Protesters Wreck U Building

■ A big cleanup task faced University ofI ficials today following yesterday's antiI Vietnam war rally and demonstration I which resulted in $3,000 to $5,000 worth I of damage to the University's ROTC I Building (North Hall). Following the vandalism of the ROTC I Building by an estimated 250 young peo I pie, about 500 demonstrators blocked I traffic near the inttersection of WashteI naw Ave. and US-23 two separate times I for about five minutes apiece before beI ing cleared out by law enforcement offiI cers. One policeman was injured during the I demonstration, though n o t seriously. I There were reports of several students I being injured by pólice, none badly I enough to require hospital treatment. No arrests were made. The Ann Arbor demonstration was one I of many such protests called on camI puses around the country Friday to proI test the intensified U.S. bombing in I North Vietnam. U-M President Robben W. Fleming I called the "trashing" of the ROTC BuildI ing "senseless and destructive," though I he stressed that only one per cent of the I student body participated in the destrucI tion. "By definition, 99 per cent refused to I be linked to destructive acts no matter I how strongly they might feel about the I war," he said. Fleming added that it is I "too early to teil whether any identificaI tions were established which will make I prosecution possible." Ann Arbor Mayor Robert J. Harris I also was strongly critical of yesterday's I violent demonstration. "The trashing of I the ROTC Building and the windowI smashing at the Recruiting Office disI credit the cause of peace by identifying I anti-bombing protesters in the public 's I mind with simple hooliganism," Harris I said today. "I urge, in the strongest posI sible terms, that all Ann Arborites who I would protest the bombings do so in a I way that totally disassociates them from I the tiny minority in the peace movement I who approve illegal violence as a tactic." Washtenaw County Sheriff Douglas J. I Harvey lashed out at the demonstration, I calling it "a slap at every citizen who I r ■ students harangued their fellows to "let's keep it non-violent" and "trashing doesn't prove anything." Any marcher who suggested some type of militant action immediately met with angry protests from those standing around him. The suggestion that the ROTC building be "trashed" was met with a chorus of boos but no one made any active attempted to stop the demonstrators once they had entered the building. The march as a whole appeared to be poorly organized and to lack any clear leadership or purpose. It was scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on the Diag with a number of speakers, but the demonstrators left the campus at about 1:15 after no formal speeches to head down State St. to Huron and the offices of KMS Industries in the City Center Building, Fifth and Huron. The local firm has been the target of much recent anti-war activity. While most of the marchers were walking to the building chanting "Stop the War, "End the bombing," and "Two, four, six, eight - organize and smash the state," a group of about 100 marchers lowered the American flags in front of the Campus Inn on Huron and raised them upside down - the international distress signal. i Two firm employés left the building to try and stop the demonstrators and succeeded in reversing one of the flags. One of the employés almost came to blows with s e v e r a 1 demonstrators, one of whom called him a pig. There were no further incidents along the march route which took the protestors down Main St., east on Washington and back to the U-M campus and the ROTC building. A large crowd gathered outside the ROTC building for about 15 minutes before the "trashing" of the building began and listened to several speakers, among them Ann Arbor's newly-elected city Councilwoman Nancy Wechsler of the Second Ward. Miss Wechsler asked the crowd to remain calm and tó how their protest against the war could be most effective. After the destruction of the ROTC building the crowd dwindled to about 800 to the Washtenaw-S. University intersection. The group remained there for another 45 minutes, listening to various speakers and trying to decide what to do. At one point the demonstrators actually left the street when a member of the crowd told others the siren they could hear was an ambulance. The group cleared the street quickly, but pólice by that time had rerouted traffic around the newly-blocked intersection. After several more votes about 500 marchers decided to walk to the Washtenaw and US-23 where they hoped to continue to block traffic and "bring the war to the honkys." After this decisión was made, a number of marchers left the main group, apparently feeling this form of protest would be ineffective. While the crowd marched eastward on Washtenaw Ave., Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny and Deputy Chief Harold E. 01son were conferring at pólice headquarters with Lt. Fay Johnson, commander of the Ypsilanti post of the Michigan State Pólice. The top command officers were also in touch by phone with Sheriff Harvey. At Chief Krasny's request Lt. Johnson ordered five car loads of troopers to the scène and Sheriff Harvey put an emergency cali out for all available deputies. Undercover State Pólice and sheriff' s deputies positioned in and near the crowd sent a string of reports back to pólice headquarters. The crowd, when it reached the Washtenaw Ave. -US-23 bridge at the east edge of the city limits, surged up grassy embankments and overflowed into both lanes of the highway. With hands waving and shouts, they brought traffic in both directions to a halt and remained milling and hostile in the rrriddle and across the dividing strip of the north-south bound expressway. . They remained on the highway for about five minutes and then Pólice Chief Krasny and Deputy Chief Olson ordered their officers to clear the road. Led by Uniformed Capt. Howard A. Zeek and Lts. Thomas Minick and Donald Carnahan, three scout cars a paddy wagon, sirens screaming and red warning lights flashing, roared