The Frontier Fantasy Riot Adventure of Tomorrow (1970)

As kids, we had the opportunity each summer to talk our parents out of $15 or so (as I recall) to go on the school Disneyland trip. No teachers, no seatbelts, just a few school buses loaded with unaccompanied children headed for the happiest place on Earth. Each kid got a ticket book and was told to be back at the bus by 5:30. There must have been releases signed by every parent, but we didn't pay attention to that. We got the magic "Yes" and that was all we cared to know. In 1970 the trip fell on Thursday, August 6th; 18 days shy of my 10th birthday, and a date which I shall never forget.
Many of the details of the day are lost to time. I know for certain that I visited the shooting gallery in Frontierland because they let kids shoot guns there! Indeed, the happiest place on Earth! Seriously, what ten year old could resist kacking the piano player a few times? The guns shot BBs and you could see the target take the hit. Today the guns only shoot light, may as well just be TV remotes. I wonder if the attendant had a kill switch in case some kid pointed the gun toward the people walking by.
I'm pretty sure I'd noticed at least a few rude Hippie types during the course of the day. Turns out that they were "Yippies"; A group of politically radical hippies, active especially during the late 1960s. [From Y(outh) I(nternational) P(arty) (influenced by hippie).] per dictionary.com. It further turns out that they had sent flyers nationwide announcing a "pow-wow" at Disneyland for August 6th, 1970. Tens of thousands were expected. Police were on legendary "high alert" backstage in the park. Only a few hundred "Yippies" showed up, most without the money to buy admission. What a relief? Sure, unless you actually decide to let them into the park. The conditions? They would get in free, but they had to promise to behave... no kidding.
For most of the day things were tense, but under control. Long-haired Yoots were annoying people at random, perhaps to impress one another (free thinking rebels face peer pressure too you know), perhaps out of immature jerkiness. Either way, things came to a head right around the time we had to head back to the School bus for the trip back to San Diego. The clearest memory I have of that day (or year for that matter) is watching the absolute mayhem on Main Street. Tourists lined the sidewalks, cops and Yippies running everywhere. I watched a Yippie run up to a man on the sidewalk, kick him, and turn to run away as a cop caught up with him, knocked him down and began kicking him. There was smoke near the front gate that someone told me was the American flag burning. Shouting, running, hitting, total chaos. We got back to the bus, but had to wait for hours while lost kids were found and brought to where we were. We got home very late. Dad was upset, but not with us.
Pictures of that day are hard to find. I've searched "Disneyland riot" on a few engines, but I've only found a couple of photos, mostly grainy newspaper shots. I sure wish I'd had a camera with me.
Besides memory, I got info on that day from the book "Mouse Tales: A Behind-The-Ears Look at Disneyland" by David Koenig, and the blog post http://dannysland.blogspot.com/2005_12_18_dannysland_archive.html