MR. WEINGLASS: Will you please state your name?

THE WITNESS: Sarah Diamant.

MR. WEINGLASS: Mrs. Diamant, what is Your present occupation?

THE WITNESS: I am a Teaching Fellow at Cornell University in American History, writing my doctoral dissertation.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, directing your attention to August of 1968, did you during that month come to the city of Chicago?

THE WITNESS: I did.

MR. WEINGLASS: During that period of time, what if anything. did you do while you were here?

THE WITNESS: We spent almost all of our time taping and filming on the streets of Chicago any place in which we heard or saw people who were involved in some way with the convention week in Chicago.

MR. WEINGLASS: What was your purpose in filming these events?

THE WITNESS: To use them as research material for my doctoral dissertation.

MR. WEINGLASS: Directing your attention to Wednesday afternoon, August 28, 1968, the early afternoon, where were you?

THE WITNESS: In the early afternoon we were in the Conrad Hilton Hotel at the Hubert Humphrey hospitality headquarters.

MR. WEINGLASS: When you say "we," who was with you?

THE WITNESS: My husband Ralph Diamant and James Sheldon.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now did there come a time when you left the Conrad Hilton Hotel and the McCarthy headquarters?

THE WITNESS: Yes, we did, later in the afternoon, probably just before five o'clock.  We walked north on Michigan Avenue, walked up to Congress Street to where the fountains are right near the bridge and saw quite a few people coming toward us over the bridge.

MR. WEINGLASS: And did you proceed to cross over the bridge?

THE WITNESS: No, we never crossed over it.  We were onto it about the center of the bridge.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now as you got to the center of the bridge, what, if anything, occurred?

THE WITNESS: A man with his head all bandaged and bloody came toward us, and he was being helped by several other people, and there was a policeman and he was shaking his finger at the policeman.  I turned on my microphone and the tape recorder and signaled my husband to start shooting.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, after you filmed this particular incident, could you see what was developing with the crowd there?

THE WITNESS: Yes, I could see over the heads of the civilians who were coming across the bridge towards me that there were Guardsmen.  A line of Guardsmen with their backs toward us facing a lot of people on the bridge.

MR. WEINGLASS: What, if anything, were the Guardsmen doing with their rifles at that point?

THE WITNESS: They had them pointed towards the people on the other side.

MR. WEINGLASS: What occurred?

THE WITNESS: There was a tall noncommissioned officer in the center of the Guardsmen with a spray can in his hand and he was motioning the other men in the line to direct their rifles one way or another.  They gassed the demonstrators who were facing them, and then we filmed it.  He turned around and saw us standing behind him and motioned to the man next to him, who had a rifle with some kind of a wide nozzle on it that shot gas out, and turned and gassed us.

MR. WEINGLASS: Then what did you do after you were gassed?

THE WITNESS: We turned around and went west, off the bridge.  As we came off the end of the bridge, a man in a white jacket and a red cross on his arm and a big bottle of water met us.  We were all coughing and sneezing and I had thrown up.  He gave us water and wiped off our faces.  We went back onto the bridge to see if we could.

MR. WEINGLASS: What, if anything, happened at this time?

THE WITNESS: There was a young man with dark hair who couldn't have been more than about twenty, twenty-one-he was talking to the line of Guardsmen with masks on their faces, and he finally got down on his knees in front of them and covered his face up with his hands, and he was gassed.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did you film that?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. WEINGLASS: Then what else did you see occur while you were standing there?

THE WITNESS: There were two other men.  One of them walked up to one of the bare bayonets and pulled up his shirt, put his stomach against the bayonet, pointed at it.  The third man stood confronting the bayonets with his hands on his hips.  These three people were gassed.  Then the tall man with the can in his hand motioned to the man at his side again, and we were gassed again, and moved back down again west on the bridge to the water fountain and splashed our faces.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, after you left the bridge where did you go?

THE WITNESS: Down toward the park opposite the Conrad Hilton Hotel.  It was very early evening, dusk.

MR. WEINGLASS: When you got down to the park across from the hotel what did you and your group do?

THE WITNESS: We saw a large number of people congregating in the street and two covered wagons coming down Michigan Avenue.  We followed them to the southern end of the Conrad Hilton Hotel on Michigan Avenue.  When we got to the intersection there was a line of police in the street, and we just couldn't go any further, so we went back again to the park, to the griss opposite the Conrad Hilton Hotel.

