Blacks Will Continue Brutality Fight; Agree to Work with City Committee

The debate on police brutality in Cambridge was far calmer and less well attended Monday night at City Council, but the problem is nowhere near solved. If anything the scope of the controversy has widened.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Last week former gubernatorial candidate Francis X. Bellotti denounced the Cambridge uproar over police brutality, saying, "There is an attempt here to undermine law enforcement in this City and then spread the conspiracy out into the state." Black community leader Saundra Graham denied the charge; however, the Federal government may not be taking it so lightly. Several sources report that the FBI is in town investigating and following the demonstrations.

Monday's meeting also showed that the problem is not limited to blacks in Cambridge. Two white teenagers from Putnam Gardens appeared before the Council and described a police raid on their Saturday night party. The police called once at the party and told the boys that they had had a complaint and the building would have to be cleared. All but five boys left. The witnesses reported that the police came back and knocked one boy unconscious and dragged him down the stairs by his hair before taking him to the station. The two officers involved in the incident were among the five that the blacks had earlier demanded be fired for acts of police brutality.

In making a tentative agreement to participate with City officials on a committee to investigate brutality, the blacks have chosen a wise course. Graham firmly insisted that as spokesman for the black community she could not agree to any committee without first going back to the community. It is the solidarity of the blacks on this issue which gives them their power. It would have weakened this power if Graham had agreed without consulting her constituency.

Graham has been active in community organizing for several years. Last year she led the demonstration that interrupted Harvard graduation ceremonies to demand housing in Riverside. She had obviously learned some of thepolitical ins and outs of Cambridge. Monday night when Philip Cronin '53, Cambridge City Solicitor, presented a watered down version of the committee agreement hammered out Friday between the blacks and the city manager, she interposed calmly, and Cronin reworded the order to be more specific, including a proviso that the blacks would be involved in the selection of a police commissioner, if that post is created.

Insistence on such political fine points as the wording of orders shows how cognizant the black community actually is of the governmental processes they are up against in what promises to be a long and emotional battle over police brutality in Cambridge.