up the entry ramps and out on to the roadway. Southeastern Michigan. Harvey said he had no choice when I the cali carne at 3:45 p.m. from Deputy Chief Olson that help was needed immediately. Stanley Dulgeroff, director of the training center, called the move by Harvey "a real graduation assignment." While the sheriff was leading the rookies and the veterans to join with Ann Arbor pólice to clear the bridge his Tactical Mobile Unit was assembling at the Service Center and preparing to move out. On the bridge Capt. Zeek warned the demonstrators they were blocking a I lic highway and ordered them off. The city policemen and county sheriff's deputies moved quickly forward, night sticks at' the ready. The crowd hesitated and then broke and scattered. Those slow to I move were shoved out of the way. No I arrests were made. The evicted crowd scrambled back I down the grassy embankments they had I climbed moments before and assembled I again on Washtenaw Ave. under US-23. There they blocked both east and west bound traffic lanes. They were allowed I to remain there, again for about five minutes, at which time the Ann Arbor policeman moved down from the expressway. The officers formed a line extending across the highway and began walking west, night sticks poised. The crowd, shouting and swearing, moved grudgingly west along Washtenaw Ave. past the Arborland Shopping Center. Lt. Minick, leading the line of officers, used a buil horn to order the crowd forward. At a point near Pittsfield Blvd. the officers halted and the angry crowd milled and shouted in front of them. Then at an order, the line of pólice double-timed toward the crowd and again the demonstrators broke and ran. As the group was being moved along Washtenaw Ave. past Huron Parkway the Sheriff's Department riot squad arrived and with shotguns at port arms marched down the center of the street clearing those who loitered behind the Ann Arbor pólice line. The county riot squad had with it two crowd control dogs and a van carrying tear gas and additional rifles and ammunition. No arrests were made and the crowd I ■w - --(--- mëntwill not wait to be called in "the next time anything like this breaks out in Washtenaw County." Yesterday's vandalism of the ROTC Building took place at about 2 p.m. W h i 1 e most of the estimated 2,000 demonstrators remained on the building lawn despite the urgings of some student leaders, about 250 young people did enter the building, first through a broken window and then threugh the main door. Once inside the group set one fire and smashed most of the furniture and windows. Only a few persons, mainly ROTC students, were in the building at the time. Several were escorted out by demonstrators while others remained in their offices and classrooms while the demonstrators jerked open file cabinets, dismantled furniture and smashed windows. Several typewriters and flags were thrown f rom windows. The flags were later recovered by some of the ROTC cadets. No injuries were reported and there were no pólice at the building. Earlier in the afternoon some demonstrators also broke windows at the Navy, Army and Air Force recruiting stations on E. Washington St. east of Main St. After the first few rocks were thrown one demonstrator ciad in blue jeans and a leather red fringe jacket jumped in front of the officers and pleaded with his I fellow marchers to stop throwing rocks. The appeal was effective with the excepI tion of one final rock thrown through a pane of glass that had already been broken. The ambivalent nature of the demonI strators at the recruiting offices marked I the entire demonstration as individual marchers who then left the campus to hold a sit-in at Washtenaw Ave. and Forest St. The group remained in that location for about one-half hour, listening to various suggestions from members of the crowd on possible courses of action. Pólice meanwhile, rerouted traffic to avoid the demonstrators and did not make any attempt to have the young people clear the street. After various suggestions and a series of "votes" on what the best course of action was, the group now numbering 600 persons marched another two blocks Atthë same time Sheriü Harvey was leading on to the bridge a forcé oí . 10 deputies and 30 rookie policemen pressed into service from the state's Criminal Justice Training Center nearby. The new oíficers had been graduated from the Training Center just 10 minutes before when Sheriff Harvey stepped before them and said: "We need you men now. 111 deputize all of you as Washtenaw officers. Let's go!" The unusual move placed at the bridge policemen in uniforms from a dozen different pólice agencies from throughout uiune up in sman groups to iêave the ■ scène. The lone pólice injury in the brief I ernoon encounters was received by City I Patrolman Mark Parin who had severa! I stitches taken in a head wound at St. I seph Mercy Hospital. Parin was hurt I when he went to the aid of Lt. Carnahan I who was struggling with a demonstrator I as the bridge crowd was being I persed. % Officers said Parin was thrown to the I ground and a demonstrator landed on I top of him, inflicting a deep scalp I wound. But the officer insisted on being I released from the hospital and two hours I after the incident reported back to pólice I headquarters to ask for an assignment. t 'Tve had it with these types of bums," I Sheriff Harvey asserted. "They destroy I property, they stop traffic, they use I lence and threats of violence. I'm I ing notice right now that the next time I anything like this breaks out in I tenaw County my department will not I wait to be invited to come in. They want I to play it hard nose, I'm just the guy I who will play it with them." He said he does not plan to 1 mise his stand on firm law ■ ment, "especially when it comes to ■ ing with outlaw mobs like this one." ' "They all know where I stand. I'm not I about to-go soft at this late date," I vey said. Pólice Chief Krasny called the crowd's I mood "more ugly" than most I stration groups and "potentially I ous." I "We're here to protect life and I property and we intend to do just that," I