MR. WEINGLASS: What, if anything, happened with respect to the police and the demonstrators?

THE WITNESS: There was a kind of disorganized movement on the part of the police to push the demonstrators even farther back, and they did retreat, and the next thing I saw was a small group of people kneeling in the center of the street about twenty feet from the first line of police.  There was a priest, and a short woman with light brown hair, and a young man in a corduroy jacket.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now did you film that?

THE WITNESS: Yes.  At that point I went toward them with the microphone, and the camera, and the tape recorder, and we recorded and filmed the people
kneeling in the street and asked them what they were doing there.

MR. WEINGLASS: Could you see if there was anything being thrown from the demonstrators toward the policemen?

THE WITNESS: No, there was nothing being thrown that I could see at that point.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did the demonstrators sing anything to the police?

THE WITNESS: They were singing "America the Beautiful" at one point.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, did you film the priest getting up and walking toward the policeman?

THE WITNESS: Yes.  The young boy that was kneeling next to him got up and walked toward the police and just as they were arresting the woman who had been kneeling in the street, I heard a boy behind me shout, "Mace, Mace, Mace," and I got Maced, and Ralph grabbed me and the microphone and sort of half-carried, half-dragged me onto the sidewalk, and two young men in white jackets came over and poured a bucket of water over my head and then dried me off.

MR. WEINGLASS: Can You describe to the jury how your face and eyes felt after the Macing?

THE WITNESS: My eyes and the skin all, around the top of my face were burning.  I put mv hand up because it hurt, and sort of clawed at it, and a boy took my hand away and said, "Don't touch it." I realized what he meant because the moment I put my hand on the skin and pulled it down, the burning followed my hand right down my face, and I wanted to throw up, and I couldn't.  I just kept gagging.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did you go back into the street?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. WEINGLASS: Where was the group and the crowd in the street?

THE WITNESS: They had moved back; they were moving into the intersection on Michigan and Balbo and moved back almost that far, and there was a line, a straight line of people.  I got into the line facing the police.

MR. WEINGLASS: When the line moved backwards from the police, what if anything did the police do?

THE WITNESS: Then there was a sound of a siren, and some sort of truck came up from behind us, and some marshals, some mobilization marshals with bands around their arms, motioned people to move to either side of the street and to let the truck through.
    As soon as everybody broke the line and parted, police motorcycles began to come to the sides of the street and force people off the sidewalk and onto the ground, knocked people into doorways.  Policemen with clubs just began coming at the people in the center of the street, and we moved, and turned around and ran up Michigan, and then we turned left.

MR. WEINGLASS: As you were running, what if anything were the police doing?

THE WITNESS: They were beating people, pushing people up against the doorways of buildings.  And, I mean, we couldn't get any further onto the sidewalk we were on.  And there were masses of people on the sidewalk, and some people were trying to get into building and others were being beaten into doorways.  And I saw a policeman coming towards me, and I motioned to him with the microphone, that I had turned it off, and the camera was behind me.  I thought he would understand I wasn't a demonstrator, and he hit me.

MR. WEINGLASS: What happened?

THE WITNESS: He hit me across the neck and shoulders.

MR. WEINGLASS: What happened to you as you were hit?

THE WITNESS: I went down, and a man, there was a man standing in the doorway where I fell, he reached down to help me up, and the policeman hit him across the bridge of his nose and knocked his glasses off.

MR. WEINGLASS: And this man who attempted to assist you and was struck himself, was he filmed?

THE WITNESS: Yes, my husband filmed him sitting there with his head in his hands and a bloody wound on his head.

MR.WEINGLASS: Now, after that occurred, after you were beaten, what happened to you?

THE WITNESS: Well, we went further west and there was a restaurant or cafeteria of some sort on the corner.  We headed toward that.
    By this time I was with a girl who had been helping us with the taping-she grabbed my hand as we got to the restaurant and pulled me into a newspaper kiosk.  I turned around and what had happened was that a police car had stopped at the intersection and the two policemen had jumped out.  One of them had grabbed a boy who was standing in front of the restaurant, and was beating him.  Finally, the other policeman came and grabbed his mate and pulled him off the boy.  At this point, we just ran, we just left the newspaper kiosk and ran.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now, Mrs. Diamant, during the entire course of these incidents which you have described, what, if anything, did you have in your hands?

