not present the demands
to anyone other than students at
the rally. In fact, McLaughlin as-
sured students after the vote was
taken that their decision would be
followed.
I. THINK IT IS very unfortu-
nate that a group of student lead-
'ers would seek to impugn Student
',1
4
'p
".What if its on-target guidance system is that for off.. .?"
Government Council and the char-
acter of its officers on the basis
of such misinformation and dis-
tortion of facts. If these students
were sincere about,promoting stu-
dent interests, they would h a v e
dealt with what they viewed as a
problem in a m o r e intelligent
manner.
It is rather ironic that while the
sponsors of the ad fret about dem-
ocratic procedures, they act un-
democratically in paying for it.
The ad, which cost over $100.00,
was paid for largely by IFC and
Panhel on t h e authorization of
one officer from each group.,
I know that if I were a frater-
nity man, I would not want an or-
ganization purporting to repre-
sent me appropriating money for
such blantantly political reasons
without a vote of the appropriate
representative body.
-Bob Neff, '69
June 22
Daily judgment
To the Editor:
"------R- -
er to beat the city, much less the
county or state, in a fire fight.'
And we don't have the votes to
win at the polls.
We can't frighten the city into
giving in. The one kind of action
Americans have always known
how to deal with is violence. They
have broken violence with counter
violence ever since the days of the
vigilantes.
We can't terrorize them by vio-
lence. We can only make t h e m
more viciously violent. They de-
light in the simple adjudication of
the streets. Nothing to bore them,
no procedural niceties to waste
their anger. /
They see in the police under fire
themselves - transformed by the
uniform, gas-mask, a n d sword-'
length club, into the just Avenger
of the Old Testament - making
the law and punishing the trans-
gressors in the time it takes to
swing the club and send the child-
ren fleeing with tails of blood be-
tween their legs.
WE'VE WON, and we'll win,
nothing by violence, except that
acrid publicity which broadcasts
our failures nationwide. If we
want to win, if we want to beat
Harvey just once, if we want to
have anything to show f o r the
bloodshed and jail time, we have
to stop playing by Sheriff Har-
vey's rules and start playing by
our own.
We must give Harvey no chance
for glory. We must exhaust him,
his friends, his funds, a n d his
prestige in a dull war of attrition.
He should be given no cause to
use clubs or gas. He should have to
arrest anyone he gives an order
to or look like he's all talk. He
shouldn't be allowed to do justice
for the arrests, $200.00 in court
costs for each person they want
to try, and $10.00 a day for each
they decide to jail.
IF THE PEOPLE of the c it y
think South U is worth that price,
all well and good. But they should
have to face the issue directly.
They shouldn't be allowed to dis-
miss the issue as kids' games or
hide it\as a question of suppressing
violence.
They should have to assent to
the arrest of friendly kids holding
American flags and flowers, sing-
ing the "Star-Spangled Banner"
or."I Can't Get No Satisfaction,"
and trying politely (between ver-
ses) to reason with those misin-
formed enough to arrest them.
They should have to get used to
peaceful kids being dragged off
like bags of sand, We shouldn't
cooperate with those arresting us
because we're right and they're
wrong. We shouldn't fight back
because we're peace-loving, be-
lieve violence is even more inap-
propriate at home than it is ov-
erseas, and don't want to develop
any further a habit of violence in
ourselves or in our fellow citizens.
Such arrests will become boring
very quickly, freeing the newsmen
covering them to look into the is-
sue and watch the police for un-
provoked brutality. After a few
days, a few weeks, of dull and ex-
pensive arrests, the citizens of the
City and County will - finding
the use of force both unsuccessful
and uninteresting - be willing to
try negotiation and e v e n com-
promise, even though they will, by
then, know that they're negotiat-
ing from a position of weakness.
Should a similar issue come up
later, they, and even Douglas
4
A
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NW
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I WAS VERY disappointed to
see The' Daily report the color of
one person arrested in t he first
South University incident,has well
as the racial composition of the,
crowd. One would hardly expect
this from a paper with a reputa-
tion for journalistic leadership.
-Prof. Bernard A. Galler
Computer and Com-
munication Sciences
and Mathematics de-
partments
June 18
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To the Editor:
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