Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

Accounts differ as to what happened next. Some say that the Yippies weretaunting the police; others claim that police charged the crowd with no provocation.Abbie Hoffman remembers two hundred policemen swinging nightsticks at the crowdwithout warning (Revolution 69), while Jezer reported that that fifty tactical officersattacked in a “flying wedge” (“YIP!” 8; Jezer et al 1). The police tried to control thecrowd by swinging nightsticks, making arrests, and blocking off entrances to the station,effectively trapping the revelers inside a cavernous cage. In response, the Yippies foughtback. There were more firecrackers, and shouts of “Hell no, we won’t go,” “FascistCops,” and “Overreaction!” (Lennox 3; Jezer et al 2). The police beat Abbie Hoffman,damaging his back. When Baltimore Yippie Ron Shea tried to come to Hoffman’sdefense, he was thrown through a glass door, his hands and wrists ripped open in bloodycarnage. Even “a 60-year-old suburban matron, returning from the opera, was threatenedwith arrest” when she tried to prevent several policemen from kicking a Yippie (Jezer,“YIP!” 8). Under the horrified gaze of reporters and onlookers, the Yippies fled theterminal. When it was over, two Yippies were in hospital and at least 57 arrested(Michael Stern 72). About 1,000 continued with the march to the Sheep Meadow towatch the sunrise, followed by determined officers ready to arrest anyone who steppedout of line. Finally, the participants left to return to their Lower East Side haunts, orperhaps to bail a friend out of jail, or to visit a hospitalized acquaintance.The Yip-In had progressed from a peaceful celebratory revel at the beginning ofthe night to an all-out riot for several hours in the early morning, and finally to anexhausted sunrise observance. Once the police moved in to arrest the clock vandals, the108