VIEWS OPINIONS
EDITORAL
I ADDITIO, Clinton ap
peared with Sen tor Nunn of Geor
gi at booth camp where hallowed
himself to be photographed with a
phalanx of African-American in
ma in the bac groun . It would
appear that Ointon wants to end
clear signal that he i indeed tough
on crime.
Though he claims to be liberal on
civil rights, Clinton has been le
than vigore in fighting for civil
right legi lation in the State of
Ar ns . And recent revelations
. have it that Cinton frequently play
golf at an all white country club near
little Rock.
,WITH JES E JACKSO
electing not to run in 1992 and the
mbition of Virginia Governor
Doug Wilder faltering in New
Hamp hire, the path w clear for
Clinton to fulfill the DLC'
"southern trategy." Clinton wept· Clinton is not likely to be called a
Super Tuesday and in so doing w hostage of labor a "special interest
propelled into the position of group" either. He has a dubious labor
frontrunner. record at best. He J:w never launched
Essentially Cinton a moderate- a determined effort to overturn
conservative who is well suited to Arkansas' right-to-work law. In fact
carry out the DLC'. strategy for win- Clinton has touted Arkansas' cheap
nmg the White House. 'Though he " labor cost as an inducementto attract
favors modest reductions in defense"" business to the tate. '
tion.
Warning that Je e J coon'
brand of po!!ti in particular, and
liberali m in general, are a liability
for Democratic pre idential pira
tions, Clinton garnered substantial
DLC upport for his 1992 run for the
Democratic nomination.
irons and suffered bruises in his
. mouth, eyes, chest and stomach in
addition to having his dental plate'
cracked as a result of a blow from
McMillan. This incident happened
in 1983. It has taken all this time for
the case to work through the federal
courts once Hudson ued McMillan
and other prison officials for "cruel
and unusual punishment," in
violation of the Eighth Amendment
to the U.S. Co�titution.
. THE MAJORITY opinion was
wri tten by Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor. Even though Justice
o 'Connor is a judicial conservative,
she voted to declare the kind of
treatment that Hudson received in
the Loui iana prison to be wrong and
unconstitutional. O'Connor stated;
"When prison official maliCiously
and sadistically use force to cause
harm, contemporary tandard of
decency are always violated. This .
true whether or not ignificant injury
. i evide "
We ow that one of the �IUID
so many prisoners become repeat
offenders is directly related to the
manner in which they are treated in
the prison ystem. Brutalizing a
defensele prisoucr will do nothing
. .
Cru I and unu ual:
The hornas tandard
toward rehabilitation. Of COUlSe,
most prison officials know this and
that is exactly why prison brutality is
so pervasive and permissive in our
society. Prison inmates sometimes
are viewed as being less than human
and thus are the-victlms of inhuman
treatment
It is said that a prison is a mirror
image of the society that maintains
the prison. It i important, therefore,
that tile courts requite a tandard of
h\UD.an rights in regard to prisoner's
rights issues. A society that allows
the brutalization of its prisoners is a
ociety in need of change.
Thomas appears to believe that a
pri on inmate i not entitled to the
standard of constitutional protection
from brutality. In his dis enting
opinion, Thom wrote, "Today's
expansion of the cruel and unusual
punishment clause beyond all
bounds of history and precedent i , I
suspect, yet, another manifestation
of the pervasive vie that the
Constitution must address
all ill ill our ociety."
This goe counter to the
entimen that Thomas testified to
under oath during his confirmation
hearing before the U.S. Senate.
There Thoma had said that he
I •
The fety and environmen
record of m of th b ine
tr ct d to the tate by Clinton'
mong th orst in the nation. . ... /.
I '�
Clinton' Iso an unapologe e" f
proponent of the orth Ameri "',
Free T e Agreement with Mexi h
hich, currently drawn, 0
further margin lize merican
wor e . ..,.. .
•• .J
ACCORDINGTOtheP id ,
of the Arlca AFL-ClO, and re�,.
re entative of the UAW, Clint
ctuall y used his office to und�Mr,
min trik in the tate in favor of
big b ine in Arta • " !.
All of the above ugge ts t t
Clinton will be quite an even match,
for George Bush. If Clinton C4, •
avoid further embarrassments like
Jerry Brown' amb h in the Con
necticut Primary, the DLCwill final;
ly have the match-� it's be�Jb
looking for; a conte t between a.
Republican and Republicratl .... "
" "
Ron Daniels serves as Presidenl�
for the Community Organization aMf·
Development in Youngstown, Ohit9._
He may be contacted at (216) 746-
5747. . ....
, t·
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III I
LA. M. £1.5
Frustrated by Walter e'
humili tin defe t t the of
Ronald Re gan in 1 , the OLe
emb ed on co calcul ted to
produce a moderate-co erv tion
on of the South the Democratic
nominee for Pre ident by 1988.
THE DLC conclud d that the .
Democratic Party d to bift to the
right on i sue uch a defense,
crime, affirm tive action and civil
righ nd fi al policy.
In other words the Democratic
P rty would have to ound more
"Reaganesque" in order to recapture
those Democrats who had defected
from the party to upport Ronald
Reagan.
An integral component of the
DLC's trategy wa to create ·a
vehicle for a moderate-conservative
to come out of the South with a full
head of steam a me of eclipsing
any liberal candidate that might do
well in the early primari in Iowa
and New Hampshire.
Super Tuesday, holding most of
the southern- primaries on one day in
early March, was concocted the
vehicle to achieve that end.
That strategy might have worked
in '88 with Senator AI Gore of Ten
nessee as the Candidate, except for
one major oversight - Jesse Loui
Jackson.
l
Given the astounding high dlte of
incarceration of African Americans
in prisons across the nation, one
would at least assume that Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas
would have an ounce of sensitivity
on the issue of cruel and unusual
punishment toward prisoners in state
and federal penal institutions.
But, unfortunately, Justice
Thomas has acted and ruled against
the interest of those who are mo t
often victimized in this society, that
is, those who are imprisoned.
In fact, it was another
"embarras ment" for all
communities who respect human
dignity for Thomas to write such a
ruthless opinion, which could be
used to justify prison brutality.
Fortunately though, the majority of
the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that
excessive force against prisoners is
unconsti tutional.
The case before the Court was
Hudson vs. McMillian which arose
out of an incident in Louisi
infamou Angola State Pri OD.
Kei th Hudson wa an inmate in
Angola Prison and was beaten b dly
by correctional officer Jack
McMillian. Hudson was beaten
whilehandcuffedand hackledinleg
. BENJAMIN
CHAVIS'
CIVIL
RIGHTS
JOURNAL
wanted to be on the Supreme Court
to ''bring something different to the
Court" in terms of an interest in
helping the court to deal with the
underprivileged in particular the
incarcerated. .
THOMAS HAD EVEN said to
Senate, "I say to himself almost
everyday, But for the grace QfGod,
there go I" ... referring to groups of
prisoners'that he used to see. '
Well, it is our hope that brothet
Thomas does not have the
misfortune to be imprisonccl give�.
his proclivity to support the right 0
prison officials � beat up inmates. I I
Justice O'Connor put it in her
response to Thomas' dissenL She
stated, "To deny, the dissent does,
the difference between pUDChiDg a
prisoner in the face and rving him
unappetizing food is to ipo� the .
concept of dignity, civiliz�
standards, humanity and decency."