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CHAPTER 9 "Law and Order Have Been Restored to Detroit": July 25-August 2, 1967 I The Department of the Army's July 24 instructions to General Throckmorton for Operation Garden Plot, the code name for the army's civil disturbance plan, directed him to use "minimum force" in Detroit, but without jeopardizing his mission "to restore or maintain law and order." The army was to apply force, according to the instructions, in the following order of priority: (1) unloaded rifles with bayonets fixed and sheathed; (2) unloaded rifles with bare bayonets fixed; (3) riot control agent CS (gas); and (4) loaded rifles with bare bayonets fixed. Only Throckmorton was authorized to order the use of gas. He was to take advice from the Department of Justice regarding the "political implications " of his assignment and was to be "responsive" to Cyrus Vance's instructions, but he was not to take orders from state and local civil authorities. I To simplify the "command structure" and to keep the two forces entirely separate, Throckmorton and Vance decided to deploy the paratroopers east of Woodward and to concentrate the Guard on the west side of town. The assumption of the two men when they made this decision early on July 25 was that the east side would be the more "active" of the two riot sectors, an assumption based on their understanding of the pattern of incidents during the late hours of July 24. The eastern riot zone, also, was closer to Selfridge Field, the initial staging point of the paratroopers, whereas the Artillery Armory, the major Guard staging point, was closer to the western riot zone.2 As Throckmorton later recalled, his decision to use Woodward as the dividing line between the paratroopers and the Guardsmen was spur of the moment. When President Johnson phoned to inquire how he would use the two forces, he had not yet decided the matter; but since he 219 220 Violence in the Model City noticed on the city map lying on the table in front of him that Woodward ran through the center of the city, he told the presiderit that he would use that as the boundary line between the two units. "It was just blind luck," Throckmorton recalled.3 In accordance with his instructions, Throckmorton ordered all paratroopers and Guardsmen at 4:00 A.M. on July 25 to unload their weapons and not to fire unless ordered to do so by a commissioned officer. The order, as Adjutant General Schnipke reported it, was, "You will unload all weapons. You will put the round[s) in your pocket[s). You will not fire at looters. You will return fire on snipers only on the command of a commissioned officer." Each paratrooper, but not the Guardsmen, carried a card reminding him not to fire unless authorized by an officer or "when required to save my life."4 When Throckmorton visited General Simmons on the morning of July 25, he told the commander of the 46th Division that he wanted an officer to take statements and to investigate every shooting incident. "This is not my idea," Throckmorton said, "this comes from the bossthe president." He said that the president called him every thirty or forty minutes and wanted to know what was "going on." The Guard, however, does not appear to have fully complied with Throckmorton's reporting instructions. "We were supposed to fill out those goddam reports after every exchange of fire," one Guardsman declared, but "You can't fight a battle and be filling out forms. We just shot and forgot."s Believing that a loaded gun offered no protection against being shot at in a built-up area and that he was "confronted with a group of triggerhappy , nervous" Guardsmen, Throckmorton sought by his firing order to avoid "too rapid [a) response" by individual Guardsmen as well as paratroopers. The Guard command "disagreed . . . entirely" with Throckmorton on the use of firearms. "How can you tell the soldier[s) to arm their weapons, and to fire, and the next instant you unload them?" Schnipke asked. Were Guardsmen, Guard commanders asked, to remain passive when looting and sniping occurred in their presence if no officer was present to authorize them to load and fire, and how were Guardsmen riding on fire trucks with unloaded weapons to protect themselves and the firemen to whom they had been assigned? When Simmons asked Throckmorton if his weapons order meant looters were to be permitted to escape if...

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