Citizens, Outsiders Clash at Middleport, 5 Injured
May 30, 1971
A spontaneous clash erupted Monday, between some Middleport
townspeople who were viewing the Memorial Day parade and services, and an outside faction numbering 40 or 50 persons.
Five persons were known to be injured. Four were treated at Pottsville Hospital and released.
The injured: Councilman Elmer Evans, Middleport: abrasions of the elbow and scalp; Edward Bachert, New Philadelphia: fractured nose; Craig Henry, Auburn: abrasions of the right hand; John Purcell, New Philadelphia: laceration of the right eye and abrasions of the right cheek; Randy Kramer, Auburn: was treated for a nose injury at the Good Samaritan Hospital.
It was reported that the outsiders wanted to disrupt the program, because District Attorney Richard B. Russell was the speaker.
Russell said that the first time he knew of something out of the ordinary, was when Anthony Russek, Commander of the American Legion Post No. 144, of Middleport, informed him that a crowd was gathering at the cemetery at the eastern end of town, towards Brockton.
Russell said that the parade was held up about an hour, until State Police arrived. He said there was no incident during the parade.
Russell said that shortly after the program began at the playground, there was activity on the main street, but those at the services could not see what was going on, because the houses obscured the view. He said he was told that Middleport people stopped the outsiders from coming to the ceremonies.
Russell said that a few weeks ago, several persons were beaten up in
a
fire house in Orwigsburg. He said the Orwigsburg people appealed to his office for help, and he sent one of his detectives to assist the local police in the investigation. He said this
led to the arrest of two men; one of whom was believed to be among the demonstrators at Middleport.
Russell said he spoke on the problems facing Americans, including disturbances on campuses and in cities.
Russek said about nine State Troopers from Schuylkill Haven and Mahanoy City barracks sealed off the east end entrance into the borough until the parade was over.
Russek said he was told about 20 carloads of young people were involved in the fracas. He said the services at the playground were just beginning, and the Rev. Charles Grotnik, of St. Joseph's Church, Middleport, was giving the invocation, when he heard a disturbance about a block away.
He said a free-for-all broke out between the townspeople and the
outsiders. Some of the cars bore New Jersey licenses. There were women and children in the group.
Russek said the fight lasted about 20 minutes. He said he was told one or two persons "pulled out knives". He said he did not know who started the fight.
He said a young man back from Vietnam told him he had spent over a year defending the Vietnamese, and he would also fight to defend his home town.
Mayor Jacob Alansky estimated the protest group as between 50 and 60 persons. He said two of them came into town, and asked him where Russell was speaking. Alansky said he called the State Police.
Reprinted from an article in the Pottsville
Republican on the above date.
Second "Battle of Middleport" Fizzles
June 2, 1971
Town Readied For Fight
There was anger and fear in the tiny borough of Middleport again
Thursday afternoon.
A large group of men gathered in front of a service station on
Route 209 and glared at passing motorists; an ominous looking bag of
baseball bats stood nearby.
One man said, "There are tire irons and blackjacks, too.... let
them come!"
Outside a corner store, there were more men and youths. "They're
coming back, and we are ready for them."
Off the highway, and toward the main section of the community,
nervous women sat on porches and glanced left and right with apprehension
every time a car approached. State Police vehicles wheeled in and out of
town; in and out of this street and that street.
Mayor Jacob Alansky, wearing his police officer's hat and badge,
told citizens not to worry; that they would be protected.
School classes had been terminated earlier than usual, and
children were being hustled to their homes in buses and parents' cars. A
mother with a baby in her arms opened and closed a porch door, and
hurriedly drew a blind; a woman ran nearly a block to her home, a little
child tagging along behind her.
A burly-looking man grinned and said, "We're going to have at it
again!"
A group of elderly people found consolation in a report that roads
had been sealed off, and "they'll never get by."
All available manpower in the borough had been rounded up, and
some children had been sent out of town.
The whole afternoon was an offshoot from the Memorial Day fracas,
when a group of invading "hippies" clashed with irate townspeople for
about twenty minutes, before being run out of the area.
