From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
Subject: Re: And they called it a "Police Riot!"
Keywords: rodney king / chicago '68 convention
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 03:34:21 GMT

In <1992Apr13.070617.6003@matilda.vut.edu.au> db@matilda.vut.edu.au
 (David Bowman ) writes:

>In article <1992Apr13.010213.5102@athena.mit.edu> sybok@m4-035-17.MIT.EDU (The Terminator) writes:
>>>One baton blow to these people was more than enough to
>>>split skulls, break bones and cause concussions. Hitler would have
>>>been proud of the Chicago police on that day.
>>
>Do you think that it would help if the demonstrators had guns?
>Don't you think this is a problem with the police, rather than a
>gun control issue?

	Sadly, I was unable to record the last time, or any time, the
following story was told by a very good friend of mine.  She was there,
she marched, and this is her story as best I can remember it, summarized
for those with short attention spans.

	During that riot, she saw a man pushed through a plate-glass
window just a few blocks from the Conrad Hilton (I believe this is the
name of the hotel in question).  The man had a severe laceration on his
left thigh, and spurting blood indicating a severed artery.  Having had
some first aid training, our heroine places her hand _in_ the wound to
stop the bleeding.  A man wearing a grey suit and carrying a black bag
arrives and takes charge.  Quickly, two others pick up the cut up hippie
and, while our heroine keeps her hand in his leg, they take him to the
Conrad Hilton.  Her thoughts were, "I'm a dead hippie." as the elevator
go up and up.  Finally, the doors open and they head towards one of the
faceless doors in the hallway.  The man with the suit and bag knocks,
and the door opens a crack, then wide.  They all scurry into the room,
place the bleeding hippie on the couch, and the man with the bag takes
over.  She looks around.

	Three men, all wearing the same suit and haircut as the man at
the door.  One man in an overstuffed chair looking out the window.  He
looked somewhat familiar...  All of a sudden there was a loud knock at
the door, and the words "We are the Chicago Police and we are coming in!"
were heard as the door opened.  Wall to wall brass buttons and blue suits.
The man at the door had apparently been surgically altered, because in
his hand appeared the biggest damn gun she had ever thought possible,
and the words, "I am the United States Secret Service and no you are not!"
rang in the corridor.  The other two guys with suits and haircuts were
also brandishing weapons, all pointed towards the door.  The blue and
brass in the hallway disappeared as if it had vaporized.

	After this little ordeal, the man in the chair said, "Want a
drink, hippee?"  "Damn strait!" was the reply, then a rather shocked
"Wait a minute...  Eugene McCarthy, right?  Good on foreign policy but
a bit short on domestic?"  And my friend had drinks with Eugene McCarthy
during the Democratic primaries a few of her friends nearly died in...

	End of story.  Sadly, I cannot tell it as well as she, and I am
a bit young to know the participants well.  I do know this: the secret
service pulled on the police, and the police pulled back.  Were the
secret service not armed, what would have happened?  This was a police
riot, through and through.  If they are the only ones entrusted with
arms, I've already lost any freedom or security I may have had, and
my only choice is to move, either to another state or another nation.

	I cannot regularly follow this group, so e-mail if it's a
personal thing, and post if you don't really expect a response.

<Daniel R. Sorenson   Dod #1066  |If Iowa State University agreed with me >
<z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu <- work |I'd make $90K/yr.  They don't, I don't. >
<viking@iastate.edu      <- play |"I am *not* goofing off.  I am driving  >
< myself mercilessly in the pursuit of relaxation." -- T. Weeds           >

Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns