Nation: CHICAGO EXAMINED: ANATOMY OF A POLICE RIOT'

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It still seems incredible that in the days of violence no one was killed. Occasionally, trapped policemen would fire in the air. One unidentified civilian fired three shots, but no witness could discover his target. Nevertheless, the report is a warning that another confrontation might not be so fortunate. It notes: "To read dispassionately the hundreds of statements describing at firsthand the events of Sunday and Monday nights is to become convinced of the presence of what can only be called a police riot."

LIFE points out in its current issue that the police districts known to be the most corrupt in Chicago also held the record for some of the worst violence last August. As the Walker report comments, there has been no public condemnation of "these violators of sound police procedures and common decency by either their commanding officers or city officials." Nor, when the report was being completed—nearly three months after the convention—had any disciplinary action been taken against most of the violators. But the Walker investigation may have had some effect on Chicago: last week, just before the issuance of the report, a Chicago police-department board recommended that four officers be dismissed for using "excessive force" during convention week.

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