AJC 9/22/1968 1A

Jury May Probe Park Clash, Too

By John York

Members of the Fulton County Grand Jury, just getting started on a full scale investigation of alleged brutality at Atlanta police headquarters, Wednesday faced the probability of extending its probe to cover last Sunday’s police clash with hippies at Piedmont Park.

Confirming that Police Chief Herbert T. Jenkins has asked for grand jury help in investigating Sunday’s fracas at a free rock music concert in the big Atlanta park, Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Slaton said Wednesday he is uncertain about when this latter probe can begin.

Slaton said grand jurors only Tuesday began hearing from witnesses concerning the alleged beating of two Negro prisoners by five white police officers earlier this month. With at least 25 more persons to be called in that probe, the jury probably cannot take up the park episode before Oct. 3, a week from Friday, he said.

The Melee at the park began after a vice squad detective tried to arrest a youth at the concert over the objections of the crowd. The ensuing fracas quickly expanded to riot proportions. A number of persons, including the wife of a Georgia Tech professor, accused police of brutality and of encouraging the melee. Four policemen were reported to have suffered minor injuries.

In a letter to Slaton Tuesday, Jenkins asked for the grand jury to investigate and “to take such action as you deem necessary.”

Jenkins said, “numerous charges of brutality have been made both by police and against police.”

As an aftermath of Sunday’s violence, a committee representing some 32 local organizations appealed to Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. to end police brutality and harassment, improve jail conditions, suspend officers accused of brutality and establish grievance procedures.

Allen declined to give an immediate answer to those demands.

No officers have been suspended, nor is it likely they will be unless the grand jury takes action against them. However, two policemen who allegedly figured in the park violence have been reassigned to duties in an unincorporated area of the south end of Fulton County. A third officer, a lieutenant who was accused of taking part in the beating of two men at police headquarters, also has been transferred to south Fulton County.

In his letter to the district attorney, Chief Jenkins, said that even he is asking for outside assistance, two of his own captains, W. L. Duncan and H. L. Whalen, are also making a “thorough investigation.”

Slaton has been furnished with all records and reports on the riot, which resulted in the initial arrest of 23 persons. Seven of these were released without being booked. Jenkins noted, and six others were given police.