Yesterday, because of a telephone call to Mayor Alansky,
Middleport believed the Auburn and Orwigsburg group, bolstered by friends
from New Jersey, were coming back; and the borough prepared itself for
trouble that never came.
Nothing at all happened.
In Auburn, Steve Renninger, one of the group which invaded
Middleport Monday, expressed surprise when told that the town was
barricaded and armed. "We're not going back there again; what would be the
point?" he asked.
The call the Mayor received Thursday warned that the "hippies"
were organizing a return to Middleport some time that afternoon.
Alansky would not reveal the identity of the caller, saying, "I
was warned by a party, but I'm not saying who." , but he stated that State
Police also received a similar call.
Calm returned to Middleport last night, and reports from the
borough this morning indicated that the atmosphere there was peaceful.
Monday, The Day It Started
They came in peace---men, women and children---walking quietly; wanting no
trouble. They were ambushed by a frenzied crowd, and they fled in terror
of being injured or killed.
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They came running up the street, swinging belts with heavy buckles;
brandishing knives; and intent upon disrupting a small community's
Memorial Day ceremonies for its war dead; the townspeople had to protect
their children and properties, and they attacked.
********************************************************************************************
They parked on the outskirts of the borough, and started walking in a
large body down the street, where they were met by local citizens; the
State Police did everything possible to control the situation, but lacked
the necessary manpower; they concentrated their efforts on protecting the
fleeing group from out-of-town.
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What really happened in Middleport Monday, when a crowd of bearded
"hippies" clashed with townspeople during Memorial Day services?
If you weren't there, you have to rely on reports; and they are
varied; depending on whether they come from the "long hairs", Middleport
authorities, or the State Police, who sent details from two barracks to
the scene.
The fight lasted about 20 minutes, and several persons were
injured, five of them needing hospital treatment.
The trouble erupted when a group of 40 persons from the
Orwigsburg-Auburn area invaded the borough to protest against District
Attorney Richard B. Russell, the main speaker at the memorial ceremonies.
The protesters claimed that they walked into a trap set by the
Middleport people and State Police.
John Moerder, Orwigsburg; and Steven
Renninger and Craig Henry, both of Auburn, said that they were with a
group of 20 men, 15 females, and about five small children, who went to
Middleport to "express dissatisfaction with the way justice is being
handled in the Courthouse; particularly in the case of William Carson, of
Pine Grove RD 3, who was committed to prison in January, to serve a
three-to-six year term for the armed robbery of Dr. Herbert Rubright's
Schuylkill Haven residence in February, 1969."
District Attorney Russell suggested that the group was there to
protest his office's investigation into a fight, in which several persons
were beaten in an Orwigsburg fire house a few weeks ago. Russell said the
Orwigsburg people had appealed to his office for help; and that he sent
one of his detectives to assist the local police in the investigation. He
said the investigation had led to the arrest of two men; one of whom was
among the demonstrators at Middleport.
However, Moerder, Renninger and Henry said that the Orwigsburg
fight was in no way connected with their presence in Middleport.
The outsiders say they waited on the outskirts of town for 90
minutes until the parade had terminated, because "we didn't want to
interfere with or break up the borough's parade."
They had intended to carry posters and signs to the site where
Russell was speaking and stand behind the crowd, until the speech was
concluded. Then, they were going to leave Middleport.
They said that as they began their walk to the playground where
ceremonies were to be held, they passed by the State Police Troopers, who
"never even warned us that there might be trouble; that the people were
waiting for us with sticks and clubs. They never said you'd better turn
around; go home. They just let us pass right by."
"All of a sudden, people were jumping out at us from all sides,
yelling, "get off the streets and into the gutters where you belong," and
screaming, "Kill 'em; kill the long hairs; throw them over the bridge,"
Moerder reported.
Renninger says he was pushed onto the ground and punched
repeatedly. Another member of the group, Randy Kramer, was rammed headlong
into a porch by two men; several girls were slapped in the face and
knocked to the ground; a father and his five year old son, and a mother
and a six month old baby had to run, because the townspeople were after
them, they said.
