The Great Hippie Hunt

No major American city has been more eager to prove itself progressive than Atlanta. In eight short years under Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., civic leaders have successfully peeled away the old image of a sleepy Southern town, replacing it with that of a racially enlightened and artistically active city. The transformation has been profitable, luring outside investment and resulting in a phenomenal business expansion.

Atlanta has also acquired other symbols of metropolitan America: a flourishing colony of bearded and dungareed hippie youth and a visible coterie of homosexuals. Since June, police and state solicitor general's agents, with the tacit approval of the city administration and Atlanta's business community, have waged war against these so-called undesirables, treating them as the greatest threat to the city since General Sherman.

The main target is the 1,000 or so hippie types who congregate along Peachtree Street, just north of downtown. Atlanta police have stepped up patrols of the area, often stopping and threatening those of unorthodox appearance. Young people are arrested on such specious charges as loitering, jaywalking and obscenity. Shops and homes are raided, ostensibly in search of drugs, but so often that occupants claim they are being harassed.

Police also harry hippie rallies and picket lines and have sprayed protesters indiscriminately with Mace. Two weeks ago, a peaceful rock-music concert disintegrated into a small riot, resulting in some 20 arrests, after a detective reportedly drew his pistol on jeering hippies. A college professor's wife who was trying to calm an enraged cop was clubbed on the head and later handcuffed to a hospital chair for two hours, awaiting six stitches.

One youth, jailed for loitering, spent nine days in solitary confinement recently when he refused to shave off his beard and cut his hair. Another youth's 60-day sentence for a minor driving infraction was suspended after he agreed to get a haircut as ordered by the judge --a former barber.

Homosexuals are getting the same rough treatment. Police question strollers in city parks, gathering places for homosexuals. Recently, cops halted cars at night in Piedmont Park and photographed startled occupants for police intelligence files. Solicitor general's agents are also roving photographers these days; raiding a theater showing Andy Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys, they snapped pictures as customers--including a minister--were marched out.

Leather Aardvarlc. Police zeal for law enforcement has been highly selective. Cops have ignored the crew-cut "straight" toughs who prey on hippies. Seven hippies were recently shotgunned from a moving car and hospitalized, only to have police drag six of them to jail for disturbing the peace. So far, no shooting suspects have been arrested. Last month a hippie cooperative store was firebombed. Susie and Ron Jarvis, owners of a craft shop called The Leather Aardvark, claim snipers put 27 bullet holes in the front of their store. When Ron complained to police, he was arrested for shooting back. Says Ron bitterly: "We've got a new nigger in our society, and the way to tell him is by his hair and his beard."

His allusion is ironic in a city that glories in its progressive race relations. Business runs Atlanta, and the city's liberal fac,ade is based partly on the precept that good race relations are good for business. Hippie types and homosexuals apparently are not. Charles Weltner, liberal former Congressman, says dryly: "There just ain't no percentage in hippies if you're a businessman."

There was a brief respite last week. Cops eased up because the crackdown publicity was helping Everett Millican in his campaign for mayor against the Establishment candidate. Hippie arrests dropped, but protesting cops staged a slowdown on other offenders as well, while Governor Lester Maddox charged "cowardly politicians" with restricting "the courageous men in blue." Maddox need not worry. Mayor Allen backs the crackdown, and the cops are likely to be unshackled again after primary day.

Arriviste Big City. Some official concern is understandable. The hippies have brought drug peddlers, drifters and other hangers-on in their train; the noisy Piedmont Park homosexuals were disturbing nearby residents. Other cities, however, have had these problems in far more severe form and have dealt with them without infringing on civil liberties. Compared with Northern cities, Atlanta's turned-on scene is mild. There is little panhandling or open lewdness, and the hippie area has become a kind of minor asset as a tourist attraction.

Perhaps Atlanta's overreaction is a reflection of its insecurity as an arriviste big city. Recently there have been some encouraging signs of maturity. Letters to the newspapers reflect a growing revulsion at the persecution, and 32 organizations, among them the Atlanta Bar Association, have formed a committee to protest. This followed by several weeks the lead of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, which demanded "normal, sympathetic police protection regardless of age, dress, appearance, language or individual behavior."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.