“Officer Bergin,” said the black lawyer. “I’m not clear about something. Did the defendant strike you before you asked him for the cane or after you attempted to take it from him?”

“Before. It was before. Yes sir.”

“You did ask him for the cane, then?”

“Yes sir. I asked him to turn it over.”

“And what did he do?”

“He hit me.”

“But if he hit you before you asked for the cane, then it must be true that you asked him for the cane after he had hit you. Is that right?”

“Yes sir.”

“In other words, after he had struck you in the face you were still polite enough to keep your hands off him and ask for the weapon.”

“Yes sir. That’s what I did.”

“In other words, he hit you twice. Once before you requested the cane and once after you requested it.”

The officer paused. “No sir,” he said quickly. “He only hit me once.”

“And when was that again?”

“I thought it was before I asked for the cane but I don’t know now.”

“But you did ask for the cane before he hit you?”

“Yeah.” The officer’s hands were in prayer again.

“Now, Officer Bergin, did he hit you because you asked for the cane or did he hit you in the process of giving it to you?”

“He just hauled off and hit me with it.”

“He made no effort to hand it over?”

“No, no sir. He hit me.”

“In other words, he struck you the moment you got close enough for him to swing. He did not hit you as you were taking the cane from him?”

The officer paused again. Then he said: “No sir.” He touched his face again, then put his right hand down to the area near his gun again. “I asked him for the cane and he hauled off and hit me in the face.”

“Officer, are you telling this court that you did not get hit until you tried to take the cane away from this soldier, this Vietnam veteran, or that he saw you coming and immediately began to swing the cane?”

“He swung on me.”

“Officer Bergin, did he swing on you, or did the cane accidentally hit you while you were trying to take it from him?”

“All I know is that he hit me.” The officer was sweating now.

“Then you don’t know just when he hit you, before or after you tried to take the cane from him, do you?”

The black detective got up and said in a very soft voice: “I object.”

The black lawyer for the defendant looked over at him contemptuously. The black detective dropped his eyes and tightened his belt, and sat down again.

“That’s all right,” the oily lawyer said. Then he looked at the officer again. “One other thing,” he said. “Was the knife still inside the cane or drawn when he hit you?”