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WANT's Latest Raid continued from page 5...

WANT's Latest Raid continued from page 5... image
Parent Issue
Day
31
Month
January
Year
1975
OCR Text

WANT's Latest Raid

continued from page 5

"All you, could hear was people being thrown up against the wall," one person described the tumultuous fifteen minutes after police first entered the small, two bedroom place.

"At first I thought we were going to get robbed and shot, because a bunch of rowdies had just broke through the door," recalled another.

“They were unprofessional, disorganized and didn't seem to know what they were doing," said yet another party-goer of police as they shoved people up against walls, searched and handcuffed them.

"We're just from all over," a non-uniformed officer told one person after the commotion had died down. Although the raid took place in Washtenaw County, the only police to be identified by agency were a number of black Wayne County Sheriff deputies, who had badges pinned to the outside of their jackets.

"We're working in conjunction with the state police," one of the two or three female undercover agents on the raid reportedly said. The woman is described as having long, rust-colored hair a few inches past her shoulder: 23-25 years of age, 57" in height and "lippy" in her manner.

The search warrant was signed by William Burns, the state police detective sergeant currently being sued in Detroit federal court for assaulting SUN staffers Linda Ross and Mary Wreford in 1973. Several people also identified him at the raid: a middle-aged man with medium long, greasy hair and a goatee who read the warrant and handles ID checks over the telephone.

The most visible member of the WANT team, Burns told a court last week he is currently assigned to the Detroit Intelligence Division, State Police Intelligence Unit, and works "in conjunction" with WANT. Last week he was also spotted driving a dark blue 1973 Laguna Chevy 400 sedan, license plate KCV-042.

THE PISTOL-WHIPPING

According to the man who was pistol-whipped, he emerged from a bathroom to find what he thought was a robbery in progress. When someone claiming to be a police officer grabbed for his wallet, he shoved the hand away and asked for police identification. An officer then flashed his badge, said "isn't that funny," and hit him across the forehead with a gun butt. Another officer then hit the man on the other side of his face, leaving a bruise, and another grabbed hold of his hair and pushed him down, taking out hair.

Several persons at the party said police seemed disappointed at what they had found in the apartment. One of the police is reported to have said the raid stemmed from an "informer," who earlier in the day told police that marijuana and hashish were in the apartment. In the aftermath of the raid, a miniature calculator, three long guns in a closet, a checkbook, W-2 forms and a $20 bill from a wallet searched by police were reported missing.