---running wild


Ile Sitriijan Dailh
Seventy-eight years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students of the University of Michigan

Will Detroit burn?

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by foriin clueoft

420 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 all reprints.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1969

NIGHT EDITOR: NADINE COHODAS


Middle-class backlash

MOST OF THE campaign rhetoric in
this year's flock of mayoral elections
either expounds or ignores the issue of
"law and order." The issue proved to be
the most appealing one in last fall's pres-
idential election, and apparently there is
still some good political mileage left in it.
Unfortunately, the "law and order"
issue has come Ito be synonomous with
crime in the streets. It has emerged as a
metaphor of middle-class backlash
against political unrest and urban crime.
Not surprisingly, "law and order" h a s
been scoffed at by the more enlightened
elements of this society as a phony issue
that will not lead to less crime or fewer
demonstrations. And while it is true ,that
more policemen in the streets will do lit-
tle to stop crime, there nevertheless is a
serious "law and order" problem in this
country. But it is found in our governing
institutions in, Washington and not in
the streets.
It has become clear lately that various
sectors of the government hold t h e m-
selves responsible to no one. Many peo-
ple have believed for some time that the
election process has long had no effect
In making government leaders respon-
sible to the people. But in the last few
years, it has become apparent that t h e
various branches of government are no
longer even responsible to each other.
The Constitutional provisions of separa-
tion of powers and checks and balances
have fallen into disuse as governmental
agencies fight among themselves for un-
checked power.
WITNESS THE statements of two im-
portant members of the executive
branch made last week. Attorney General
John Mitchell gave the impression that
the executive branch is not bound to
honor the Bill of Rights in the business
of law enforcement. Mitchell made it
known that his department is subject to
no one in the use of wire taps. It is not
difficult to see where the indiscriminate
and unchecked use of wiretapping will
lead us, when the Justice Department had
deemed it necessary to tap the phone of
that "criminal" Martin Luther King.
Selective Service Direct6r Lewis Her-
shey also announced his immunity from
the judicial process last week. Hershey's
policy of using the draft as a means of
punishment against persons "disrupting"
Selective Service processes was declared

by the courts to be contrary to law. Her-
shey, said that he had no intention of
passing down this court decision to the
local draft boards.
Hershey and Mitchell are just a small
part of the usurpation of powers by the
executive branch. But even in a wider
sense, particularly in the areas of foreign
policy and defense, the executive branch
of the government has exceeded all
bounds of its authority.
For example, the real power to wage
war has passed from Congress to the
President and his advisers. This transi-
tion is acknowledged by the executive
branch and was callously defended by
former Undersecretary of State Nicholas
Katzenbach as a more modern way of de-
claring war. The facility thus afforded
the State Department and the President
in waging war without Congressional ap-
proval has already produced tragic re-
sults both in Vietnam and in the Domi-
nican Republic.
The Defense Department has u n t i1
now enjoyed almost complete autonomy.
Its fiascos and excesses received the un-
questioned financing by Congress. Only
recently has Congress begun to take on
the responsibility of careful scrutiny of
the voracious money-eating appetite of
the Pentagon. Yet the Defense Depart-
ment has grown to such Leviathan pro-
portions, people like Melvin Laird will
continue to exercise an inordinate
amount of influence for a long time to
come.
BUT IT IS not the executive branch
alone that is responsible for the
breakdown of "law and order" in govern-
ment. Congress, for one, has been t o o
docile in the face of the power accumula-
tion by the executive branch. And there
is as much potential for tyranny by either
the legislative or judicial branches as
there is from the executive. But for the
present, at least, it looks like Congress
must assume greater authority to main-
tain a balance of power.
It has often been thought that gov-
ernment is the arena in which equili-
brium is established among competing
interests of society. But the present state
of disarray in government makes society
look the arena in which various sectors
of the government compete in a contest
for power among themselves.
-STEVE ANZALONE