THE WITNESS: I had a microphone, and I had a 16-millimeter Air Flex camera on my shoulder.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did you ever have a stick in your hands?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. WEINGLASS:  Did you ever have a rock in vour hand?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did you ever assault a police officer?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. WEINGLASS: Did you ever shout an insult to a police officer?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. WEINGLASS: Now I show you a film marked D-145 for identification, and I ask if you can identify that film.

THE WITNESS: Yes.  Yes, it is a film we shot in Chicago.

MR. WEINGLASS: Is that film a true and accurate depiction of those events which occurred to you that day and evening and which you have testified here that you observed?

THE WITNESS: Yes, they are.

MR. WEINGLASS: And that happened to you?

THE WITNESS: Yes.

MR. WEINGLASS: At this point, your Honor, the direct examination is completed.  I offer into evidence the film marked D-145 for identification. [the film is shown to the jury with no objection.  The sound track follows:]

    Keep moving.  Justice you call it.  You have no feeling.  I mean, you can call me a longhaired freak, but that isn't what it's all about.
    Look at the police. call me soldier boy, I want to win.  I want to win.  I want to will if can.
    There's nothing worse on earth than to be hit on the top of your head real hard.
    Hey, you guys.  Those guns.  I ask you, my friends, for your future, don't leave.  Don't leave; go into the street.  Everybody, this is your country, and you stay in it and work with it to make sure the ideals you believe in are tlte ideals of the majority.  We need you. America's fight is coming because you're working carefully. steadily, and forever for the best interests of our country.  We can't--
    Walk on the sidewalk.  That's all we're asking you to do.  Quiet.  Walk on the sidewalk. 
    America, America, God shed his grace on thee.  This is a free country.  Call Mayor Daley.  I think it is a police night.  America, America.  Mace,  Mace, Mace.   Walk, walk, walk.  Leave the area, get out of here.  Let's stay and see what happens here.
    Hey, you, fucking, blow up the whole--
     Come on, man.  Peace, peace, peace.  America, America.  Get out of here.  No, no.  No, no we won't go.  Hell, no, we won't go.  Hell, no, we won't go.  Go to hell Hubert.  Go to hell Hubert.  Go to hell Hubert.  Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.  Hey. we want to stay.  Hey, hey, we want to stay.
    The next time anyone talks to you about law and order, I think you might suggest that the Democratic Party was the first party that ever managed to lose an election by law and order.  That is what they show, tonight (applause).  What they show tonight is such contempt inside and outside for the rights of American citizens that they have shone they are not fit to govern this country.
     This is the Army down here.  Isn't it wonderful to be in a free country where we can speak in front of bayonets (cheers).  But these people don't care, no.
     We walk down here to let you know, to let other delegates know, and to let the world know that the streets belong to the people (applause).

THE COURT: Do you have cross-examination?

MR. FORAN: Yes, your Honor, I do.  Mrs. Diamant, did you see any rocks, or bottles, or sticks being thrown from the crowd over there in Grant Park at the police line?

THE WITNESS: No, no.

MR. FORAN: Did you see anything being thrown from the crowd back here at the police line?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. FORAN: Did you see anything come out of the windows of the Hilton Hotel?

THE WITNESS: Toilet paper.

MR. FORAN: Did you see any ash trays or light bulbs?

THE WITNESS: No.

MR. FORAN: Did you hear any glass breaking in the streets?

THE WITNESS: Yes, I heard glass breaking in the streets, yes.  I saw the policemen put their plastic things down, you know, over their faces.

MR. FORAN: Did you see any policemen fall to the ground?

THE WITNESS: No, but I saw them sort of shifting away, the line was shifting, and they were pulling their visors down as though they were expecting trouble.

MR. FORAN: Now you remember in that film, Mrs. Diamant, and in your testimony, there were policemen who were squirting Mace?

THE WITNESS: I remember.

MR. FORAN: Did you know that that man was under indictment and was awaiting trial from the United States having--

MR. WEINGLASS: Your Honor, I object to that.

THE COURT: You mean the man he was squirting at?

MR. FORAN: No, your Honor, the man who was doing the squirting, the police officer.

THE WITNESS: That is encouraging.

MR. WEINGLASS: If this is Mr. Foran's way of confessing policemen's misconduct, he can do that in summation.

THE COURT: I will sustain the objection.

MR. FORAN: No further questions.

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CHICAGO 7 TRIAL HOMEPAGE