Runaways and Hippies Bring Growing Problem
(UPI)-If there is anything most parents fear, it is that their adolescents might turn hippie. And if there’s a magnet for teeny hoppers, it’s San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District, the nation’s hippie capital. Tile result is trouble. Runaways are flocking here to the hippie world of wild costumes, LSD, marijuana, electronic music and easy sex. Juveniles are turning up from Miami, Washington, New York, Montreal and points in between, as well as nearby communities. Recently, 14 teen-age girls from Fresno, Calif., were picked up by police. in one swoop. The number, escalating weekly, is double or triple of normal, according to the Juvenile Bureau chief, Lt. Andrew Kristensen. And in the forthcoming “summer of love,” the hippies expect as many as 200,000 youths—many penniless.
Among the visitors will be more runaways. Police say the hippies have their own nation-wide “communications networks.” Through newspapers in several cities, letters and word of mouth, hippies all seem to know where to go. And teen-agers easily come by the same lists of places to get food and shelter. Most hippies will open their doors to any sympathetic stranger. The lists are so extensive that one probation officer talks of “an underground railroad network” among California’s coastal cities.
Once in the bizarre Haight Ashbury, Kristensen complains, “You can’t recognize them. They can get lost for six months.” The hippies, youthful rebels who reject most of their parents’ values, bewilder adult eyes with beards, long hair and theatrical garb. But in the church basement office of the Diggers, a hippie self-help organization, they say, “You can spot runaways right off.” On one wall is a gallery of photos sent by frantic parents, and on the other wall an Oriental hanging and a sign, “Sex Is Good For You.” A young girl opens the door, and Eric Zavatterro, 18, wearing a silver necklace, says: “I don’t want to say anything freaky, like how old you are. But did you split last week?”
The girl, it turned out, was 18, a legal age to be away from home. Marcia already has had one marijuana arrest and was on her way “to the country.” The Diggers arrange for the return home of three or four runaways each day. Police are picking up a daily half-dozen. Arthur Lisch, a Digger leader, warned city officials months ago of the growing runaway problem, and asked unsuccessfully for help in setting up shelters, run by hippies, to give temporary care to juveniles. When the Diggers find a runaway, they don’t rush to the phone. They let the teen-ager talk, and “accept him for what he is." “Everybody here knows what they are running for, what they are looking for,” says Mike Donaldson, 23, former San Jose, Calif., gas station attendant.
“We give them help.” Sometimes the Diggers call certain doctors and ministers, friendly to them, for volunteer help in talking with the runaway. But usually the Diggers contact the parents only when the runaway gives his permission. And when the parents come, says Lisch, “We try to shake them up.” He believes the parents, not the children, are the guilty ones. When a child runs away, family communication has broken down, and Lisch says some leave home just to scare parents into recognizing the problems. The trouble with the Diggers’ activity is, it’s illegal to harbor a runaway. “I don’t see why the hippies are concerned about runaways,” says Inspector Edward Barden of the Missing Persons Bureau.
“It’s not their job.” Lieutenant Kristensen Is considering felony child stealing charges or misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquicy of minors. Normally, runaways are picked up by police and taken to the Youth Guidance Center. Hipies claim the center is really a jail which exposes decent runaways to brutal criminals, homosexuals and heroin addicts. Kristensen replies that at least the guidance center has staff professionals schooled in dealing with problem children. Also, he says the arrest is a warning to authorities that a juvenile may be turning bad. Lisch feels, “All the guidance center does is to make the kid feel guilty and the parents selfrighteous.”
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#HAIGHTASHBURY
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