Sunday, May 14, 1972 Number of Arrests Tops 2,400 As Antiwar Protest Drag OnThe round of protests against U.S. escalation of the air and sea war against North Vietnam slacked off somewhat but sporadic outbreaks late Thursday night and early Friday built the number arrested since Monday to more than 2,400. The demonstrators in Washington, apparently high school students, milled around under the watch of dozens of policemen. Most of them demonstrated peacefully but about 50 ran through the office of Rep. Pierre S. DuPont, R-Del., opening desk drawers and spilling food and drink. An aide to DuPont said a girl's wallet and ring were stolen. Secretaries said they were afraid to call police. Forty-five protesters, 15 of them juveniles, were hauled away by police when they tried to block workers from entering the Institute for Defense Analyses at Princeton, N.J. Police Commissioner Arthur T. Morgan told 125 demonstrators, "We respect your right to protest but we also respect the rights of the employees." It was the third successive day that mass arrests had been made at the institute, which demonstrators claim is a "think tank" for Vietnam War projects. At Massachusetts' Westover AFB, another favorite target of militants, 20 were arrested. A total of 921 have been arrested since April 21 for trying to block base gates. Cornell University spokesmen reported that at least 130 windows in buildings on the Ithaca, N.Y., campus were smashed by a band of about 300 rock-throwing, club-waving demonstrators. Police resorted to tear gas before the crowd dispersed early Friday. National Guardsmen and police cleared demonstrators' barricades away from Washington Avenue near the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Some 2,000 students gathered in front of the student union building and heard calls for a student strike. In Los Angeles, 150 young men who said they were Vietnam war veterans marched in front of President Nixon political headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard carrying signs such as "Nixon air war is mass murder." Friday was a "day of mourning" in Berkeley, site of the University of California. Most of the city's 1,500 employes (sic) were dismissed from work at noon, all schools closed for half the day, and some businesses closed. "Number of Arrests Tops 2,400 As Antiwar Protest Drag On", by (UPI), published in the Pacific Stars and Stripes Sunday, May 14, 1972 and reprinted from European and Pacific Stars and Stripes, a Department of Defense publication copyright, 2002 European and Pacific Stars and Stripes. |
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