1 Page Four THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, November 4, 1973 Page Four THE MICHIGAN DAILY mm BOOKS KEMPTON & ARLEN After Panthermania: Revising stereotypes FOUR DEATHS Recalling Kent State: Nightmarish injustice I THE BRIAR PATCH by Murray Kempton. E. P. Dutton Co., New York; 282 pages, $7.95. AN AMERICAN VERDICT by Michael J. Arlen. Doubleday & Co., New York; 196 pages, $6.95. By CHARLES STORCH THE BLACK Panthers always had the stuff of myths about them. Their exploits were thought to be more terrible, their tactics more vicious, and their numbers larger than they ever could have been. Against the idea, or better, the spectre, of the Black Panthers, their actual- ity could never be balanced. Since that spring day in 1967 when 30 Panthers marched into the California State Bapitol bran- dishing guns and rifles, a spate of books have appeared to add to A BUTTERFIELD THEATRES EXCLUSIVE FOOTBALL WIDOWS, NIGHT AT THE MOYIES Every Monday night. thru Monday, Dec. 10th Is your husband hypnotized by the TV escapades of the LIONS, Dolphins, etc.? Fly the coop! We welcome "football widows" with special low admission prices and oil the popcorn you can eat for 25c. MONDAY NIGHT all Football widows admitted FOR $1. MAKE UP A PARTY of "widows" and attend these Butterfield Theatres STATE-CAMPUS- MICHIGAN & WAYSIDE their myth-like proportions. Only in the past year or so have more "revisionists" authors attempt- ed to put the Panther phenome- non in perspective, to show them as less the rampaging menace and more the endangered spec- ies. Two such books are Murray Kempton's The Briar Patch, and Michael Arlen's An American Verdict. The Briar Patch - a title, Murray Kempton tells us, inspir- ed by the Uncle Remus stories - reappraises the Panther 21, the 21 New York blacks indicted for dynamiting four police stations and for planning a series of de- partment store bombings. 19 of them were arrested, and 13 were tried and eventually acquitted two years later. Kempton deals with the arrest and detention of the accused, but his promary focus is the courtroom. H ERE, we must assume, Kempton takes the nod from Uncle Remus, Joel Chandler Harris' plantation slave-cum- fabulist. His intent is not to paint the trial as a great social drama, filled with ringing indictments against the system at large, but as an intensely human predica- ment, an illegitimate community being torn apart by its irreconcil- able personalities and types. The characters - the defendants, the judge, the prosecutor, defense counsel, and the jury - are fig- ures locked into a pattern of be- havior dictated by their court- room roles. They are like Uncle Remus' "creeturs" in the briar patch, animals whose outward shape is an intrinsic determin- ant of their thoughts and actions. Brer Rabbit is swift and re- sourceful and thus a logical trick- ster, a conniver able to triumph over more physically overpower- ing but lumbering animals such as Brer Lion and Mr. Bear. The Arlen Kempton Panthers, in turn, are logical Brer Rabbits, "all de time a-pes- terin' de yuther creeturs, pullin' der tails an' runnin' off," and begging reprisals from the bear- like police and courts. Kempton's attitude is like Re- mus', kind, benevolent, and un- derstanding. He observes the fa- tal flaws in all his characters, but reserves chastizing any. He simply accepts them for what they must be. ABOVE ALL, these are crea- tures of rhetoric - their lan- guage is as constricting and de- fining as the briar patch's dia- lects. The self-professed revolu- tionaries are particularly caught between their speech and their action. Of defendant Richard Moore, Kempton says: "The street was his prison, and jail, dreadful though "it was, almost the only place where he could live free . of the difference be- tween what he said and what he did, and certainly the only one where he could feel himself the authentic possessor of the moral superiority of the suppressed." The fact of the matter is that these Panthers are cautious re- volutionaries, and the charges against them seem so momentous compared to their capacity to commit such crimes that it is al- mostembarrassing. For Richard. Moore, "it would be better for his pride if the defendants would all confess to having done what they had done rather than let everyone see that they had done so little and, then, their reputa- tion for badness restored, try to persuade the jury that it was a fine thing for them to have done what they had not done." As Kempton sees it, the Pan- thers do not win their case, the prosecutor loses it. The jury does not decide on the guilt or' innocence of the accused, but critiques the spectacle before it. The jury is likened to delegates at a political convention, who come uncommitted ready to be swayed to the side of the more appealing candidate. As the prosecuting attorney becomes too overbearing and ill-tempered and as the judges condones his re- marks, the jury must rule for