ifferMirtga n Dail
Eighty-one years of editorial freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Kuns tier
Tragedy
at
A
4 ttica
say is that we need constant fight-
ing, constant confrontation, that
power is a terrible thing and leads
to all sorts of excesses.
4
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.
News Phone: 764-0552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individualropinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1971
NIGHT EDITOR: LINDSAY CHANEY
Student funding for SGC...
The first news released after
the Attica uprising was put
down by state troopers was that
authorities had found nine
guards with their throats slash-'
ed. Autopsies later showed this
to be false, that all the hostages
were killed by, police gunfire.
Who originally released this in-
formation and was it a deliber-
ate attempt to cover up?
Walter DunbarNew York's dep-
uty commissioner of correctional
institutions, told the press and a
group of visiting legislators that
eight guards had their throats
slashed and one had been emas-
culated, with his genitalia stuffed
in his mouth.
At four thirty that afternoon a
committee of state legislators and
a congressman was taken around
the yard where they had five men
lying on the ground.
Dunbar and his boss, Commis-
sioner Russell Oswald, pointed to
those men and said, 'four of these
are the ones we saw cutting the
After seizing Cellblock D at New York's Attica Correctional Facility, the
prisoners asked the state to summon 15 sympathetic observers to serve
as their representatives. Among those who the prisoners requested be call-
ed was William Kunstler, the noted civil liberties lawyer, who upon arrival
at Attica became the inmates' attorney.
In a two-hour interview with Daily reporter John Mitchell l a s t week,
Kunstler explained what he believes to be the t r u t h behind the Attica
tragedy, and liscussed a variety of other issues he has dealt with in his
career. This article contains excerpts from the interview.
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..'. .: .: - : . ........... NX,
IN THE ALL-CAMPUS' election n e x t
month, Student Government Council
Will once again be asking the students for
more money. In the past, students h a v e
reacted negatively to similar requests --
a funding proposal for SGC and college
governments was defeated by 58 per
cent of the vote in last spring's election.
However, there are substantive reasons
why students should vote to tax them-
selves 85 cents per semester - an increase
from the present 25 cent level - for the
support of SGC.
Why? Students may well ask them-
selves, "What has SGC done for me?" Or
even, "What has SGC done?"
Indeed, it is true that in the past, Coun-
cil has not done all it potentially could
to benefit the student body. Neither has
council recently been a tremendously in-
fluential body. in University affairs.
However, there are reasons for these
shortcomings, some of which can be at-
tributed to a lack of adequate funding.
THE REAL POWER of SGC lies in its
ability - as the only campus-w i d e(
representative group - to bring student
influence to bear on University decision-
making. This lobbying power is what SGC
President Rebecca Schenk referred to
when she said, "Our basic power is the
ability td raise hell."
During the past several years, this
"ability to raise hell" has played a major
part in establishing the Bachelor in Gen-
eral Studies degree, eliminating women's
curfew, eliminating the student dress
,code, establishing the student book store,
and giving students a significant voice on
the new campus-wide judiciary.
This lobby power, which is the bulwark
of Council's strength, does not in itself
require monetary support. However, it
does require at least the tacit support of
a majority of students on campus.
THE AMOUNT OF lobbying power SGC
commands is in direct proportion to
the amount of support it receives from
the general student population. Univer-
sity administrators find it easy to ignore
a group which they think speaks only for
itself. When this same group has the sup-
port of thousands of students, it is not
so easy to brush aside.
However, in the absence of a big issue
which serves to focus student opinion,
SGC tends to lose its visibility with stu-
dents. As a result, apparent student sup-
port becomes minimal or non-existent.
This evaporation of student support in
the absence of earth-shaking confronta-
tion issues is unfortunate. SGC is con-
tinually engaged in lobbying efforts with
the University administration. These rou-
tine issues may not evoke mass demon-
strations in their support; however, col-
lectively, they may have a profound in-
fluence on student life.
