perse. Some did, but most did not. Ten minutes later 300 helmeted policemen broke through the heavy barricades in the Hamilton basement and poured out of the underground tunnel to arrest the 100 or so studen ts left in the building. The students surprisingly offered no resistance, so the police escorted them peacefully out through the tunnels. Just as the spectators outside in Van Am quadrangle saw the police through the building's windows racing up Hamilton's stairs, they spied graywhite smoke coming out of a sixthBoor window. "Fire!" numerous persons shouted. Within 10 minutes small clouds of smoke were puffing out of the sixth floor, and New York's firemen had to be called to extinguish the blaze at the west end of the sixth floor. That was only the beginning. Small para-military units of the rebels, adopting "mobile tactics," now began a series of assaults and incidents. One young leftist was overheard saying to his forces, "Let's go, man. We've got to strike like lightning, all over this University. We've got to paralyze this place. It's got to be ours from now on!" Several students piled up furniture 'and set fires in two places on the fifth floor of Fayerweather Hall, causing a considerable blaze. Another group was stopped at the door of Schermerhorn, with cans of gasoline in their hands. Other students pried up the red oblong bricks and the black asphalt hexagonal bricks from the walks on campus and threw them through dozens of windows on campus, especiallv Low Librarv. Numerous bricks wer~ hurled at po'licemen just outside the two main gates and several cops suffered concussions, serious bruises, and bloodv lacerations. The front windshields ot'three parked police vehicles were smashed. A tree, potted in a round concrete container, was dragged 20 yards across the Engineering School terrace by several rebels and dropped 40 feet below on a parked police bus. President Kirk, meeting in Vice President Truman's office with top aides, several senior faculty, lawyers, and Columbia College deans Coleman, Colahan, and Platt, decided at 3:45 that the revolutionaries, many of them non-students, were running amuck and that the campus had to be cleared SPRIl\G, 1968
to restore order. He quickly ordered a statement printed and distributed to "clear the campus of all persons." He wrote, "Dormitory residents are to remain in their rooms. All other persons, including dormitorv residents not in their rooms, must leave the campus immediately via the nearest campus gate." The President read words of similar effect over the campus radio station WKCR at 4:05 a.m. Dean Platt rushed out to the Sundial with a bullhorn and broadcast to the several hundred revolutionaries and the 500 or so spectators that they should go to their rooms or leave the campus. At 4:30 the police, directed personally by Chief Inspector Sanford Garelik, began to try to break through the barricades. Some students, anxious to leave the campus and frightened, helped remove the debris. But dozens of leftists kept piling things back almost as fast as the police removed them. Some threw chairs, bottles, and bricks at the police. Finally, the police dismantled the tangled barricades. Nearly a hundred leftists locked arms inside the Amsterdam gate, but the police moved in swiftly in a wedge, and the hundred Bed. Inspector Garelik announced over \VKCR, at 4:45, that anyone who did not leave the campus in 10 minutes would be arrested. At least six of his aides also made the same announcement with loudspeakers around the campus. About half of the students went to their rooms or ran off the campus. But nearly 300 others did not. They shouted "Cops Must Go!" and obscenities, taunted the police as "Fascist pigs," and in some cases struck, tackled, or threw things at the police defiantly. At 5:00 a.m. over 100 helmeted policemen, swinging nightsticks, rushed the leftist students and their supporters. They were joined by 50 plainclothesmen with rubber blackjacks. They attempted to drive the students up into their dormitory rooms. Many of the police were clearly fmious at the abuse and violence that the leftist studen ts had inflicted upon them, and chased students vigorously, clubbing them repeatedly. A few policemen even drew guns on small mobs of students in a fiercely violent mood. Some police, especially numerous plainclothesmen, chased rebel students into the ground floor lobbies of
Hartley and Livingston Halls to seize them or strike them. Plainclothesmen in front of Furnald Hall pursued some students as high as the fourth Boor to administer clubbings of revenge. By 5:30 a.m. the campus was clear of marauders. Injuries, treated at St. Luke's Hospital, were numerous, though fortunately not very serious: 38 students (mostly with scalp lacerations), 9 nonstudents, and 17 policemen. The police made 171 arrests, one-third of them non-Columbia people. Thirty-five were were College students. As with the previous police bust, SDS leaders moved quickly to capitalize on the police-student violence. At 9:30 a.m., only five hours after the police raid, they held a press conference. Juan Gonzalez, flanked by Lewis Cole, Jonathan Shils, and Joshua DeWind, a graduate student, made a statement denouncing Columbia's administratioJ'l once again for their "academic reprisals." He claimed "untold numbers" had been injured and that "over 5,000" students had furiously battled against the shameful presence of the police on campus. Said Gonzalez, using his media time skillfully, "We call for a citv-wide demonstration at 116th Street and Amsterdam at 6:00 tonight, and we ask students at all other universities to join us in protest." The press this time were tough. "What do you want to accomplish?" Gonzalez: "To demonsh'ate that everyone is on our side except the Administration." "Isn't your student violence as great as the police violence?" Gonzalez: "We are prepared to do battle, yes, because Columbia's administration is totally illegitimate." "Are you trying to spread this revolt to other areas?" Gonzalez: "Our revolt definitely has outside implications." Immediately after, SDS announced the formation of a "Summer Liberation School," which would begin with one course that Wednesday morning, May 22, on the Ferris Booth patio. The Byer said, "Its purpose is to analyze the rebellion and develop strategy for the summer and next year, with a view to long-term revolutionary programs." The instructors were Tony Papert, ~'lark Rudd, and Juan Gonzalez. This time, however, there was not the massive sympathy for the student 87