Demonstrators Run Up North Vietnamese Flag, Cause $3,000 Damage

Demonstrators Run Up
North Vietnamese Flag,
Cause $3,000 Damage '
By Wllllam B. Treml
1:-i••••oPol!c-,.Rorpot~rl
Sheriff's Department command
officers were wondering
today what to do with a "captured"
North Vietnamese flag
while officials of two banks and
Univenity leaders contemplated
more than $3,000 in property
damage.
The flag and the damage
resulted from a rampage late
Saturday night and early yesterday
morning by several
hundred student dissidents,
fresh trom a "teach-in as:ainst
repression" meeting held at
Hill Auditorium.
There were no arrests.
The students marched from
the centnl campus area to the
County Building at E. Huron
and N. Main Sis. about 11:30
p.m. held a brief "raUy" there
and then hoisted the North
Vietnamese flag on the building's
flag pole. Undersheriff
Harold Owings Jr. and Sheriff's
Inspector Irving C. Hollia: head·
ed a force of 20 deputies waiting
inside the locked and darkened
County Building. But no
attempt was made by the
crowd to enter the building.
When the crowd left in an
impromptu march down S.
Main, the deputies pulled the
enemy flag down from the pole
and left the County Building.
The crowd made its way back
to the campus area. Some time
during their passage back to
the campus a 7 by 12 foot plate
glass window in the National
Bank and Trust Company's E.
William branch was broken
with a rock. The window was
valued at$600.
A half-dozen members of the
('rowd managed to enter the
first floor of the L'niversity'&
new Administr~Uon Building
near the Mle!Hgan Union but
left when they were unable to
reach upper floors, city police
said
Segments of the crowd flowed
to North Hall, the U-M's
Reserve O!ficer s Training
Corps headqu•rters on !\.
U n i ,. e r sIt y Ave. There the
group began firing rocks and
bricks at the building and
before the barrage ceased, 36
windows had been smashed.
"Let's go in!" one member of
the crowd shouted and the
won:ls were followed with quick
action. More than a score of
young demonstrators ran
through a front door of the
building after the door glass
was sm as bed. Inside they
flipped over trophy cases and
wrecked filing cabinets. They
fled after a brief foray through
rooms.
Shortly after, another group
sent a volley of rocks and
bricksagainstfivelargeplate
glass windows at the S. University
branch of the Ann Arbor
Bank. No attempt was made to
enter the branch bank, but
damage was estimated by
police atoverS2.000.
While no statement was
issued by police officials. the
11trategy on Saturday night
reportedly was to "lay back"
and not to attempt arrests
which could trigger a full-scale
police-demonstrator confrontation.
Sheriff Douglas J. Harvey
and Police Chief Walter E
Krasny were both out of town
when the d istu rh a nces
occurred.
Krasny said this morning an
investigation of the malicious
destruction incidents is continu
ing and that if identification of
the rock-throwers un he made
warrants will be uked o£ the
prosecutor's office. He said his
officers dkl not witne~;s the window-
breaking at the banta and
the ROTC building early yesterday.
The new incident at North
Hall is the second time in six
months that student dissidents
have "taken over" the building
and then fled before arresU
could be made. They held the
structure for more than three
hours last September and Oed
to ufety out rear exits as
University officials and police
'k
Glass Broken At U-M's North Hall
Ann Arbor Bank Branch Windows Smashed
were deciding whal to do.
Property damage also resulted
!rom that occupancy.
University Pre~ident Robben
W. Fleming said today his
aides will meet later today to
determine if identification of
the rock-throwers can be made.
Fleming said if such identification
is possible, the University
will prosecute.
The crowd which marched to
the County Building was part of
a larger group estimated at
over 2,000 which attended a
"teach-in against repression"
at Hill Auditorium Saturday
night. Jerr~· Rubin, founder of
the "YIPPIE" movement and
one of seven persons now in a
federal court in Chicago on conspiracy
charges, wa11 one of
the speakers at Hill.
Police said they "knew of no
reason" for the vandalism
against the two banks but one
rumor circulating dealt with
the long contention locally
between Ann Arbor landlords
and members of the Ann Arbor
Tenants Union. However Lynn
Hallen, press secretary of the
Union, said today that his
organization was not involved
in the vandalism.
"We have been urging people
to withdraw money from the
Ann Arbor Bank hut we wish to
make it clear we are not in any
way involved in the destruction
of property," Hallen said. "We
See! there are much more reasonable,
democratic and leta!
ways to apply pressure to the
bank and we decry such wanton
sot vandalis "