Seventy-nine years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan
'They came in shooting and killed Mark'
Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in oil reprints.
THURsDAY, JANUARY 29, 1970
NIGHT EDITOR: JUDY SARASOHN
Packard-Beakes bypass
meets Model Cities
CITY PLANNING, more often than not,
is a problem of politics rather than
logic or need. Parks and playgrounds and
decent access roads go where political
power is high; obtrusive freeways, dumps
and inconvenient zoning go where po-
litical capital is low. Rather than ignore
such facts, a conscientious city govern-
ment will recognize them and try to use
them to its community's long-range ad-
vantage.
The present city administration would
betray a political trust were it to ignore
the Model Cities Policy Board request
that the so-called Packard-Beakes By-
pass be re-routed to avoid slicing through
a portion of the Model City area.
The problem must be considered in the
context of the plans for city transporta-
tion up to the end of the century. Altern-
atives in the plan must take into account
the entire city, and cannot always be re-
sponsive to the needs of every area.
The plans include a second n o r t h-
south pair, First St. and Ashley, in addi-
tion to Fifth and Division. This new pair
of one way streets would connect up with
Packard and Fuller to supply a medium
range traffic route to and from the cen-
tral business area.
BUT 'THESE plans require the use of
Beakes as a connector between Fuller
and Ashley, and Beakes cuts through a
relatively small segment of the Model.
City area. The small eight-block area is
divided into even smaller parts,. normal
community services are cut off from easy
pedestrian access and the level of traffic
is significantly increased in a strictly res-
idential area.
Although such typifications are tempt-
ing, honesty demands that one recognize
the complexity of the problem. Land has
already been acquired for the route and
demolition of existing units has already
begun. The proposed route is part of a
much larger plan that depends to a con-
siderable degree on each of its parts. The
community being disrupted is of ques-
tionable integrity.
BALANCED REPORT to the planning
commission from an assistant plan-
ning director noted some of the reasons
for the opposition to the proposed by-
pass. "The area provides a relatively low-
cost centrally located housing market for
low-income residents," ithe report says,
" . .this unique market is worth excep-
tional efforts at preservation an d, be-
cause of its limited nature, any loss as a
housing resource is serious.
"Enhancing physical mobility is an-
other factor to be considered . . . In an
area so conveniently located in relation'
to the City's core, facilitating pedes-
trian travel is as important, if not more
so, than vehicular traffic for low-income
residents."
The report goes, on to propose three al-
ternatives to the plans opposed by the
Model Cities group, including the latter's
own alternative.
It is the proposal of reasonable alter-
natives, that makes it incumbent on the
city to respect the needs and requests of
the Model Cities board. If Model Cities
either couldn't or wouldn't offer alterna-
tives, the City Council would have a much
more difficult decision to make. Fortun-
ately, it is not in that position. Rather, it
must only choose between one very; irri-
tating plan and two or three more ac-
ceptable ones. Alternatives that do not
violate the intents of the master plans.
With such options, the choice should be
obvious.
IN ADDITION, the political significance
of the request cannot be ignored. The
Democratic control of city government
depended crucially on the black commun-
ity for its electoral victory. This commun-
ity has no place to go but to the Demo-
crats to h a v e their pressing problems
taken care of, certainly not to this city's
Republican party, and a failure of the
Democrats to serve part of their constit-
uency would be intolerable.
It must be reiterated that such consid-
eration is not done at the disadvantage
of the rest of the city, or to any other
segment of the city. It is not, for once, a
case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. '
Politics is also a matter of mood. As
the mayor and other city officials well
know, political perceptions are as impor-
tant as political realities. The black com-
munity is long overdue for political bills.
Outstanding sore spots, such as the dump
yards, continue to ache. It is a needed act
of good faith that council honor the rea-
sonable demands of the black community
on the question of the Packard-Beakes
By-pass.t
-RON LANDSMAN
Managing Editor
By ALEXA CANADY
D ONNETTEA BREWER at 18 has lost
a child and has had her husband
killed in Vietnam. Now she walks with a
limp from the submachine gun bullet that
shattered her knee when the Illinois
State's Attorney's men raided a B l a c k
Panther apartment in Chicago on Dec.
4.
The petite girl who li m p e d up the
stairs went unrecognized for a few mo-
ments because she did not fit the stereo-
type Black Panther image America has
created and we have believed.
Donnettea is not allowing her impend-
ing trial on Feb. 27 to keep her fromf her
many concerns.
She is trying to help set up a f r e e
health clinic in Detroit similar to clinics
the Panthers have set up in other cities.
She is also working with some Ann Arbor
youths, trying to teach them the social
practices and ideology of the B l a c k
Panther Party.
