Rage in San Francisco

Civil rights or civil war!" chanted 4,000 demonstrators last week in the heart of San Francisco's homosexual community. They were enraged over a jury's lenient verdict of voluntary manslaughter against Dan White, a disgruntled politician who last November shot down San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, a homosexual leader.

At city hall, the demonstrators smashed windows, set nine police cruisers afire and threw bricks at the officers. "You've killed your last fag, you pig!" screamed one protester. "Get out of here, you queer!" a cop shouted back. The toll: 124 people injured, including 59 policemen. When Dan White comes up for sentencing in mid-June, the maximum penalty he can receive is seven years and eight months in prison. Said Moscone's successor, Mayor Dianne Feinstein, of the verdict: "A very hard decision for almost all of us to handle. As I look at the law, it was two murders."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.