Word: mp
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Later Saturday night, two soldiers were seen to drop their rifles, take off their ammunition belts and disappear into the crowd. One was later seen being led away by MP guards...
Charging towards the steps of the Pentagon, many marchers managed to bypass the Army's first line of defense and ran into a secondary wall of MP's. Piling up behind the MP's more troops moved in to re-inforce the original line; U.S. Marshals wearing white helmets, business suits and night sticks patrolled the lines. There was a little pushing on both sides, a few minor skirmishes, but nothing very serious. Most of the protestors were satisfied with the ground they had gained--what was later to be christened the "Free Pentagon"--and were convinced that the violence...
...whole spirit of the confrontation changed when some 500 demonstrators broke through the line of MP's from the North and raced toward the Mall entrance. While only two or three of the demonstrators actually made it to the door, hundreds of them sat down near the entrance. A number of them were lugged off to paddy wagons. Those who remained, still hemmed in by the MP's began to settle down for the night. By then, many of the reporters decided that the action was over and that they had worked a full day. But in truth the violence...
Word apparently had been passed to the troops that the last charge by the group of demonstrators who rushed the Pentagon doors was sufficient reason for cracking down on the protestors. The Marshals began to push the MP's forward until they were pressed against the sitting demonstrators. Then they would tell an unfortunate protestor to move--an absurd request because the seated crowd was packed knee. When he didn't move, they clubbed him and anyone who tried to hold onto him. Many of the demonstrators pleaded with the soldiers to drag people out instead of clubbing them...
...food. SDS loud speakers announced that three of the guards had defected and had then been recaptured by the military. Although it is hard to verify the defections, a number of the demonstrators say they saw at least one of the defectors. Right after the first announcement that an MP had "dropped his rifle, taken off his belt and helmet, and walked into the crowd," a soldier missing his rifle, belt, and helmet was marched (under what appeared to be armed guard) up the steps of the Pentagon and into the building...