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FeedThe Hippie Trials
Photos by Bob Krueger
(page 1 of 2)
The infamous “Hippie Love-In” of Aug. 6, 1967, at Paepcke Park forever changed Aspen. There were drums and flutes, long hair and beards, halter tops and bellbottoms, hippies wearing garlands of flowers. Episcopal Bishop James Pike, a visiting lecturer at the Aspen Institute, addressed the Love-In with a message of peace. Realizing that he had a willing audience, Pike called for an impromptu protest march across town to the vacation home of then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, “architect” of
the Vietnam War.
One hundred strong they chanted anti-war slogans. Eventually, McNamara came to the door and the crowd quieted. The Secretary explained that he would discuss the war with the protestors, but not during his vacation. Demonstrators shouted: “The war is not on vacation!” Aspen artist Tom Benton approached with a handmade peace poster and presented it to McNamara, who shook hands with Benton. The crowd, apparently satisfied, dispersed.
“The war cannot be forgotten,” editorialized the Aspen Times, “even amid the sanctity of Aspen’s mountains. Aspen, which prides itself on being a fount of humanism, art, and culture, may at last be awaking to the fact that it cannot completely escape from the unpleasant face of the world outside.” America was roiling with civil rights marches, riots and anti-war protests, verging on literal civil war.
The “Hippie Love-In,” which occurred on Hiroshima Day, was an expression of that world. It was also a gauntlet thrown at the feet of the police authority headed by Guido Meyer, a restaurant owner and the police magistrate whose approach reflected his conservative Swiss upbringing, as well as some strong American sentiments of the day. It was Guido, early in 1967, who decreed as head of the town clean-up committee that it wasn’t just trash that needed attention: “Nobody should hire any vagrant, beatnik or just plain dirty bum walking around town. Nobody should give them a place to stay or feed them.”
The Aspen Times came to the defense of the beleaguered hippies: “Rumors of police harassment periodically reach our ears,” warned a 1967 editorial. “They usually involve newcomers, often poorly dressed, often wearing long hair or a beard. Arrest, with flashlights and guns loose in holsters, could have been from a class C movie. The police wanted to crack down on so-called ‘undesirables’ with long hair, beards, or sandals. But having long hair, beards or sandals is not yet a crime in this country.”
It was a crime in Aspen, where clashes between hippies and the police mirrored the discontent that was sweeping the country. Hippies were the visible tip of the iceberg as Aspen wrestled with a schism between old and new residents, often with upheavals of hostility. The hippie invasion was seen by some as a social ill in need of strong medicine. Persecution came through prosecution when Guido was installed as magistrate. He ran his courtroom with an iron fist, as others like him were doing all over the country, and a sizable segment of the business community rallied around him.
