Violence Drops Off As Police Arrest 21

Violence Drops On
As Police Arrest 21

By William B. Treml

(News Police Reporter)

Twenty-one more persons
were arrested in the S. Univer-
sity Ave. area early this morn-
ing after an evening of heavy
traffic and watchful waiting
had passed without incident.

Only two persons were report-
ed injured.

Among those arrested and
booked on a charge of inciting
to riot was Dr. Edward C.
Pierce, 39-y ear-old Ann Arbor
phvsic'ian, former Democratic
c< n and unsuccessful
en. -^-L.iie for mayor. The head
of one police unit said Dr»
Pierce attempted to cross a line
of officers.

News reports throughout yes-
terday recounting the violent
outbreak along S. University
Ave. Tuesday night and early
Wednesday morning attracted
several thousand si last
night. However, if ^'cta-
tors who trooped back and
forth along the three-block area
on S. University or drove slow-
ly along in cars were there to
view a street battle, they left
disappointed.

A rock-and-roll concert, fol-
lowed by a talk by Ann Arbor
Mayor Robert J. Harris on a
plaza in front of the University
administration building, drew
many from the battle area of
Tuesday night.

Mayor Harris told the crowd
he is planning to appoint a
special City Council committee
to study whether or not any
change is desirable in the stat-
us of S. University or any other
campus-area street as demand-
ed. (Story on Page 31.)

At the same time, the more
than 300 riot-equipped police
officers from six area agencies
who lined the curbs of S.
University from Forest Ave. to
E. University Ave. apparently
acted as a deterrent to street
violence.

The evening's calm, almost
holiday atmosphere was in
sharp contrast to the fierce
police-demonstrator confronta-
tion of Tuesday night.

While city officials met yes-
terday afternoon with Universi-
ty leaders including U-M Presi-
dent Robben Fleming to discuss
the situation, Deputy Police
Harold E. Olson was conferring
with State Police Capt. Walter
Stevens and Sheriff Douglas J.
Harvey on possible trouble.

By 8 p.m. yesterday, most of
the police units participating in
the mobilization were posi-
tioned along S. University Ave.
They stood shoulder-to-shoulder,
night sticks or rifles in hand,
for the next three hours watch-
ing while thousands of pedestri-
ans elbowed their way along
sidewalks and hundreds of
motorists driving along E.
University Ave. peered out of
car windows.

As the evening wore on and
no incidents occurred, the
tenseness which had gripped
the area earlier seemed to dis-
sipate.

By 10:30 p.m., State. Police
troopers along the sidewalks of
S. University Ave. were holding
good-natured discussions with
pedestrians and as 11 p.m.
approached ths thinned.

A police h had circled the arc ^ ^
the evening, withdnv i ; y
Chief Olson, after a conference
with Undersheriff Harold J.
Owings Jr., commander of
sheriff's forces at the scene,
and State Police Capt. Stevens,
decided to order police from
the scene.

Ann Arbor police officers left
first and were followed by
Washtenaw sheriff's deputies,
Oakland and Monroe County
officers, Milan riot police and
finally State Police.

All the officers, except a
small security force, withdrew
to a nearby staging area and
waited.

But moments after the last
police units had left the scene,

Deputy Chief Olson, in his com-
mand car cruising the perime-
ter, received reports that a
crowd estimated at 200 had
jammed into S. University Ave.
near Church St. He issued
orders for all units to remain
out of the area while University
faculty members and local cler-
ics attempted to persuade the
crowd to disperse.

The waiting, interspersed by
periodic report" nt " "welling
crowd, < ^her 45
minutes niiuin^ht, an
Ann Art i< mason stum-
bled awa.y Alum the crowd on S.
University, bleeding from
wounds. He told Chief Olson
and Capt. Stevens, waiting
nearby, he had been beaten by
an unknown assailant in the
crowd.

Moments later, an ambulance
was sent racing UK- scene
after one of the in the
street had been struck and
knocked down by a hit-and-run
motorist.

A continuing stream o f
observer reports of fires being

ignited and a rapidly-growing
crowd brought a decision by the
deputy chief at 12:15 a.m. to
move all forces back into the
area.

The Ann Arbor Fire Depart-
ment was niertcd as the riot
police bo )iises at the
staging area ana moved toward
S. University Ave.

With the Ann Arbor Police
Department and state troopers
moving down to S. University
Ave. from the west and more
than 100 sheriff's deputies
sweeping in from the east, the
<-f 7 'as caught in a pincer

3. , ^ ... ilfc.

The deputy chief, using a bull
horn, warned spectators along
the sidewalk to disperse or be
arrested and deputies at the
? f arrest 12 persons.

ireets along S. Univer-
sity Ave. were cleared of spec-
tators by police and the Church
St. ; 'ion where the
crowd gathered was sur-
rounded by officers.

I n sweeps through side
streets, an additional nine per-
sons were arrested on the incit-
ing to riot charge. However, it
is expected most persons
charged with that felony, which
can bring 10 years in prison,
will have the count reduced to
creating a contention, the disor-
derly statute under which most
of Tuesday night's arrests were
made.

One man was arrested and
later released after he fired a
hand gun in the air. He told
police a crowd of youths were
chasing him and he fired the
shf arning. Officers said
he ; sier be charged with
careless use of firearms.

Police Chief Walter E. Kras-
ny says the incidents both Tues-
day night and last night have
resulted because of a belief by
groups of young persons that
they have the right to "liber-
ate" S. University Ave.

"These are not all University
students, in fact the majority
of them are not students,"
Chief Krasny says. "But
they're hangers-on, far left
groups who have got the idea
that the only way they can

express themselves is to squat
on a public street, drink wine
and cause a disturbance. The
street? are for everyone to use,
not for any special group. We
intend to keep the streets
open."

an Gov. William Mil-
ls ;s morning agreed with
Chief Krasny in a statement in
which the state's chief execu-
tive said his reports indicate
few U-M students are involved.

"Tb ^ clear indication
that t for a Democratic
Society and other activist
groups are behind the develop-
ing of confrontations," the
governor said.

MOP r' "^t. night of
mass .. -, 1.1 university
Ave. but police remained out of
the area. The crowd left at 1
a.m. Tuesday but returned that
night for the police confronta-
tion which brought violence and
48 arrests.

All police units which par-
ticipated in the Tuesday and
Wednesday night arrests
remained on a standby basis
today.