Blacks Charge Police Brutality

Over 300 people jammed St. Paul's Church last night to demand that the Cambridge City Council immediately fire Police Chief James K. Reagan and suspend without pay Officers Boyle, Raimo, Hussey, Loder, and Ahern for their parts in three instances of alleged police brutality against blacks.

David Greenage, a black resident of Cambridge, told the Council that he had been brutalized by police on the night of December 1. "It took seven officers to arrest me for a traffic violation," he said. "I was beaten over the head from behind, beaten in the stomach and dragged out of the police car by my feet when we reached the station. My head was split open for no reason at all and I want to know when this is going stop."

Ann Jones, the elected spokesman for the black community, presented the City Council with photographs of several of the beaten blacks which showed bruises and healing wounds. She stated that the blacks had already met with police chief Reagan several times and that he had taken no action in these cases, and twice denied knowledge of police brutality in his department.

In the course of the three-hour meeting, which was moved to St. Paul's from the City Council chamber because of an overflow crowd, Reagan said that he had met twice with the blacks and asked them to send him a representative committee to go over the cases individually. "I refuse further comment on the individual cases because I may yet have to rule on them," he said.

Unsatisfied with City Manager John Corcoran's statement that he was appointing a three-man grievance committee to investigate the cases, the blacks left St. Paul's at 11 p.m. Jones said after the meeting, "We're going to go now to the state and federal level to get rid of this racist police department."