California: Postscript to People's Park

After years of trouble with Berkeley's radicals, the Alameda County sheriff's deputies were in an ugly mood last May. At issue was "People's Park," a vacant lot owned by the University of California and taken over by a band of students and hippies to occupy and beautify for their own use. After the university ousted the squatters and fenced the lot, inevitably a dissenting march was mounted. When the protesters approached People's Park, the police were ready and waiting.

During the ensuing three-hour battle, a shotgun blast hit James Rector, 25, an unemployed carpenter who was watching the melee from...