She plans to visit northern Michigan
soon; in hopes of setting up a free break-
fast program for the Indian children
there, possibly also to bring some of the
sick down to the free health clinic in
Detroit.
ALL OF THE introductory information
and discussion I had with Donnettea left
me unprepared for the story that she
had come to tell me. Ever since I first
heard about the police raid on the Pan-
thers in Chicago, I have had nagging
doubts about what happened there.
But even this doubt left me unpre-
pared for the horror of her account of
what really happened.
Her account needs no editing, no ex-
planation. It is related here as she told
it to me:
"That night we had exposed an infil-
trator in'the party, so Fred Hampton, De-
borah Johnson, Brenda Harris, Ron
Satcheal, Blair Anderson, Mark Clark,
Truelock, another brother and myself
came home to Madison St.
"Fred was in a really depressed mood
because we have a lot of internal prob-
lems in the party, and infiltrators, a n d
people not doing their work. So Fred went
to bed early.
"ABOUT FOUR IN the morning some-
body came knocking at the door and
security asked who it was. They said It
was Tommy. We replied, 'We don't know
no Tommy.' They said 'Black mother-
fuckers, let us in!'
"They came in shooting and killed Mark
and injured Brenda in the hand and in
the leg. Brenda's hand is permanently
deformed.
"Then they proceeded to Fred's room
and killed him in his bed. They walked
past the bedroom where Blair, Ronsand
I were, and some pig hollered out, 'Some-
body's shooting out of this room' - which
was a lie because there were no weapons
in the room.
"With the door closed and the light off,
they shot in the room for ten minutes
straight with submachine guns.
"Blair was shot in the leg and four
times in the groin. Ron was shot in the
arm, leg and the kidney. I was shot twice
in the butt and once in the knee.
"WE FINALLY surrendered because we
were hurt so bad.
"The police must have used sleeping
gas or had someone put some sleeping pills
in our food because most of us didn't even
hear the pigs come in. And when I was
shot I didn't feel it, and I was shot with
a submachine gun.
"When I started walking out - not
knowing that I was shot - I fell to the
floor and a black state attorney's police-
man pointed a submachine gun at my
head and said 'get up, motherfucker.'
"I asked one of the police could I
stop some of the brothers from bleeding
and see if I could save Fred by artificial
respiration, He said, 'No. motherfucker.
Get up against the wall.'
After the raid, when Donnettea was in
the hospital, the police's attitude and the
treatment given her remained poor.
She explained that she had two guards
even though "I had a full-length cast on
my left leg. My right leg was chained to
the bed, and in the beginning both my
hands were also chained to the bed.
"°The police constantly tried to intimi-
date me so they could make me mad and
have more charges against me," she claim-
ed.
BESIDES INTIMIDATION, Donnettea
also raises serious questions about the
health care she received,
"When I got to the detention home,
they took away all my pain medication,
and my crutches and put me in isolation
. ..and gave me no food or water for
four days," she recalled.
When Donnattea returned to her par-
ents' home in Ann Arbor, she had to go to
St. Joseph's Hospital to have the bullet
removed from her knee.
"The doctor told me if I wouldn't have
gotten that bullet out o fmy leg in a couple
of days, I would have lost my leg," she
said.
Donnettea's version of the. police raid
has been corroborated by much of the
physical evidence in the' apartment - al-
though the police claim that they entered
the apartment only after they were fired
on by the Panthers.
Slowly; more and more doubts began to
grow in people's minds. These doubts were
increased when police photographs of the
apartment that purported to show bullet
holes which indicated that the Panther's
initiated the gunfire were shown to really
be pictures of nail holes in the wall. The
doubts were partially confirmed by the
fake photographs and a furor began to
grow over the slaying 'of Fred Hampton
and Mark Clark, and reached into unex-
pected quarters.
The funeral of Hampton saw such mod-
erates as Dr. Ralph Abernathy declare
that there is a systematic program of
genicide against the blacks. Roy Wilkins
of the NAACP called for a special investi-
gation of the raid.
IT MATTERS LITTLE at this point
what the grand juries decide, for no one
will believe them.
What does matter is the prevention of
further such raids, and the upcoming
trial of the seven people who managed
to survive the raid.
The prevention of future raids was dealt
a severe blow by the decision last week
by a coroner's jury that the murder of
Fred Hampton and Mark Clark was just-
ifiable homicide because the policemen
"believed that they might be harmed
themselves."
During the inquest, Sergeant.Groth, the
leader of the raid, was asked why the
police didn't use tear gas. His answer
was "there wasn't any available."
Donnattea says that earlier when the
same question was asked he responded
"because we didn't think of it."
THIS TYPE OF :action by the police,
and its absolution by the coroner's jury,
bodes poorly for the future.
Donnattea has not seen the last of
Chicago.