the accused. There is no justice in Kempton's courtroom, only a crudetsense of propriety and eti- quette. J USTICE does not seem to be at issue either in the Chicago courtrooms of An American Ver- dict. The verdict in the trial of Cook County State's Attorney Ed- ward Hanrahan and 12 police- men, charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, is a foregone conclusion - Michael Arlen re- cognizes that the victims of May- oor Daley's city are never so no- table or visible. Shadowy figures like the Panthers are better sac- rificed for Chicago's well-being. In 1968, Hanrahan and the po- lice felt secure enough from the pressures of organized crime to institute a "war on gangs," and while the Panthers never num- bered more than 30, they quickly became the focus of the crack- down. The culmination of the campaign was a December, 1969, early morning raid on an apart- ment, at which two Panthers - Fred Hampton and Matt Clark - were killed, four wounded, and three jailed-the seven survivors charged with attempted murder, armed violence, and unlawful possession of guns. While the po- lice and the State's Attorney painted a scene of policemen fighting and firing for their lives, subsequent evidence soon de- stroyed the case against the Pan- thers: of 99 shots fired in the apartment, only one was fired by a Panther. Fred Hampton died asleep in his bed, possibly drugged the night before by a police undercover agent. That Hanrahan and the police are cleared of all charges does not surprise Arlen. The time is (Continued on Page 5) THE TRUTH ABOUT KENT STATE: A CHALLENGE TO THE AMERICAN CONSCIENCE by Peter Davies and the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. Far- rar Struas & Giroux, New York; 241 pages, $3.95 (all royalties will be devoted to, continuing quest for justice at Kent State). By TED STEIN T IS THE photos that tell the story of Kent State best. In broad, incontrovertible strokes they evoke the nightmare of sold- iers with gas masks and bay- onets stalking bewildered s t u - dents over rolling Midwestern hills. They show clearly how guardsmen "huddled" and then turned and killed students hund- reds of feet away, even though they were not in danger. If there is a conscience left in us, the sight of students lying in pools of their own blood will make us sick with revulsion once more. Conscience is what Peter Dav- ies's book is all about. To make us outraged over an event that happened May 4, 1970, and make us demand that the slew of in- justices it represents be resolv- ed. "Not because such an in- quiry would restore life to the dead," Davies explains, "b u t because we live by laws that no guardsman is above and no stu- dent below." Drawing primarily from prev- ious books, articles, and photos on Kent State, Davies has put together a classic appeal in the stirring tradition of Zola's "J'Ac- cuse." To his credit, his meticul- ous research is comprehensive. It encompasses the cluster of in- justices that Kent State h a s come to mean. NOT ONLY the actual shooting, but what he calls the "real tragedy," the failure of the Nix- on Administration to resolve the disturbing partial answers in- volved in the case and dispense justice. Moreover, he has elo- quently couched the incident ;n its larger context, a context which remains painfully rele- vant today. Davies' view of the actual shootings has been hinted at in other sources. Based primarily on findings 'of an extensive FBI investigation of the tragedy, Davies believes that the shoot- ings did not represent an indis- criminate action on the part of frightened soldiers threatened with bodily harm - as the of- ficialdom would have us believe - but rather "a . premeditated barrage by about ten experienc- ed, riot-trained guardsmen, with the remaining troops firing in re- action." The pictures clearly indicate that there is no menacing mob, no reason therefore for the thir- teen second fusillade that 1 e f t four dead, nine wounded. In ad- dition, the FBI found that at least two guardsmen lied about shooting, and that the self-de- fense alibi probably was fabri- cated after the fact. Davies' theory then remains extremely plausible. The second tragedy of Kent State began as soon as the first left off. The Nixon administra- tion has adamantly refused to convene a grand jury to probe the incident despite overwhelm- ing evidence that students' con- stitutional rights were trampled. MORE THAN A year after the Kent State shootings Atty. Gen. John Mitchell finally re- sponded to appeals from Davies and the parents of the d e a d students. Mitchell said that there was no reason for the Justice Dept. to reopen the case. His con- clusion flew in the face of the report of the President's Com- mission on Campus unrest, which labeled the shootings "unneces- sary, unwarranted, and inexcus- able." Instead of a full investigatioo, a grand jury in Ohio was con- vened to vindicate the powers- that-be. One of the prosecutor charged