"We weren't looking for trouble. We didn't even hit back at first;
we just tried to talk to the people, but they wouldn't listen. They just
kept yelling, "Kill them!"
"If they wanted us to leave their town, why didn't they just let
us; instead of ganging up on us; and why did they smash our car windows
when we were trying to leave?" Moerder asked.
The Russell protesters said the Police stood by, and offered no
assistance or protection during the fracas. One State Policeman was
reported to have said to the group, "You came here looking for trouble;
now you've got it."
Charges Denied
However, Trooper McCann of the Schuylkill Haven State Police barracks
contradicts statements alleging negligence of the nine man police detail
from the Schuylkill Haven and Mahanoy City barracks.
According to Trooper McCann, a call came in at 11:28 A.M. from
John Stefanek of Middleport, who reported that the town's parade was about
to start, and that the5re could be trouble from a group of "hippies from
outside of town".
McCann said police were dispatched immediately.
The Police report:
"About 40 individuals were a quarter of a mile east of Middleport
off Route 209, and they parked their cars at the Middleport American
Legion, and walked in a body towards the playground where the parade had
terminated.
When the descending group got to Main and Union Streets, they
were met by the townspeople, and mass confusion resulted. The officers
quickly assembled, and concentrated their efforts on holding back the
townspeople while the outsiders departed in their cars."
McCann said there were no arrests, and "How can you arrest anybody
when there's mass confusion?"
"We did everything within our power---within our manpower---and we
did it to the best of our ability," McCann stated.
The Middleport people aren't talking too much about their role in
the Monday incident. Several townsmen reportedly involved in the clash
have declined comment.
Mayor Jacob Alansky said that he was too far away from the scene
of the fracas to see or hear too much.
The Mayor did say that he had authorized Stefanek to notify State
Police after he learned that a large group of "hippies" were parked
outside of town. He said the parade was held up an hour; from 11 to 12;
until police arrived.
After the parade terminated, Mayor Alansky said he saw the
"hippies" parading up the Main Street sidewalk to Union Street. "Then,
everything happened so quickly, I missed seeing who started the fighting."
He said he did try to break it up, "but it was no use."
The Mayor said that no one approached the "hippies" to determine
what they were doing in Middleport, or why they were protesting. He also
said that the 'hippies' "didn't say a damned word to me about it, either."
Anthony Russek, Commander of Middleport American Legion post, was
at the services at the playground, and did not view the disturbance; but
he said that many of the reports he had received, indicated that the
outsiders "were looking for trouble."
Russek said Middleport residents claim that the "hippies" pulled
off their belts with heavy buckles, and were swinging them as they walked
and ran down the street.
Two of the "hippies" also were seen carrying knives, Russek said.
John Moerder said that only one member of the group carried a knife---a
small hunting knife which he carries at all times.
The Legion Commander said that the borough has been conducting
Memorial Day services for 49 years, and that the outsiders "had no right
to come into town to try to interrupt them".
He explained that the townspeople "only acted out of fear that the
protesters would come back to the playground and possibly hurt many of the
children who were there".
He also questioned whether the protesters were all local
residents, since several of their cars reportedly had New Jersey tags.
The Wrong Time,The Wrong Place
Editorial from the Pottsville Republican
Tempers have cooled, and the incident apparently has been closed,
but in retrospect, the fracas at Middleport on Memorial Day has further
divided the mature adults and the young people of our country.
The over 30's who have had occasion to gather with young people
since Memorial Day---at wedding receptions and family get-togethers---have
found them overwhelmingly in favor of the "right" of the so-called
"hippies" to go to Middleport and demonstrate against the District
Attorney, Richard Russell.
We agree that citizens, young or old, do have a
right to peacefully demonstrate against any government policy or any
government official. We also believe that the people of Middleport have
the right to be left alone when they gather to honor the memory of those
from their community who have fought to defend the nation.
It was the wrong time, the wrong place for any
demonstration---peaceful or not.