IN ORDER TO retain its visibility with
students during times of normal poli-
tical activity, SGC must engage in pro-
jects which are of benefit to large num-
bers of students.
To undertake these projects, SGC needs
a certain amount of direct power - in
other words, it .needs money.
At the present time SGC has an annual
budget in the area of $18,000. With this
budget, Council is able to undertake a
limited number of service projects. Re-
cent examples are the Women's Crisis
Center and the Univeristy Print Co-op.-,
The present SGC budget, however, al-
lows for only a limited number of serv-
ice projects. With increased funding, SGC
would be able to undertake more projects,
and more extensive projects. Some
examples of projects which are being con-
templated, should' the funding proposal
be approved, include a cooperative food
store and a paper and glass recycling
center.
THUS, THE increased number of serv-
ice projects which would result from
increased funding would have two bene-
ficial results: 1) the intrinsic benefits of
the projects themselves, and 2) the in-
creased lobbying power of Council result-
ing from its greater visibility to and tacit
support from the students.
Another view of SGC lobbying power
maintains that if SGC would stop all ser-
vice projects, it would have more time
for lobby activities.
In accordance with this analysis of
SGC power, member-at-large Brad Tay-
lor has collected sufficient signatures to
place on the November ballot the issue
of whether SGC should be deprived of its
present University allocation of 25 cents.
Taylor contends that if SGC does not
have money to spend on service projects,
it would be able to concentrate more at-
tention on lobbying.
The Taylor analysis neglects the f a c t
that service projects and visibility to stu-
dents tends to bolster the lobbying pow-
er of Council. Thus Taylor's proposal
would not increase SGC power in a n y
way, but instead would severely cripple or
extinguish it.
TO THE EXTENT that students believe
a strong student-interest group is an
asset, the SGC funding proposal merits
support.
-LINDSAY CHANEY
is t r:::L i::?$ °.'.:;:;:};:$":":?.
ed that the inmates never intend-
ed to kill anyone. From being in
the prison, I believe if they had
intended to kill they would have
done that.
The Sunday before the trooper
assault you said: "We have as-
surances that there are no plans
to use force. I hope this con-
ened - had he resigned, or taken
an entirely firm stand, keeping
negotiations going for as long, as
he could - he would have averted
the tragedy.
But as so often happens with
the Hamlets of this world, they are
good and decent people but they
weaken at crucial moments. A
good deal of the world's tragedy
that was changed. Apparently
Quinn was overwhelmed at Times
Square, as the prisoners rushed
through, and hit his head on what
is very hard pavement.
While capital punishment is
abolished in New York, they have
a felony murder rule which holds
that if you are engaged in com-
mission of a felony, and anyone
dies, you are guilty of murder and
can receive the death penalty.
Prison rioting and kidnaping are
felonies, so the amnesty demand
became an utterly crucial item to
the 1,500 men engaged in these
activities when Quinn died.
Do you think any of t h e
troopers involved in the assault
will be indicted for their activ-
ities? -
There will be some arrests. We
will always have our Calleys, the
underlings, who will take the rap
for everyone else.
Several commissions have been
established to investigate the At-
tica tragedy. What do you think
th:'e". findings will be?
I think the general tenden-
cies of, the committees will be to
prove essentially that the convicts
were overwhelmingly at fault, and
also prove that their constitu-
tional rights were protected after-
wards. I don't believe commissions..
I know that these people come
from the middle class liberal wing
of society, and they are the ones
who so desperately want to prove
that the .system Works. Because
they want to prove that so des-
perately, they will come to con-
clusions that will fit in with that
desire.
What do you see to be the
causes of the Attica revolt?