For Mrs. Michael Czaptski, whose husband was the policeman
slain at the New Bethel church incident, there was a public funeral
processional.
But for Mrs. Rebecca Pollard, mother of Auburey Pollard, who
was killed by Patrolman Ronald August, there were no public words
of consolation. Now she must resign herself to the absurd reality of
Mason's kangaroo court which dispersed sham justice when it acquitted
the admitted murderer.
The trial of Ronald August can only be viewed as a confrontation
between black and white-because Norman Lippitt, August's attorney,
used the Detroit riot as an excuse for"August's action-and the riot was
a black insurrection against white oppression.
If Mason justice found Ronald August not guilty, what will the
Inkster justice decide for Turhan and Gale Lewis and Darnell Simmons?
The series of events surrounding the Inkster case is long and
complicated:
Thursday, August 8, 1968-at 10:55 PM Patrolmen John Knight and
Thomas Freeman were sent to Crystal Court, which is in the Middle
Belt-Carlysle district of Inkster, to investigate a shooting incident
which involved a couple in a car. This report was issued by Inkster
Chief of Police James Fyke.
As the police car was bearing west, one block east of Middle Belt,
the policemen say they were passed by a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, with a
black vinyl top and white sidewalls. They claim that when the car
passed them it stopped, and someone within the car fired a rifle at
them. The bullet smashed the window and the two officers were
superficially wounded by steel fragments. A civilian in a nearby car
was also superficially wounded.
.The policemen identified the passengers. in the car as two black
men.
At 11 PM Turhan Lewis was apprehended and arrested. No
charges were made at that time. He was released on $5000 bond.
Fyke later called on the Wayne County Sheriff's road patrol and
the state police to assist the Inkster police investigating that evening's
sniper action.
Detectives Robert Gosner and Fred Prysbe were sent to the scene
where Knight and Freeman were shot at. According to police reports
the same thing happened to Gosner and Pyrsbe that happened to the
first two policemen.
Gosner was reported dead on arrival at 2:55 PM at Wayne County
General Hospital.'
Elsewhere in Inkster two unidentified policemen saw two people
walking near Hanover and Middle Belt at 3 AM. Officials estimate
that this is 15 minutes after Gosner was shot. The policemen pulled
up alongside these people to question them. They ran away, and the
officers chased them on foot.
The two ran into a wooded field. One fell and was apprehended
by the police without incident. The other kept running. The police then
went back to their car and radioed for reenforcement. 15 other police
arrived on the scene and went into the field. The officers spotted him
and claimed they issued shouts and shots of warning before they fired
at the fleeing person. James Matthews was pronounced dead on arrival
at 3:55 PM at Wayne County General Hospital.
James Matthews is 14 and black. Neighbors said he was not
troublesome, but that he was afraid of police. The other youth
apprehended was his cousin, Herman, age 16.
George Matthews, 23 year old brother of James, gives a different
version of the events surrounding the shooting. George claims that
he, Herman, James and four other youths were sitting on the porch
of their home. At approximately 3 AM a police car drove up, and four
policemen got out. Four of the youths ran into the house, while Herman
and James ran south on Spruce towards Pine, across a lot.
Herman fell over some garbage cans, but James kept running,
changing his direction east to Hanover. The police then fired on James
without issuing any warning shots or shouts. .
Friday, August 16-Cahalan issued a statement claiming that there
was "no criminality in the slaying of James Matthews."
In Cahalan's report, one policeman issued this statement: "I was
scared. My impression was we had the man who shot the trooper
cornered in a field."
There are enormous inconsistencies shadowing the events of
Thursday, August 8. Turhan Lewis was presumably apprehended because
police believe he shot at Patrolmen Knight and Freeman. Yet if they
were sent to Crystal Court at 10:55 P.M., and Lewis was arrested at
11 p.m., that means that someone drew up alongside the police car,
passed it, fired at them, the police went to Wayne County General
Hospital and were treated for superficial wounds, they reported the
incident and Turhan Lewis was apprehended and arrested-all within
five minutes.
This week, Cahalan charged Turhan Lewis, Gale Lewis and
Darnell Simmons with the murder of Detective Robert Gosner. Cahalan
intends to prove that the actions of the three were "deliberate, pre-
meditated and malicious."
If the events at the Algiers Motel and its subsequent trial in Mason
are to be viewed as confrontations between blacks and whites, then
according to attorney Norman Lippitt's reasoning, the incidents at
Inkster can also be viewed as a confrontation between blacks and
whites, since civil disorders erupted as a result of James Matthews'
murder.
In Mason the blacks lost. In Inkster who can predict the outcome?
The circumstances around the murders were the same as those which
justified the Algiers' killings-it was a time of mass civil disorder,
people were frightened and confused. Will the defense be able to
"reason" with the jury as Lippitt did? After all, three black men are
charged with the murder of a state policeman, and not a policeman
with the murder of a black man.
But Mason has proven that the black struggle will not be won
in the courts, or under the law, because the tribunals of justice are
still in the control of the white power structure.
Inkster may well prove that the black fight for justice must be
won in the streets.

