In the confusion of the attack, the police charge swept over and
injured many bystanders. The newspapers were equally random in
their reports. The News called it a demonstration of "striking long-
shoremen;" it was not, as the New York Times reported. The News
counted one unidentified sixteen-year-old girl and twenty-four men
hospitalized with head injuries. The Chronicle said nineteen persons
had been treated; two youths "were reported to have been shot
and subsequently spirited away." Harry Bridges testified later that
a number of the young people, frightened, uncertain-"! would say,
young boys and girls about sixteen or seventeen"-had been hidden
from the police in the ILA hall. 2 Henry Schmidt also witnessed the
attack from a window in the ILA hall. "Isn't that a helluva way to
treat those kids," he commented to a longshoreman alongside him.
"Ah, hell," the guy said, "They're just a bunch of Commies." Some
time later, Schmidt again was watching police chase "several hun-
dred guys" with tear gas and shotguns, among them the man who
had watched the police attack the "Commies." Schmidt watched
him run into a second bunch of cops and start to jump the fence. At
that moment a cop fired-"That guy's ass was riddled with buck-
shot." Schmidt said he never got around to asking the guy how he
felt about the police after that.