My own feelings are very sim-
ple. The prisons have become
microcosms of the ghetto and yet
they are administered by persons
that are far removed from the
ghetto. Prison personnel are us-
ually upstate country people -
people who are somehow trying
to understand the wants and
needs of men from ,Harlem, Bed-
ford-Stuyvesant, and the ghettos
of Rochester and Buffalo. S e -
condly, prisoners are regarded as
sub-human, people who don't
count, ones you don't have to lis-
ten to.
In yard D I learned a great
deal about prisons. They are a
way station from the ghetto, and
reflect a convenient place to dump
people who we are afraid of, hate,
or want to get rid of for, one rea-
son or another.
So the causes are many and
they probably stem from you and
me and all people in the middle
class who, like the Germans, nev-
er really understood what t h e
concentration camps were all
about or even that they existed.
With the present state of af-
fairs in prisons, do you think
that people incarcerated will
soon obtain their constitutional
rights?
Unless people learn to fight it,
locally, nationally, and really be
afraid of it, fear it, it will over-
whelm them, Wherever power sub-
verts, people have to organize and
fight it. And I mean fight. They
have to do more than petition
and picket, they have to be pre-
pared to go all the way, and
hope they don't have to.
This is where I think the prob-
lem lies in this country. T h e
American people have almost no
memories. They forgot Kent State
and Jackson and Attica as if they
never happened. And I think the
revolutionary strain is made of
people who remember, .who will
hate and not forget.
In a recent speech, you said
there has been an increase of
late in tension between blacks
and whites. Do you think it is
still growing?
Yes, I think separatism is be-
coming more prominent, and I'm
for it. I think for black people
to be separate gives them more
of a power base than being inte-
grated into white society.
Then what do you think about
busing?
- I'm against busing because I'm
against intergrated schools. I
think they are a fraud for they
sap the psychological need for
power. Until we have a. society that
gives black people as w h i t e
people I'll be against it. I would
not have talked this way three
years ago. But in 1966, in the
middle of a Washington, D.C.
school integration case, came the
Meridith march in Mississippi and
with it the cry for black power.
My plaintiffs were split in half,
some continued to want integrat-
ed schools while some were vehe-
mently opposed to the idea. And
it was in this turmoil that I
learned about the expressed and
implicit needs of black people.
They need power, not sitting next
to white bodies. A black school
is probably the best source of pow-
er that a young black person can
have.
One of the reasons cited for
busing is that black schools are
under-financed. How would you
respond?
Where the fight has to be is for
a school that has as adequate
funding as white schools. All the
tests prior to the Brown decision
in 1954, which was the lead case
for school integration, showed that
black kids all did better when they
were put into integrated schools.
So the Supreme Court bought the
analysis that this proves that they
are better for black kids than
non-integrated schools. But that
wasn't true. They did better be-
cause white schools were better
equipped, not because they s a t
next to white people.
At what point do you feel
that the radical movement, as a
whole, is now?
We are coming to a point where
young people, and they are the
only source of troops in this busi-
ness, are seeking a period of
quietude. They are tired of the
constant upheaval and are forcing
themselves for a while to forget
the injustice that plagues this
country. But they will regroup,
something will come up and things
will happen.
I think the fear of this upheav-
al, of revolution, is necessary. The
young people in this country can
see the contradictions in the sys-
tem, and if they unite to make
9'
Debris left after troopers put down the uprising
...and college governments
guards throats, and we have video-
tape of that.'
The fifth man, prisoner Frank
Smith, was lying naked and Dun-
bar pointed to him and said he
was the man that emasculated the
guard.I
AND THIS WHOLE story was
fabricated. And the video tapes
disappeared or were destroy-
ed. Deliberately, I believe. T h e
next question is how could they
expect not to be found out. I
believe they were going to cut
the throats of the dead guards in
order to justify the trooper on-
slaught. They deliberately did not
send the bodies to the Wyoming
County coroner's office, but in-
stead were going to Piave the
prison's doctor do the autopsies.
