◆ SpookStack

Nos. 77-1698, 77-1210 & 77-1370 109 loaded before going to bed with deer slugs and .00 shells and the pistol which he had loaded and placed between the beds, but he could not find them because there was shooting although he would have used them had he found them. To have gone to the apartment in the early evening of December 3 might well have attracted reinforcements from the Panther Party headquarters only a short dis- tance away. During daylight hours snipers could reasonably be anticipated from the buildings in the area. To have brought equipment such as bullhorns or to have telephoned the occupants or to have thrown strong searchlights on the apartment and ordered the oc- cupants to come out could have reasonably been an- ticipated to precipitate a battle royal. The use of tear gas at this point might have been appropriate if the bat- tle royal had policemen shooting from the outside and Black Panther Party members shooting from the inside. To have used it as an initia] matter, however, would have given the real possibility of other types of damage to the occupants. Expert testimony in this trial was that tear gas should be avoided in residential districts such as this one. Further, it is noted that gas masks were reported to be stored at the apartment which would have been effective against the use of tear gas by the police. A telephoning or other type of communication would only have given the occupants time to set up their counter-attack and the time to fire the weapons which the plaintiffs contend were never fired. To have used bullhorns, spotlights, or loud speakers in this residential] area would have only exacerbated the Situation by at- tracting crowds and thereby exposing more persons to a potentially dangerous situation. One only has to recall the gun battle occurring when the police were involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army in Los Angeles a few years ago to realize that the police chose a wise and prudent course in attempting to Serve their warrant by way of surprise when the purpose of seizing the weapons could be accomplished with the least likelihcod of harm to anyone. As to why this did not go as planned will ultimately apparently have to be