Police said they took seven people into custody for violating the curfew. all younger than 21. The seven were released to their parents, and no further charges will be filed. Police told most passers-by that they should not be on the streets because of the curfew, but did not detain them.
Coffee
No demonstrators even entered the Square, and the police there bided their time drinking coffee supplied by the Bick or walking to the Pewter Pot. which remained open for the police.
A police photographer took motion pictures of a riot-equipped policeman who turned slowly in a circle for the benefit of the camera.
The curfew was lifted at 6 a.m. Not one window in the Square had been broken.
The police tactics Wednesday differed sharply from those of July 25. when they maintained low visibility-to avoid provoking the kids-until a crowd gathered on the Common stormed into the Square unchecked and broke dozens of windows.
The merchants, in their meeting earlier Wednesday, asked Cambridge officials for high police visibility in the next expected espoused.
Over 100 members of the Harvard Square Merchants' Association, meeting in the Brattle Theatre, warned Mayor Al Vellucei, City Manager Corcoran, Police Chief James Reagan, and five city councillors that riot damage had been very costly and had to be stopped.
Mean Business
Zavelle said yesterday the merchants asked that police move in quickly but give unruly crowds a chance to disperse. "But if a group wants to test the police-wants to see if they mean business-then the police should use whatever means are necessary, as they did Wednesday night."
Zavelle said the merchants realize that many young people "are dissatisfied with this society for many good reasons." But "we can't solve all the world's problems here. Just because people think Cambridge is the place to be-they're creating the problem. Cambridge can't be home and mother to them."
Representatives of the merchants had talked with representatives of groups which work with street people-Sanctuary, the Cambridge Problem Center,and the First Unitarian Church. The merchants had been told they should help finance bigger drug clinics, a halfway house with perhaps 300 beds, job training programs, and public baths and latrines.
"We simply can't absorb all that cost and survive ourselves," Zavelle said.
"We don't want to be the place to be," Zavelle said. So the merchants asked police to "get the least desirable [street people] out" of the Square.
"We're asking the police to try to do this reasonably. with restraint and with human dignity." he added.
A five-man merchants committee is being set up to work with the police and the city manager in making plans.
The merchants feel that their campaign is absolutely essential. Riot damage is only part of the problem. Zavelle said the Coop received 100 calls yesterday asking if the Square would be safe for shopping last night. Other potential shoppers presumably just go somewhere else.
Unpleasant
People like to shop in pleasant places, Zavelle said, and most middle-aged customers no longer consider the Square, with its incredible assortment of freaks, a pleasant place.
Maybe "the kids in Harvard Square remind them too much of their own children," Zavelle added.
The merchants are betting that shoppers will find the increased police presence more pleasant than the onetime flower children.
And, Zavelle said, "the tide runs in and the tide runs out." The Harvard Square merchants hope the tide of street people is running out.