But either the prison doctor said
that any good coroner could
tell if we cu the throats now or
there was a sip up and the bodies
were sent to the Rochester cor-
oner Dr. John Edlund who then
said no throats were cut and no
prison guards had been emasculat-
ed.
An embalmer who worked on
one of the guards later told state
troopers that there were no bul-
let wounds in the body of one of
the guards he examined. The au-
thorities stopped that guard from
being buried, and rushed him back
to the coroner. A doctor examined
the body and turned it over and
showed the troopers a gaping hole
from a bullet wound in the back.
The troopers were the only ones
with guns, so they failed again to
prove that at least one of the
hostages was not killed by them.
They were desperate to g e t
guards with their throats cut, or
some guards who weren't killed by
bullets. They had to justify the
reason for the onslaught. Remem-
ber, the reason announced by Os-
wald for the onslaught was t h a t
authorities saw hostages w i t h
their throats being slashed, and
guards taken atop Times Square,
the center of the prison, with
their heads held back and knives
put to their throats.
But apparently none of this
is true. I am now utterly convinc-
tinues. I hope authorities don't
percipitate tragedy because
there may be a three day.nego-
tiation span." The next day the
state troopers came in. What
happened?
There were many forces at work.
We had given up on the hard de-
mands. The prisoners no longer
insisted on the first of the two
non-negotiable demands - t h e
removal of superintendent Vin-
cent Mancuzi - and they were
no longer negotiating for amnesty
but for a form of commutation.
Despite the progress being made,
the authorities decided to go in.
I think political pressure caused
that. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller was
leaning hard on Oswald to end the
rebellion. This type of pressure --
which Oswald admitted to when he
said afterwards "there are forces.
over me" - led to the tragedy.
The tension in the guards and
state troopers was growing and
growing and they were going to
murder people. They ran in cry-
ing white power and come o u t
crying white power. Which ever
way you look at it. it was o u t-
right murder to send those troops
in. Everyone would be killed -
guards, prisoners, it didn't matter.
Melvin Rivers, head of New
York's Fortune Society which
rehabilitates former convicts
and a fellow Attica observ-
er, said that Russell Oswald,
New York's commissioner of pri-
sons, did a fine job for Rivers
claims that Oswald's subordin-
ates wanted him to shoot and
kill and he restrained t h e m.
He quoted Oswald as saying:
"Jesus, they're going to slaught-
er them, those are God's child-
ren who are going to die." Is
this an accurate assessment of
Oswald's performance?
I have mixed feelings a b o u t
Russell Oswald. I think he was
enormously courageous to go into
the yard Friday afternoon. I also
thought he was good in keeping
the negotiations going. I'm only
sorry that he weakened at the
last moment and gave into the
pressures upon him.
I think that if he had not weak-
AS STUDENTS VOTE "yes" on the pro-
posals to allot funds to SGC, they
should remember the needs of indi-
vidual college student governments and
also approve the proposal to allot them
50 cents per student.
With few exceptions, students current-
ly do not in any way help to finance the
student governments within their indi-
vidual schools.
College student governments deserve
the financial support of their constitu-
ents which would enable them to insti-
tute programs and activities oriented to
their specific interest group.
Individual student college govern-
ments are at the grass roots level of stu-
dent power. They provide one of the few
forms of government where students can
see their money in action in a way that
directly affects them.{
MANY OF THESE governments operate
on small budgets, some as low as un-
der $100, that drastically limit their abil-
ity to operate effectively. Many of the
programs and activities that they want
to sponsor are just not financially pos-
sible.
For example, the Social Work Student
Union would like to be able to sponsor
a variety of speakers and films to sup-
plement their present curriculum.
"Our courses do not reflect the student
body enrolled in the school of Social
cobs, who explains that he would like
to present material "specifically relating
to Chicanos, blacks and women."
The Business Administration Student
Council is in a similar position of finan-
cial difficulty. Each semester it sponsors
a computerized course evaluation pro-
gram which, although extremely valu-
able to students, is expensive and forces
the Council to sacrifice other needs, such
as repairing its student lounge and spon-
soring the proposed activities and pro-
grams of various clubs within the school.
