University of Virginia Library

Violence Erupts
At Justice Dept.

By Bill Fryer
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Staff member Bill Fryer witnessed a
confrontation Saturday between police and
militant demonstrators at the Department of
Justice. Following is his account of that
incident.

"Ho-Ho-Ho Chi Minh, NLF is gonna
win" chanted the estimated five thousand
militant radicals as they circled the
Department of Justice early Saturday
evening. For the second night in a row
violent confrontation between police and
radical demonstrators marred an
otherwise peaceful day of protest against
the war in Vietnam.

Indications that there might be some
trouble arose about 3:30 p.m. when a
number of workers and Students for a
Democratic Society members held a rally
in front of the Department of Labor on
Constitution Avenue. The demonstrators
there were protesting against business in
general and General Electric in particular.

There has been a nationwide strike for
almost a month against GE by workers
who are demanding higher wages and
better work benefits. At the rally
speakers pointed to the role of big
business in supposedly perpetrating the
war in Vietnam. Police finally dispersed
the demonstrators with a minimum
amount of trouble. No arrests were made
there.

Around 4 p.m. large numbers of white
helmeted police circled the Justice
Department on both sides of the street.
Army troops and members of the
National Guard could be seen through the
locked iron gates of the Department.

At around 5 p.m. the radicals swept
around the corner of Constitution
Avenue and headed up 10th Street by the
lines of waiting police before the Justice
Department. In a cacophony of sounds
and colors the demonstrators waved
hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet
Cong flags and chanted war slogans and
notes of protest against the conspiracy
trial taking place in Chicago.

The militants carried a large
papier-mache mask of Attorney General
John Mitchell as he and some of his aides
watched the swirling mass of
demonstrators and police from a fifth
floor balcony. The demonstrators, many
of whom were wearing helmets and
carrying clubs or bottles, also carried a
large gavel marked with "Chicago Eight"
and chanted "Free Bobby Seale" and
"End the Trial."

After completely encircling the
Department, the demonstrators were
finally forced back to the corner of 10th
Street and Constitution Avenue. Some of
the militants started to throw rocks and
bottles at the police and the Justice
Department, breaking several windows
and injuring several policemen.

One militant threw a red paint bomb
against the side of the Department while
others raised a North Vietnamese flag on
one of the Department flagpoles. Several
canisters of tear gas were released by
police to try to move the crowd back
away from the Department and down
Constitution Avenue.

After Mobilization Marshals attempted
unsuccessfully to restrain the radicals by
forming a line between them and the
District Police, police released a number
of cannisters of tear gas The gas swept up
almost five stories high and was blown
down Constitution Avenue by the wind
toward the huge crowd in the Washington
Monument area. The police then
scattered some of the radicals down the
streets perpendicular to Constitution
Avenue.

Tear gas began to sting the faces of the
thousands of peaceful marchers who were
returning to their buses after listening to
the music and speeches at the main rally
below the Monument. Police finally
dispersed the remnants of the militants
about ten o'clock in the DuPont Circle
area.

During the bulk of the confrontation
the police used tear gas to control the
shouting demonstrators, although there
was a brief scuffle at 9th Street and
Constitution Avenue. Waiting ambulances
hurried both injured police and
demonstrators to nearby hospitals. It was
never necessary to use any of the 9,000
troops who were stationed on alert within
the locked gates of the Department of
Justice and the Department of
Commerce.