Nation: Shoot-Out on 28th Street

Last week's maelstrom of looting and arson swirled past Oakland, Calif., leaving its hate-filled ghettos almost unscathed. But Oakland's police were deeply embroiled in a bitter private race feud of their own. Ranged against them was a strutting band of hyper-militants styling themselves the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The Panthers, armed and angry, are defiantly demanding a facedown.

Routine police procedure provided the invitation to bloodshed. Two patrolmen investigating a parked car in a West Oakland slum were sent reeling by shotgun pellets. While they radioed for help, eight Negroes sprinted for a run-down frame house on 28th Street. For the...