.JAMES WECHSLER.1...,,....
ANxMidway: ANxn fiasco

SEN J. WILLIAM Fulbright was
Stalking over a l o n g distance
phone about the Midway meeting.
"I didn't see that , anything
came of it," he was saying.
"I had really thought that Mr.
Nixon's political sense would make
him realize there had to be a real
breakthrough now. But apparently
his old instincts prevailed. We're
still on the same old road.''
The conversation was a sequel
to one the other week in which I
had asked Fulbright to take up
the case of Truong Dinh Dzu -
in his pre-Midway meeting with
Secretary of State Rogers. Dzu -
runner-up in the South Vietna-
mese elections - has been a po-
litical prisoner for many months
and was recently transferred back
to a Saigon jail in failing health.
FULBRIGHT said he had told
Rogers, after reexamining the his-
tory of the case, that he believed,
there should be immediate amnes-
ty for Dzu. Rogers, he reported,
listened attentively.
"But I have seen no indications
that any such gesture of humanity
was agreed on at the conference,"
Fulbright added
He predicted a new resurgence
of anti-war sentiment as the
realization spreads that Midway
was no more than another dead-
end play for time in this intermi-
nable conflict.
I was t o 1 d several weeks ago
t h a t, in a private conversation
with a longtime critic of the war,
Mr. Nixon voiced his own eager-
ness for an early settlement. When
the visitor pressed him for some
prophecy about how long he
thought the quest for peace would
take, the President reportedly re-
plied:
"It takes longer w h e n you're
trying to save face."
IS THIS THE TRUE posture?
Is it even a defensible ground for
more death and devastation? Or
does the President say different
things to different men, depend-
ing on what he knows to be their
attitudes?
The answer is elusive. But sure-
ly it must be increasingly clear
that the Midway mission was a
fiasco against the background of
the advance notices. What is pe-
culiarly difficult to comprehend
is why the Administration encour-
aged reports of a 50,000 t r o p
withdrawal - in itself a form of
dubious tokenism - and then pro-
duced the 25,000 figure which can

only be described as an offensive
domestic stratagem and an inter-
national incitement.
The notion that Hanoi would
construe so minimal a move as a
real overture was palpably absurd.
Do t h e Administration's propa-
ganda experts believe the Ameri-
can people are sufficiently dim-
witted to view it as a serious turn
toward peace?
IN THE EARLY MONTHS of
the Johnson Administration, al-
most every White House g u e s t
witnessed the same spectacle. It
was that of LBJ pulling out of his
pocket a recent opinion-poll-na-
tional, regional or local - show-
ing that he was a President be-
lovedby a large majority of his
countrymen.
On the weekend of the Midway
rendezvous, a Gallup poll g a v e
comparably h i g h marks to Mr.
Nixon. It would be a misfortune if
he allowed such transient tribute
to delude him about the perils of
indefinite involvement in Vietnam.
Indeed, the real question is
whether he has already missed
the great moment. Even many of
us who opposed his candidacy
shared Mr. Fulbright's hope that
Mr. Nixon was so intensely politi-
cal a man that he would move
swiftly and decisively to terminate
this war, even at the risk of of-
fending some of his conservative
cheerleaders.
H is selection of Rogers - a
thoughtful moderate - as Secre-
tary of State and of Henry Kiss-
inger as foreign policy counselor

strengthened the expectation that
new approaches were in the mak-
ing. But Rogers' real influence is
now doubted and Kissinger (who
initally received testimonials from
both Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and
William F. Buckley) has proved to
be as mysterious a man as those
contradictory accolades suggested.
The suspicion has grown that he
- like the President he is serving
- adjusts the temper of his lan-
guage to the tone of his audience.
But the game cannot go on end-
lessly.
NOTHING THAT HAPPENED
at Midway suggests that the 1ix-
on Administration is more dispos-
ed than its predecessor to recog-
nize that formation of a coalition
regime is the crucial first step to-
ward liquidation of the war. But
neither is there any hint that any
other formula has been devised to
break the stalemate.
All we know with certainty is
that the casualty lists mount, the
disaffection of the young deepens,
and above all there grows the ov-
erwhelmingly tragic sense of the
waste of each human life now ex-
pended in a war that we have con-
ceded will not be resolved on the
battlefield.
It is no revelation of any na-
tional military secret to reiterate
that Mr. Nixon bought very little
time at Midway. If anything, he
has set the stage, as Sen. Ful-
bright warns, for a new surge of
discontent.
(c) New York Post

South 'U' take-over:
revolution or carnival?

Letters to the Editor

WHAT PROVOKED Monday n i g h t's
frenzy of unrest on South Univer-
sity?
While the activity did not escalate be-
yond childish antics and carnival . enter-
tainment, the barricading of a street by
a mob and the absence of subsequent
police intervention do not represent the
usual summer fare in Ann Arbor.
The details of the confrontation be-
tween the cyclist and the cop do not pro-
vide much -of an answer. Rather, it is the
oppressive nature of the atmosphere the
street people feel they are living in. Most
of their cultural pursuits are branded as
illegal, immoral, or irrational - with-
out, they feel, any sound basis ,for judg-
ment. The daily conflict between police
and the underground network of "freaks"
across the country foreshadows, t h e y
say, a massive and imminent intervention
by , capitalists acting through p o1 i c e
repression in order "to set things
straight."
The Berkeley affair of last month
provides an imitable - if not entirely
successful - model for spreading t h e
movement and the revolution. Some
have decided it's "either them or us" and
while believing in peaceful coexistence
with the "uptight honkie," will meet vio-
lence with retaliation regardless of legi-
timacy, or the senseless injury it costs
others. "Freaks" like to imitate liberated
blacks, to claim that they too represent
an oppressed revolutionary colony that
will stop at nothing to liberate itself and
its environment from the colonialists.
Even the "straight," unhip non-freak
becomes thrust into the turbulence. The
war grinds on endlessly and the widely-

