Frank E. Taylor, editor-in-chief of the trade division of McGraw Hill, the large publishing house, said, "He must be assured of every protection for his person and his rights."
A group of eleven writers and editors in New York said the Oakland cops "have made no secret of their plans for extermination of the Panthers should they get their hands on them." Signers included Susan Sontag, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Warren Hinckle III, publisher of Ramparts, and Christopher Lehmann-Haupt.
Peter Camejo, Socialist Workers party candidate for U.S. Senate in California, said in a statement to the press, "It is very clear that Bobby James Hutton was assassinated by the Oakland cops. This is a case of out-and-out murder, just like Dr. King's murder in Memphis, only in this case it was done by the cops.
"Hutton's murder clearly demonstrates the immediate need to remove all cops from the ghettos and to replace them with democratically controlled, deputized ghetto residents, who would protect instead of brutalize Afro-Americans."
Charles Garry, attorney for Cleaver and other imprisoned Black Panther leaders, has announced that he will ask that murder charges be filed against the Oakland police in the death of Hutton.
In Los Angeles local police broke into the office of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee April 5, arresting three SNCC members there on phony charges. The cops reportedly wrecked the office, breaking mimeograph machines, smashing doors and windows, and smearing mimeograph ink on the floor. The organization's mailing list was missing following the police attack.