New Haven Ghetto Wary Of Seale Demonstrations

(Special to the CRIMSON)

NEW HAVEN, Conn., April 30-Anyone who sh??? happen to visit New Haven ??? ??? Bobby Seale demonstrations ??? weekend could not help nothing ??? well-suited it is for a major confron???ation.

NEWS ANALYSIS

On one side of the Green. where demonstrators will gather, is the NeoGothin facade of Yale University; on the other the city's garishly-windowed department stores and office buildings, and the New Haven County Court, where Bobby Seale goes on trial for murder later this year.

And a five-minute walk away from the Green is a sprawling black ghetto that covers much of the city's area.

The New Haven ghetto has been heavily policed since riots broke out here two summers ago, and the Justice Department's nationwide blitz on the Black Panther Party has made the upcoming demonstrations a sensitive, delicate subie??? among the city's black inhabitants.

The Panthers have reiterated that they want the demonstrations to be peaceful, but many people in the ghetto, skeptical of ??? likelihood of police restraint, are ??gripped with fear.

"I just think about hiding," a black woman on welfare and mother of four said yesterday. "I'm afraid for my family. I'll move them away if I see necessary."

At that moment, the music of the radio stopped, and the news broadcaster announced that state police, National Guardsmen, and naval detach-ments off New Haven were standing by for tomorrow's demonstration. He then quoted Yale president Kingman Brewster as saying that "the potential of constructive progress is greater than that of disruption." A black man lowered his face into his hands and chuckled softly.

"Brewster?" the man said with a grin. "I don't think he's on my side. I don't think nobody with money is on my side. He just don't want anything to happen to that university of his. If I was in the same position, I'd do the same."

"The Panthers are fine people as far as I know." a second welfare mother broke in. "They're in trouble because they're opposed to this government and this system. I think that the system needs to be changed.

"If people think everything they got from the papers, shame on them!" she said. " 'He's gonna murder you.' 'He's gonna kill you!' If they were so bad, they wouldn't think about these kids that have to eat with their breakfast program. There must be some good somewhere."

Babysitters

"They used to come to our welfare meetings," she remembered. "They babysat for us, and they supported us. You know some Panthers are mothers on welfare too."

The man interruped. "You gotta feel and live it to know it. We are black, and those Panthers are on trial and we feel it. Whether we go along with everything the Panthers do I feel it in my heart as a black man."

Most black people in New Haven are eager to see the Panthers receive a fair trial. But many agree that large-scale protest may be necessary to bring that about, and they fear that if they demonstrate the police will overreact and begin to use guns.

If that happens, a full-scale riot situation could break loose. But then. most blacks probably don't want that either. They are thinking of their homes. their lives, New Haven is afraid. New Haven is waiting.