City Police Raid Hippie Havens, Find Pot, Pills Amidst 'Squalor'

Cambridge's drive against the hipplea is moving ahead at full speed.

During the past week, Cambridge police officers have raided three apartments in the Central Square area, arresting some 30 people on narcotics charges. None of those arrested were students. Police seized quantities of marijuana, hypodermic syringes and a large number of pills which are now being analyzed by state chemists. They photographed squalid living conditions--everything from splintered furniture to a mouldy refrigerator--in the hippie pads.

The City has revoked the rooming license of one landlord renting to hippies and has ticketed several others for health violations. The hippy newspaper--Avatar--is located in one of the buildings ticketed.

Vagrancy

Cambridge City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo '29 announced Tuesday that, beginning on October 16, the City police would use the vagrancy laws against hippies. All those who could not provide evidence of their means of support would have to move out of the City or face a fine or jail term. Opponents of the City's war have formed an Ad Hoc Committee to Oppose Extreme Ignorance which accuses May or Daniel J. Hayes Jr. of waging an "insane fascist persecution" to further his chances for re-election. They also charge that Hayes is trying to close the office of an anti-war group located in the same block as the Avatar and one of the apartments raided for narcotics.

The ad hoc committee plans to picket Hayes' home and write protest letters to City Councillors.

Hayes denied the committee's charges yesterday, saying that he did not begin the war at this time for political ends, but because complaints shout the hippies had risen drastically since Labor Day.

Returning students had, Hayes said, found that their apartments-subleased to hippies over the summer-were in shambles. He also had several letters from parents of high-school students in the Cambridge area, expressing concern over their children's associations with hippies.

The City is aiming its attack on the so-called Diggers. Hayes said, because they provide food, clothing, shelter, and -in Cambridge-drugs to other hippies. He feels that, "Once the Diggers leave, the hippies and other fringe drug-users will follow."

Hayes said that one raid at 183 Columbia Street had smashed the headquarters of a group of Diggers known as Catalyst Ltd. In that raid, police seized drugs and 100 copies of a pamphiet telling other hippies how to make LSD. They also, Hayes claims, found evidence that Catalyst Ltd. Was distributing drugs throughout Massachusetts and neighboring states