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From War Battle to Street Battle in Just 2 Weeks

From War Battle to Street Battle in Just 2 Weeks image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
June
Year
1969
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

From War Battle
To Street Battle
In Just 2 Weeks

By Dennis Chase

(News Staff Writer)

Arrested while in a friend's
apartment, Vietnam veteran
Robert Galardi charged today
that he was manhandled by
police during the recent trouble
on S. University, and at least
one councilman threatens to
make an issue of it.

Galardi, 21, had been near
enemy gunfire at a naval supply
installation at Da Nang less
than two weeks ago and out of
the U. S. Navy Reserve for less
than 12 hours when police
dragged him from 616 Church
and kept him in jail Wednesday
night before releasing him yes-
terday.

"I'd rather be in jail than in
Vietnam," Galardi said after
his release, "but I think the
police put themselves on the
same level as the people who
call them 'pigs' when they treat
people the way they did and
call everyone 'hippies/ "

Galardi, who had been in
Vietnam for one year, said he
went to the apartment on

Church to see friends at about
11 p.m. and had scant knowl-
edge of the street disturbances.
< issues were," Galardi said. '"As
a matter of fact, I was asking
my friend what the trouble was
all about when I was arrested."

Galardi said he and his
friends were sitting on the
porch when they saw a youth of
high school age throw a rock at
police. "We tried to argue with
him, to tell him to stop throw-
ing the rocks, but he just swore
at us," Galardi said.

In minuses, police were
charging down Church and they
chased one youth onto the
porch and into the apartment
where Galardi and others were
frantically trying to get out of
the way, the ex-serviceman
claims.

He said police rushed through
the door and into a hallway.
Galardi said he tried to hide in
a corner, but was kicked in the
side as he warded off blows
from a rifle with his hands. He
said he asked: "What did I
do?" Police, he said, answered:

"r ith us."

ixniinig with his hands over
his head, the ex-serviceman
recounted, he was taken to the
Washtenaw County jail and
booked. Galardi said he made a
telephone call to a friend, who
in turn called a lawyer, and
was jailed. "I was in shock,"
he said. "I couldn't believe it."

Galardi approved of t h 'e
treatment received at the Coun-
ty Jail from Sheriff Douglas
Harvey after his arrest. "It
wasn't local police who arrest-
ed me," Galardi recalled. He
said Harvey personally inter-
viewed him the following morn-
ing and, upon advice from a
prosecuting attorney, released
the former navy man without
lodging any charges.

But many of the officers
involved in the arrest were abu-
sive he said, and charged that
many times he was cussed at
and poked in the stomach with
rifles. The girl who lives at the
apartment, he said, may take
the case to court.

Galardi, a former mayor-for-
a-day in Ann Arbor during
Youth Government Day in 1965,
said Third Ward Councilman
Nicholas Kazarmoff telephoned
him and offered to arrange an
appointment with Mayor Rob-
ert Harris. Police handled the
trouble badly, Galardi said, and
he will talk to city officials
about the practice of arresting
anyone police can grab when
charging a crowd. "I could tell
you much more," Galardi said,
"but my parents and I have to
live in this town."

Galardi supports the local
anti-war movement and the
petition to recall Sheriff Har-
vey,

Other local ne^vs on
3, 6, 21, 26; 27