Doherty says he and other members of the TPF were told by their superiors to use their numbers to subdue the crowds of demonstrators in the Square.

"Whoever the commander was at the time told us to move around from one spot to another," he says. "We were in a wedge formation, to divide, to break [demonstrators] up into a smaller group."

Some of the protestors reacted violently towards the officers, Doherty recalls.

"They were throwing bottles and different types of missiles from their windows in Harvard," he says. "There was a police officer to my left, and the protestors came up to him and kicked him in the groin and he went down, so another police officer went up and took the spot in the formation."

"The guy to my right, I remember he got hit in the face with a brick," Doherty adds. "The shield shattered, so they took him out and another guy took his place. We just kept moving and dividing them."

When asked about the excessive police brutality that is explicitly detailed in so many accounts of the 1969 riots, Doherty says he never saw any firsthand, "but there probably was, I wouldn't be surprised."

"We use whatever force is necessary, but we don't go out of our way to annihilate anybody or physically beat them," he says. "We just have to keep moving, that's all."

"I'm sure the police officers [who cleared the building] were angry. I know I was," he adds.

Doherty says the officers found it necessary to use the baton which was part of their riot gear. He says this club was used "to keep the crowds moving."

"They were trying to get in between us. We had to keep moving. If they get in, they break the formation," he says. "We just kept coming, forcing them out."

But for all the specialized gear and tactical training, Doherty says that from his perspective at the time, "I didn't think we were successful at all. But I couldn't account for the other police departments. I know that we were separating them, then we moved someplace else, then we'd come back and start again."

The apparent failure of that first day was to recur.

"I was there, I don't know, for two or three days. They were long and frustrating days, tiring days," he admits. "It seemed like the crowd was approximately the same size each day. I don't know where they all came from, but it seemed like it never dwindled."

Nonetheless, Doherty says he and his fellow officers remained intent on their orders and in formation, trying to ignore the comments of the protestors.

"We were just focused on the group ahead of us, not what was coming from behind us," he says. "Your mission is to look in front of you, not behind you, you have people marching at your left, right, front and back."