Aj Committee Study Shows Charges by Pres. Pompidou on Chicago Visit Are Unfounded

Charges by French President Georges Pompidou and his staff regarding their visit to Chicago last February 28–that demonstrators were unruly and ill-mannered, and that the police were in complicity with them–are unsupported by the facts, according to a report released today by the American Jewish Committee. The report by Milton Ellerin, a former FBI agent, and director of AJC’s Trends Analyses Division, was based on information obtained from 19 eyewitnesses to the event, plus examination of television films and news pictures. Among the eyewitnesses were high Chicago Police Department officials who accompanied M. and Mme. Pompidou when they entered and left the Palmer House, where the demonstration occurred, and a security officer who also accompanied them in and out. Other witnesses were city officials assigned to the demonstration, TV and radio reporters on the scene, and several youths who allegedly accosted the Pompidous as they left the hotel.

Chief among Mr. Ellerin’s conclusions was that the unwitting offenders were not demonstrators–most of whom were Jewish, protesting France’s decision to sell planes to Libya–but rather the accompanying members of the press and security people. “The evidence is clear that the demonstrators did not at any time jostle, strike, assault, spit upon, threaten, or otherwise abuse the visiting French dignitaries,” he stated. He also declared that no evidence could be found to suggest that the Chicago Police Department conspired with the demonstration planners to embarrass or harass the Pompidou party. Commenting on the conduct of the demonstrators as they assembled and afterwards Mr. Ellerin reported:

“It was a heterogeneous demonstration, predominantly Jewish, although nuns in habit were observed, marching with the demonstrators. It is a matter of record that not one single demonstrator was arrested and no violence erupted despite the fact that one demonstrator was injured when struck by ice cubes dropped from a hotel window, and the release of a stench bomb by a counter-demonstrator.” Mr. Ellerin added that “Palmer House management reported that in all their years of experience with demonstrations, the one on the evening of February 28 was among the most orderly and peaceful on record.” Quoting Deputy Police Superintendent James E. Rocheford,the report noted that “security precautions around the Palmer House at that moment were stronger than those provided for President Nixon when he visited Chicago approximately a month before.”