IF STUDENTS CHOOSE not to finan-
cially support the governments with-
in their specific schools next month, they
may risk. the possible collapse of these
governments. Ideally, college student
governments should act both as lobby-
ing groups for their constituencies and
as bodies able to provide information ex-
cluded from curricula which is of inter-
est to students. If seriously hampered in
sponsoring proposed activities which will
speak to the needs of students, however,
college governments may face the prob-
lem of being unable to justify their ex-
istence.
There are presently at least two
schools on campus which do not have
active student governments, 'and it is
possible that more governments will be
forced to fold if their need for money
is not sympathetically met by students.
is brought about when they do
weaken. If he had stuck, as he
easily could have, I think iwe
would not be having this inter-
view and I think Attica would
have never happened as it did.
Are the reports true t h a t
prisoner morale was declining
in the last days of the revolt,
that they were becoming hostile
and unruly?
Morale was 'high, but the pri-
soners were tense and they were
mistrustful. These men were living
under the shadow of extermina-
tion. Some of the state troopers
were popping at them with rubber
bullets from the top of the cell-
blocks. Four days of this was un-
nerving to say the least. But the
prisoners never lost their' sense
of balance, they never became hy-
sterical as the administration did.
Some - of the troopers s a i d
that when the assault took
place, prisoners charged them
with homemade spears and kni-
ves. Did this incident occur?
No, that's absolutely untrue,
they rsurrenderedhimmediately.
Herbert Blyden, who was t h e
chairman of the inmate negotiat-
ing committee, told me the prison-
ers surrendered the moment the
pepper gas came in. The whole
negotiating committee was sitting
at the negotiating table.
Samuel Melville, who they refer
to as the mad bomber was, ac-
cording to official reports, sup-
posed to have run with four Molo-
tov cocktails in his hands toward
an oil drum to blow it up. Every-
one that saw him said that this
was untrue. He was standing next
to a trench that ran along the
wall and they just shot him down
-deliberately. The state needed a
Melville, a respectable bomber who
had already been convicted of
bombing, in order to add cred-
ability to its story.
Who, of the leaders of the
revolt, was killed?
Only one leader was killed, a
man named Elliot Barkley. Blyden
said he was not killed for when
a group of armed troopers ap-
proached him, one said: Save this
guy, he's going to fry." And Bly-
den it not an exaggerator.
Were there any observers on
the yard at the time of the as-'
sault?
There were never any observ-
ers, we were called there as ob-
servers but it all changed. I be-
came the cellblock lawyer and oth-
ers broke into negotiating com-
mittees - and many of them
proved to be very good people.
We became a unified team on
Sunday, the day before the state
came in, with everyone agreeing
that the governor must come and
that we should have more time.
4
4
4
Kunstler addresses inmates during uprising
Only if we fight for them. Pri-
soners are now becoming a very
political bunch. They understand
they have a lot of power. But it
takes courage to exercise power,
to take over a prison. And many
prisoners have learned the only
way to get an ear is by confronta-
tion. The prisoners are simply
reaping what the decade of the
'60s proved. They heard of peo-
ple causing a confrontation and
getting results. The 28 demands
that were accepted had been sent
to the commissioner for months..
They were returned, with Oswald
saying this all takes time. But
they got auick results by seizing
their objections to injustice felt,
power will be forced to realize that
if it doesn't yield, it may have no
system left.
Cambodia showed how this fear
of a revolution checks power, is
necessary to frighten power into
listening. And Cambodia is only
one instance which proves a unit-
ed force can effect power to a
large extent.
With this lull in mind, I see that
my only function in this kind of
law and society is to keep people
out of jail - by bail, extended
proceedings, legal maneuverings
and delay - anything that nuts
F ~ a F