On Feb. 27 she and the six other sur-
vivors of the raid must appear before a
federal grand jury on the charges of at-
tempted murder and aggravated battery.
The future does not look too bright
for Donnattea, but she still refuses to
be intimidated and urges others to "stand
up for what you believe in."
And she continues working "because we
should all realize that being black
people and poor people in general, 1we
have been oppressed in this country for
hundreds of years."
{c Alexa Canady
A
w
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CSJ lacks
jurisdiction over
Fleming
To the Editor:
THE STORY on the CSJ meet-
ing Tuesday night (Daily, Jan. 28)
contained a serious error. The
complaint against Fleming was
filed by Neal Bush on Sept. 24,
1969, and CSJ considered it on
Dec. 2, after the SDS case had
concluded and new members for
CSJ had been chosen..
It was the opinion of some (my-
self included) that CSJ clearly
did not have jurisdiction. "Reg-
Ulatinnc Concerning Student Con-
duct" have' nothing to do with
conduct by administrators. The
remark that these rules must ap-
ply to Fleming or else they do not=
apply to students is absurd. SOC,
as a student legislature, cannot
make rules governing nonstudents.
Further, CSJ's long-standing
position is that a defendant must
be tried by his peers, and there-
fore Fleming could not have been
tried by students anyway. On Dec.
2, CSJ had many new members,
and since they were not familiar
with all of theoimplications, they
decided. to hold a jurisdictional
hearing this month to hear the
arguments. At no time did CSJ
claim it had the power to try
Fleming.
Neal Bush remarked that there
are more important things to do
than "play with the student
courts." As one who had to "play"
with this frivolous claim for four
months. I wholeheartedly agree
with him.
-Marc Wohl
CSJ
Jan. 28
Baits rentf
To the Editor:
IN YOUR article on the Baits
tenants appearing in the Thurs-
day, Jan. 22, 1970 issue of The
Daily you attribute a quote to
Chet Kulis, newly elected presi-
dent of the Baits Union, comparing
$112.50 monthly rent for a 12' x 12'
room in Baits with the $95 per
month efficiency apartment in
Northwood. Since Mr. Kulis has
substantial information pointing
out the misleading nature' of this
statement I suspect that this quote
was taken from material distri-
buted earlier this Fall at Baits.
The- $112.50 at Baits is paid by
two residents who share the 144
square feet in this room with ad-
Joining bath or $61.25 per resident.
It is paid on the basis of an eight
month lease which means $980 per
academic year for the room or
$490 per resident.
IN NORTHWOO0D rents are
charged on a per familybasis. In
Northwood ocupancy is also main-
tained on a twelve month basis.
Consequently $1,140 is generated
by the $95 per month rent. Even
wider variances appear in ex-
penses.
It has been suggested ,by sonme
Baits residents that the North-
wood Apartments be available to
single students. Given the vei y
acute shortage of fahily housing
at reasonable rents in Ann Arbor
this suggestion has been rejected
by the student, faculty and ad-
ministrative personnel acquainted
with and responsible for the Uni-
versity Housing program.
-John Feldkamp, director
University Housing
Jan. 23
.mM funds
To the Editor:
THE IDEA of funding one of
the proposed new I-M buildings
by abolishing the minor varsity
sports that lose money is the best
idea I have heard in a long time.
Why should thishUniversity be
associated with professional
sports? Is this the function of a
University? Everywhere within the
University is short of money. We
shouldn't waste it in the profes-
sionalism of sports.
Yet Vice-President Smith be-
lieves that varsity sports are
academic. Who is he fooling?
THE ATHLETIC DEPT. is not
interested in providing recreation-
al facilities for the ordinary stu-
dent. It is more interested in
feathering its own nest egg. Foot-
ball proceeds should go to build-
ing one of the new I-M buildings.
Presently, students pay $5.00
every semester for a monstrosity
that ought to be named "Fritz's
Folly." This is living proof that
WI
pi
The 'no-knock' drug law:
Au ill-advised measure
THE CONGRESS has added another
chapter to its long 'history of mis-
handling drug laws. The latest bill passed
yesterday by the Senate, which b e a r s
Atty. Gen. John Mitchell's unmistakeable
mark, includes a "no - knock" clause
which allows federal agents to enter a
home unannounced if they believe nar-
cotics are about to be destroyed inside.:
The bill would also lessen penalties for
possession of marijuana by reclassifying
it a hallucinogenic drug. Possession would
no longer be considered a felony.
While the bill is intended to reduce the
harshness of penalties for drug posses-
sion, it may have the opposite effect.
IN THE PAST, judges h a v e refrained
from applying the full penalty of ex-
isting laws. Many have found the man-
datory sentence unreasonable, and sus-
pended sentences have been common.
