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Image provided by: University at Buffalo
a Many high school youths take part in the melee. Over 200 colleges witness similar protests, though not all encountering violence. grassy hill off Main Street. Earlier in the day, a march down Main Street succeeded in reaching the draft induction building downtown. Banks along the route were protected by policemen. That evening, police clear Norton Onion by filling it with tear gas and firing birdshot into crowds of demonstrators, a tactic they later denied using. Over 25 are arrested and many are hospitalized for injuries. Chaos characterizes most of the evening. May 8 immense pressure from within and without. Acting President Regan declares that students will not suffer academic penalty if they chose to leave campus, bringing the University to a premature close. May. Buffalo Police, which had previously denied the use of any ammunition, now would only say an investigation is underway. Meanwhile, the Temporary Commission on Campus Disruptions held hearings, expelling two students, while suspending five. The Commission is dubbed by students the Ketter Kangaroo Kourt. Ketter was chosen mainly because the Trustees sought someone who would maintain peace on campus. SA officials and faculty, after a meeting with Ketter, deem him unacceptable in dealing with University problems. On the same day, construction finally begins t the Amherst campus sight. July 10 — Court ruling declares the War in Vietnam legal. Washington reveals that files and computer data have been Assembled by the FBI on protesters. At home, Colleges A i f» May 7 — Students confront police for the second day in a row as fire damages the ROTC headquarters and teenage fraternities’ members begin to act as vigilante groups, reportedly attacking several students. Tear gas and pepper gas are fired at students at locations all over campus, concentrated on the Summer, 1970 June 12 — FBI and State police gathered evidence pointing to the use of birdshot by Buffalo Police to quell the demonstrations last June 26 — The Board of Trustees,by a vote of 12-2, elects Robert L. Ketter President pLUB. Several student leaders say that Responding to \.. .As the police charged they also scattered and chased individuals. One policeman chased one person with his riot stick and continued to hit him as he crumbled on the ground. The crowd saw him there all alone and they all raced over shouting \Get him, gel him!\ The cop with fear in his eyes saw the people coming towards him. He brought his riot stick and produced a can of mace from his jacket. He sprayed the crowd. Several people were doused at point blank range. In the meantime the policeman was joined by another officer with a dog... A girl was being carried away by two other students, her eyes alntdst completely blinded by the chemical. The police once again launched into the crowd ...” -from The Spectrum “Extra” February 26, 1970 Norton Hall) fountain area, slugging, firing and arresting as they came. Injured students, many with bird shot nodules stuck in their skin, were treated in an emergency First Aid Center, which had become a temporary service the student union offered throughout the volatile semester. * In was during this last riot in May, after which one week of classes were cancelled, that students and faculty leaders began an investigation which at its outcome charged that the City Police squad fired bird shot - cannisters containing hundreds of skin sticking pellets - at the students. The American Civil Liberties Union filed charges with the Justice department. No conclusive evidence A subsequent government investigation, however, dropped the case on the grounds that there was a lack of “conclusive evidence.” In the Srping of 1970, Buffalo city police were called to the University campus three times. After a violent riot in which several demonstrators and police were injured in March, the Police set up a base in Clark Hall and occupied the campus for two weeks before the University’s President, Peter Regan, and the city of Buffalo - as well as the State government — decided that the police presence should be “phased out” (see timeline). Police and city government leaders at the time also denied that their officers used bird shot in their guns to quell the rioters. However, according to Walterich, “There were pellets in their guns. It’s a standard riot control technique. You fire into the streets and the pellets bounce and hit the demonstrators.” Keeping he peace Cops battled the students Carl Magavero, officer presently in charge of Community Services still claims that “We only had tear gas in the riot guns.” Yet, photos were taken shortly after the disturbance showing bird shot lodged in the skin of several protesters. The question of Police brutality is more The initial riot burned on campus on February 25, after students left a peaceful rally in Haas lounge supporting the demands of the black athletes for extensive reforms in recruiting and in the financial Three years on ‘not sac ground programs,” according to The Spectrum then. Afterwards, several hundred students marched on Clark Gym and then Hayes Hall to survey the Administration’s reaction. After a student allegedly whipped a rock through the President’s office window, the University Police’s tactical squad chased the students into then Norton Union where they, according to the next day’s The Spectrum, battled students for three hours joined by Buffalo city police. ■ complex than most believe, according to some poliemen who participated in “controlling” the students during the riots. According to one officer, “We had to make our decisions instantly. How Could we tell that if we clubbed a student a certain number of times that he would stay down?” “The policemen weren’t happy about being there,” explains Walterich, “because there was lots of legitimate sentiment against the Viet Nam War.” Walterich, who lived in the same house as the Sigma Pi Epsilon fraternity at the time, believes that many “basically level-headed students” were used by “dishonest people who wanted to use the power of the large group for their own radical purposes.” The “Weathermen” and the “Yippies” had some radical influence on campus, says Walterich, and they “caused the country a lot of grief.” This first incursion proved to be the most mild confrontation of those between students and the Police. This first clash also instilled indignance and outrage among the faculty-and most of whom felt that the Academic environment is off limits - apart from the domain of the “oppressive” City Riot Squad. How could we practice our academic and social freedom, they thought, when we are so stifled by police involvement on campus? “According to the law we had to do things,” one officer from precinct 3 downtown said recently. “The University property is not sacred ground like an ambassador’s residence in foreign countries. We have the duty to police the campus too.” ‘We’re both victims,” asserts Walterich Though the city police department engaged in lusty battle with the student body on several occasions, and occupied the campus for two weeks from an army-like base in the basement of Clark Hall, some officers say that they held no malice towards the student body. “We didn’t like being lined up against deent kids, but we had no choice in being there,” said one officer. “I couldn’t be influenced by my own sympathies.” “My student friends qould cat-call me when I was marching around campus,” admits Walterich. But when the day was over, he ‘continues, they would eat and talk together as friends. Other officers weren’t so understanding. “These students were living in a fantasy world. We showed them that they couldn’t get away with it. This is America,” explains an officer who said that he was hit by a rock during the May demonstration. No community allegience Liaison Officer for the third precinct, John Walterich, who took part in the police occupation of campus nine years ago, agrees. “The University is an integral part of the City. Since mqpy students are from out of town they may not feel allegiance with the community. But they spend money here. And what happens in the. University community also affects the Buffalo community.” After another rally in Haas Lounge the night of May 7, the most brutal and panicky battle exploded between students and the campus and city police. After the meeting, the students (composed of University and local high school groups) filed leaderiess down to the Red Barn on Main Street. According to Richard Rosche, an attorney who graduated from UB, when a black and white city police car came patrolling the area, it was screamed at and chased by the students, numbering about 2000? Shortly thereafter, the 400 City Police and the Erie County Sheriffs Squad merged in on the students and began firing tear gas cannisters and bird shot pellets. The combined force of the County Sheriff’s Department'and the city authorities then chased the students towards the Squire Hall (then Keeping the peace Even though several students were beaten and arrested by the city police department, and even though 45 faculty members were arrested for a peaceful sit-in demonstration in the then Administration, building, Hayes Hall, Walterich believes that the campus no longer bears hostility towards the Police. “1 think that the alienation students have with the police is more of a reflections of a general anti-establishment attitude,” he said. , “Under the law, we have a responsibility to keep • the peace,” he added. , by Rob irt Basil