tion has been everywhere recorded. Our
traditional loyalties and aspirations have
been debased and destroyed.
THE TAKE-OVER was neither issue-
oriented nor consciously planned. On
the most serious level, the distinction be-
tween conventional political confronta-
tion and this newer, more spontaneous
confrontation should be obvious.
Again on a serious level, the take-over
demonstrated that protest can be "cul-
tural" as well as political. Authority,
some say, suppresses many forms of hu-
man expression besides political activity
and consequently m u s t be resisted on
several fronts.
Actually, the festivities, sparked by the
trivial ticketing - or rather the attempt-
ed ticketing - of a motorcycle driver,
were an opportunity to release steam. The
take-over was largely a response to sum-
mer boredom and provided a liberating
sensation for its participants. It seems
preposterous to exaggerate t h e revolu-
tionary significance of the whole affair.
To most of the celebrants, the take-
over was an act of care-free rebellion, not
a m e a n s to obtain power, appropriate
property, or even induce reform.
Only after the affair did Skip Taube of
Trans-love Energies suggest South Uni-
versity be cordoned off as a mall, an idea
which bears consideration. Incidentally,
the city planning commission is already
working out the details of a plan to block
off traffic on nearby East University.
ADMITTEDLY the celebration c o u1 d
promise more violent activity in the
future. On Monday night, there was only


Ann Arbor Dems
To the Editor:
JONATHAN BARON, Co-Vice-
Chairman for State and National
Affairs, Ann Arbor Democratic
Party, stated in a recent letter to
the editor (June 7) that the Dem-
ocratic Party in Ann Arbor was
"open."
Perhaps Mr. Baron would be so
kind as to answer several ques-
tions for me.
During the recent mayoral elec-
tion, the Ann Arbor Democratic
Party sought the support of the
student body of the Universityof
Michigan. The students responded
generously. Many openly support-
ed the party and worked diligently
for Prof. Harris and his cohorts.
The Daily was well informed of
all political events transpiring and
openly endorsed Professor Harris
and his cohorts. The results are
common knowledge-an astound-
ing Democratic victory.
WHY WAS THIS same student
body, who h a d previously sup-
ported the Democratic Party so
vigorously, not informed in ad-
vance of the May 28 election for
Democratic party chairmanship?
Why was the student body not in-
formed of both candidates' qual-
ifications? What issues separated
the two men? What were the cri-
teria to be met if one desired to
vote in that particular election?
Did one have to be 21? Need one
have been a registered voter in
Ann Arbor?
Could it be that the older party
regulars such as Wes Vivian and
Neil Staebler and Jonathan Baron
feared that the student body
might help completethe political
house cleaning in Ann Arbor, by
selecting new leadership to guide
the Democratic Party from with-
in? Perhaps the student body had
outlived its usefulness?
--Art Raymond

on to a practice teaching exper-
ience and subsequent probation-
ary year experience which left
them intellectually dull, tired, and
unfeeling toward their careers.
The process by which practicing
professionals block change In
teaching by exalting such a price
from new members is little under-
stood but extremely efective.
My own response to this state
of affairs has been to' introduce
into my classes discussions of tac-
tics one may use to defend against
authoritarian administrators, up-
tight teachers, and stifling insti-
tutional arrangements.
I DON'T HAVE m u c h confi-
dence in this, since the power of
supervisory personnel to enforce
the "fit in or leave!" dogma ap-
pears so overwhelming. %
One of the sternest indictments
of public schooling today is the
fact t ha t students in education
are so involved in the question,
"Is it possible to be a good teacher
and keep your job? There have
been enough incidents like those
involving Joey Silvan at North-
side School and Mike VanderVelde
at Willow Run to make this a fully
legitimate concern.
One does not h a ve to be an
apologist for current practices in
teacher education to express
doubts about the wisdom of allow-
ing practicing professionals a
greater role in the design of train-
ing programs.
The only point in the resolution
of interest to me is the notion of
the "screening a n d certification
of supervisory teachers."
But even h e r e one has little
room for optimism, since a pro-
jection of present social trends
would suggest that such screening
will be done on the basis of past
academic performance and judg-
ments by administrators of teach-
ing competence, criteria which
hold little promise for promoting
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