with presenting evi- dence epitomized the tone of that probe. The guardsmen "should have shot all of the troublemak- ers," he said. THE GRAVEST of all the as- pects of Kent State, how- ever, was the atmosphere t h a t made the killings possible, if not inevitable: a fire fierce anti- student popular feeling, fuek d by the get-tough rhetoric of pub- lic and military officials. STUDENTS were killed a n d wounded, as Davies recounts, because of the staggeringly cal- lous and irresponsible behavior of people who could have re-es- tablished control at Kent State. From Ohio Gov. James Rho- es, who called protestors "the worst type of people we harbor in America", to.Kent State Pres. Robert White, who said "events have taken decisions out of our hands," the authorities consist- ently abdicated responsibilily in the interest of political exped- ience. WHY WORRY about Kent State if the cluster of injustices it represents seem so insoluble? For the answer, we must look to the genesis of Davies' own involvement. After the Kent State shootings, Davies, an insurance broker, wrote a letter expressing con- cern that justice be met at Kent State to President Nixon and a copy to Arthur Krause, father 1 of one of the dead students. When Krause called to thank him for the letter, it "sealed my commitment to ensure that jus- tice was done in this cruel and senseless act." This reference is particularly haunting to me, for two years ago I also talked to Arthur Krause. I worked for Jack An- dersdn briefly during the sum- mer of 1972, and Krause called to ask for his help in carrying on his battle for justice. An- derson, however, did not have the staff nor the will to take on such an investigation. What should be clear after reading Davies' book is that fighting the injustices of Kent State requires a continuing com- mitment. There is no final vic- tory. But the cause of salvaging our humanity is a worthy lifelong ambition. We certainly have no- thing to lose. THIS MEANS a continual "quest for justice," as Davies puts it. It means dedi- cating owrselves - as he has to reinstituting morality where- ever callous rhetoric makes hu- man life banal. "There is . . . no end to this book," Davies concludes, "be- cause the struggle for justice in a free society never ends.' Ted Stein, who has spent the last two swmmers in Washington woth.ing as a reporter, is Execu- tive Editor of The Daily. ,, I SOVIET JEWRY and ISRAELI SOLIDARITY PICKET LINES The following Russian performers are official repre- sentatives of the Soviet Union under the Cultural Exchange Program. They are here to demonstrate to us the culture of their society. We picket to bring to light the other facets of the Soviet Regime--the cruel denial of freedom to their Jewish citizens. Our. Soviet Jewish brethren demand the right to emi- grate to Israel. We must support that demand here in Ann Arbor!! JOIN THIS PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY, NOV. 3-8:30-Leningrad Philharmonic SUNDAY, NOV. 4-2:30-Hill Auditorium PICKET LINE STARTS:7:30 SAT., 1:30 SUN. PICKET WITH YOUR CHILDREN ELECTION '72 Ego and Objectivity: Perusing frailties of the campaign press THE BOYS ON THE BUS: RIDING WITH THE CAMPAIGN PRESS CORPS By Timothy Crouse. New York: Random House; 383 pages, $7.95. By TONY SCHWARTZ WTHEN HUNTER Thompson's brilliant and graphic book on the '72 campaign came out, per- haps no one was more surorised at the terrific response it elicited, particularly from the establish- ment press, than its author: "I've seen in some of the ad copy for this book that "only Hunter Thompson could forge such an astounding b r e a k- through in political realism." Which is ludicrous b - - - - -, be- cause anybody could do it - and the reasons why they don't still puzzle me." Well Thompson can stop puz- zling, because his colleague Tim Crouse has just written The Boys on the Bus and provided some of the answers. Crouse is a Rolling Stone reporter who was assigned to the '72 campaign to "write serious backup pieces, keep Thompson out of trouble, and carry the bail bond money." That assignment being a near impos- sibility, Crouse instead spent his time interviewing and observing the press, a project out of which this book emerged. GROUSE'S portrait is a wander- ing one, at once richly an- tecdotal, multi - dimensional and filled to the brim with media gossip. His greatest success is that he manages to put in per- spective two crucial phenomena which contributed to the press' failures: reporters' inflated egos (often masking massive insecur- ity) and their near obsessional emphasis on objectivity, even at the expense of truth. Ego - and its attendant frail- ties - is a sensitive area for journalists, many of whom sur- vive on daily bylines the way others do on food. Sadly, ego can create problems both in the serv- A_ d ie Vtverdi t.th trial o. TM What is it? How can it help you? Find out by coming to CENTICORE ~'-t to meet JACK FOREM & R f author of TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION ) 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. TvTUES., Nov. 6 Following his lecture at the Ann Arbor Public Library ice of its protection and in the need to flaunt it. As Crouse puts it, "They (journalists) often work as a herd when they should act as individuals, and they claim their right to perform as individuals when they should close ranks and act as a group." UNDER PRESSURE from edi- tors not to deviate from the line of their major colleague's as- sessments, reporters often end up collaborating on stories. One of the worst results in that one man's thinking - repeated in 100 stories, may begin to build often unwarranted momentum. Per- haps the most flagrant example of that is the entire press corps near complete miscalculation about Muskie's weakness and Mc- Govern's eventual strength. A symptom of the same prob- lem is that reporters often spend more time handicapping the can- didates than probing their stands on issues. Predictions rarry the prestige (particularly if they're right); the reporter who probes issues is somehow too much the academic. In the '72 campaign, one related result was that Mc- Govern's stands were virtually ignored until California. At, that point - and Crouse suggests it was an overreaction from guilt- the press pounced on McGovern, probing his every inconsistency in a far more in-depth fashion than they ever did Nixon. EGO WORKS in yet another way. Reporters covering can- didates refuse to get together even in minor ways - such as following up probing questions at news conferences. The reporter's nearly inevitable attraction to the power and prestige of those he covers often further vitiates his effectiveness. Crouse character- izes this bluntly: "There was a pathetic aura of pride, a sense that they were taking part in the colossal moments of history"- when in fact "they were journal- Left to right, some of the Press Wizards as they were: Robert Boyd of Knight and the Detroit Free Press; Adam Clymer of the Baltimore Sun; Fred Dutton, a McGovern aide (back to camera); Bill Greider of the Washington Post; and Richard Dougherty, McGovern's then-press secretary. AUDITIONS for Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's production of COMPANY Nov. 4 7-10 p.m, sign in PROMPTLY at 7 p.m. Bring music and be prepared to sing Nov. 5 & 6-7-10 p.m. Readings. Music auditions on Nov. 4th only. All interested persons must come on Nov. 4th at 7 p.m. PROMPTLY AACT Building-201 Mulholland Dr. PRODUCTION DATES JANUARY 23-27th, 1974 e RAT T -N.Y. Daily News -"EASIL.Y ONE OF THE BEST A O F T HE Y E AR IN A NY "Creates an CATEGORY!" -Richard Schickel, Intimacy Time Magazine That Few Movies Achieve!" _ David Black, Crowdoddy the :;, .ym istic Prufrocks and they mea- sured their lives in handouts. Deferential, glad to be of use ..." Objectivity was another source of failure. Richard Nixon, for in- stance, became a master at ma- nipulating the paranoia the press always felt about the fact that they might have somewhere giv- en him a bum deal. In, addition, since most of them had politics far to the left of Nixon, they felt doubly cautious about being ob- jective. One result, in 1968, was that Nixon "could refuse to come to terms with the major issues of the day for nine straight months without risking a mutiny from the press for nine straight months without risking a mutiny from the press. By 1972, Hunter Thompson could accurately note: "Jesus, Ziegler treats them like garbagemen and they just take it. HUNTER THOMPSON's oppo- site style is instructive. He didn't feel bound to an objec- tivity defined as "reporting what the candidate says", and instead followed Brit Hume's dictum: "The press shouldn't try to be objective. They should try to be honest." Thompson could, in good conscience, call 'em as he saw 'em: Humphrey a ruthless oppor- tunist, Nixon an isolated, amoral power monger. The message is clear: the cam- paign press should trust its in- stincts and intelligence. The public will be far better off if a candidate's real person is dis- tilled and reported - instead of the candidate's own self-serving pip. The Boys on the Bus is a gra- phic and rewarding a picture of the press as Thompson's book was of the campaign. Its' only real fault is a tendency to use portraits and antecdotes to make important statements and to reach conclusions. Although this technique is valuable when it gives dimension to otherwise dry points, Crouse occasionally em- ploys it thoughtlessly, dropping vicious pieces of gossip to no ap- parent end. More important, the book, like an increasing number of a new-journalism vintage, treats its thesis too loosely and msystematically. The reader is left to make his own sense of it, while Crouses's proposed solu- University Housing Council Get involved in improving your housing. Find out where your money is going-and why. There are student openings on the following committees: r