Teen-agers Beat Married Students In Short Scuffle on Garden Street

A Harvard senior and his wife were attacked by a gang of teen-agers about 9:15 p.m. last night on Garden St. beside the First Church cemetery. Neither was seriously injured.

Hugh and Elizabeth Blackmer, both '65, were about a block from Harvard Square when they "saw a group of 10 or 12 kids coming at us, spread out across the sidewalk." Blackmer said the youths appeared to be between 14 and 16 years old.

As the two groups passed each other, one of the youths allegedly shoved his shoulder into Blackmer. Blackmer said he turned around but didn't say anything. He said several of the youths turned and began jeering at them. "One of them said something," said Mrs. Blackmer, "--I don't know what it was--so I kicked him."

The gang then attacked the Blackmers, knocked them to the sidewalk, and kicked them. Blackmer said he thought the beating lasted about a minute. He said the youths apparently moved off when they discovered that his wife, who was wearing pants, was not another male.

Blackmer said he and his wife then went to talk to the policeman in the booth at the Square. "I said, 'can I talk to you,' and he said something like 'sure kid, start talking.' So he tried in his way to get the story out of me and I, being furious, tried to tell the story in my way."

The policeman reportedly sat back in the booth when Blackmer began talking, so he "was just talking up at a blank window." When the policeman asked where the attack had occurred, Blackmer said, he pointed towards the cemetery. He said that when the policeman asked a second time he replied, "by that god damn church up there."

Blackmer said this made the policeman mad. He said the policeman also got mad when his wife showed him the hood she had ripped off one of the attackers' jackets. At that point the Blackmers stopped talking to the policeman and left.

"I feel it was our own fault for getting involved," Mrs. Blackmer said. When I kicked the guy I thought they knew I was a girl and it wouldn't matter. What bothered me was the policeman's attitude."