The combination of less unreasonable
penalties and stronger enforcement is
likely to lead to more arrests and con-
victions than ever before.
The no-knock clause is the most ill-
advised portion of the new bill. Federal
agents can obtain a special search war-
rant if they demonstrate to the court a
likelihood that drugs "will be" destroyed
if they identify themselves prior to en-
tering a home or office.
THIS CLAUSE opens the door to numer-
ous abuses.
First, there is the unpredictable vigi-
lance of judges who must determine if a
lice from using their warrant, either in-
tentionally or accidentally, when no one
is present in the home. There is; no guar-
antee that in searching for drugs the
police will not damage personal property.
In such a case, the victimized individual
would have to initiate extensive and
costly legal action for a redress of his
complaints.
Unfortunately, it appears that the
courts will provide no relief from this
measure. The State of New York passed
a similar law in 1964 and the U.S. Su-
preme Court refused to consider a case ,
questioning its constitutionality under
the fourth amendment.
IT IS INCONGRUOUS that drug posses-
sion is singled out for such powerful
investigative tools while financial records
of defense contractors who consistently
overcharge the Defense Department are
not subject to sudden and unannounced
auditing.'
Clearly drugs are being singled out for
such special treatment not because they
are the greatest crime against society,
but because they provide .an opportunity
for public officials to attack social and
political forces they oppose.
Even if these elements were not pres-
ent, the bill is misguided at best. Re-
search is drastically needed to determine
if laws against certain drugs, particularly
marijuana, are necessary at all.
But in its infinite wisdom, the Senate
rejected amendments to the bill which
would have provided both research and
"These My Lai civilians got just what they deserve !"
r-
r
I _
i
'«.
. s
o cK
""""""" '9
d fe.
ha
the Athletic Dept. has wasted'
money. Why should this millstone
be around the student's neck?
Since the students have paid for
a building for the Athletic Dept.,
why should the Athletic Dept. not
pay for a building for the stu-
dents. Otherwise, I want my $5.00
back.
--George A. Nebbert
Jan. 23,
Creative journalism?
To the Editors
THE ARTICLE in Wednesday's
Daily on the Student Assembly
contained a serious misstatement
of the assembly's policy. During
our discussion Tuesday. night.
everyone present agreed that talk-
ing about disruption before we had
presented our proposals to the Ad-
ministrative Board was premature
and impolitic, to say the least.
We made this postion clear
The Daily reporter, who, inciden-
tally, arrived late and actively
participated in the discussion.
While some individuals may be
considering disruption as a tactic,
the assembly is not.
tHE ADMINISTRATIVE board
will meet a 3 o'clock Friday in
1017 Angell Hall. We encourage
students to attend the meeting in
Alternatives
To the Editor:
IT'S EASY, from the outside,
just to write off the Democratic
Party. The mid-January exercise
in non-reform seems to perpetu-
ate the rotten Chicago '68 image.
This writer holds no brief for:
the Democrats. He refused to re-
new his party membership in Jan-
uary '68 when ,it appeared that
LBJ would be t h e Presidential
nominee again, a n d hasn't re-
joined since. (But is still a mem-
ber of the New Democratic Coali-
tion which doesn't require party
membership.)
But what are the alternatives?
WHERE CREDIT IS DUE
The Daily unintentionally for-
got to mention that the repres-
sion poster on Tuesday's edi-
torial page originally appeared
in an issue of the Up Against
the Wall Street Journal. The
Daily regrets this omission.
It's easy to say, as does Steve An-
zalone, that "efforts will be more
fruitful in other channels." Or.
as Marcia Abramson says in
praise of Sen. Craig's departure
from public office, "He's much
4n rrnnr? 'h m - - 4 tt a e itt f}
er of two evils!'" Ab, yes, the ul-
timate solution is a society where
the choice will always be between
the "better of two goods."
And, somehow, some way (may-
be, through the "dictatorship of
the proletariat") Miss Abram-
son's "mad and petty arena of
politics" will be eliminated and all
our choices will be made for us by
a computer.
--Sol Plasirn
MA '54
Jan. 25
Cuba
To the Editor:
RtECENTLY a letter appeared
in The Daily telling of the crea-
tive freedom of Cuba, a n d ex-
plained t h a t the writer and a
large number of others were soon
to .leave for that country to help
harvest sugar cane.
I would like to publicly ask the
writer, Mr. Schanoes, to cooperate
ins a little experiment in freedom.
I am willing to give him 1,000
copies of a mimeographed letter
(written in Spanish) telling the
Cuban people some of the positive
sides of life in the United States,
I will sign it, and add a disclaim-
er saying Mr. Schanoes does not
agree with its contents but is pas-
sin it on to the neonle of Cuba
L,! I
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