TIM
Summer Daily
Summer Edition of
THlE MIChIGAN DAILY
Edited and managed by students at the
University of Michigan
Wednesday, July 18, 1973 News Phone: 764-0552
Unnecessary rules
AS EXPECTED, the reaction to the demonstration at
the July 9 City Council meeting was the proposal
Monday night to stiffen Council rules.
The proposed change Rule 43, includes a prohibition
against "obscene or profane language", the limitation of
clapping or booing to specified periods of Council agen-
das, and mandatory seating of the audience during
meetings.
The intent of the rules is obviously to appease citizens
who were outraged by the tactics of July 9. But, the
changes are totally valueless, ill-defined, and unenforce-
able.
More problems will arise from such changes than
can be answered. As with all cases regarding obscenity,
the standards imposed are arbitrary. Who is going to
establish those standards and what will they be?
THE ONLY PURPOSE of the proposed changes is to
"gag" members of Council and inhibit any kind of
expression at meetings. They will do nothing to keep or-
der. The proposals were sent to committee for study and
with luck they will never emerge.
End mine conflict
THE RECENT APPOINTMENT by the Interior Depart-
ment of Donald Schlick as acting director of the new
mine safety administration is a disgrace to the mine
workers of this country and is further proof that reme-
dial legislation is necessary.
Schlick has been under fire since 1971 for conflict of
interest charges and was once reprimanded for accept-
ing free air trananortation from a comnany whose mines
are regulated by the burean. Schlick has since been ac-
cused by the Unitprt Mine Workers (UMW) of accepting
other favors from mini-- econanies.
The aopointmnt of Schlick was apnarently made last
week by Interior Secr-ftarv Rogers Morton without public
notice. At the same time Morton stated that a perma-
nent admi-istrator to the new Mining Enforcement and
Safety Administration would be chosen within 30 days.
But no mention of Schlick's temporary appointment was
made.
°J7HE REASON for the shift of the safety responsibility
to the new agency was because of the longstanding
conflict of interest in the Interior Department. The agen-
cy encourages the development of resources while at the
same time tries to enforce safety standards.
THE TIME HAS COME for the enforcement of safety
standards be taken out of the hands of the Interior
Department and placed in the more worker-conscious
Labor Department. The safety of mineworkers should
not be handled by an agency so involved with conflict-
ing interests.
Detroit's special brand of justice
is the same as no justice at all
By EUGENE ROBINSON
DETROIT: The Motor C i t y,
where the punch-press rhythms
of factories dictate the vicious,
monotonous pace of life. Detroit is
a merciless city in which social dis-
tinctions are not made at birth-
except for the Fords and the
Fishers - and power lies in wait
for anyone with the guts to take
it.
This wide-open, greedy philoso-
phy - more an infectious rhythm,
a driving beat - is what makes
this town one of the toughest
anywhere.
This city has more homicides per
capita than any other. An average
of two and one-half lives get snuf-
fed out each day - not in the
peaceful white suburbs, where po-
lice departments constitutes little
more than social clubs, but in the
city . . . the scrappy city inhabited
by blacks and run by whites.
A crime rate which showed ex-
ponential- growth led the city ad-
ministration to establish a special,
undercover police unit. The group,
acronamed STRESS (for Stop the
Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets),
wore plainclothes - usually Super-
fly hats and high hells, to "fit
in." STRESS is tough, ruthless, and
as corrupt as anyone's wildest fan-
tasies.
THE JOB OF STRESS from the
start was to infiltrate the sprawl-
ing black ghetto, shut down those
awful dope houses, and make De-
troit safe for good, decent people.
Here the ideal and the real di-
verge: STRESS has been accused
of indiscriminate killing of blacks,
receiving kickbacks from large-
scale dope dealers in return for
ignoring their illicit actions, and of
achieving such autonomy from the
regular police department as to
be almost uncontrollable.
Enter Hayward Brown . . . the
name might be familiar. A nine-
teen-year-old punk, Brown last year
went on a spree of knocking over
some of Detroit's better-known
dope houses. STRESS agents be-
gan an intensive effort to catch
Brown - some say they did so
to keep heroin-handling patrons
happy.
The rivalry between Brown and
STRESS culminated last December
in a shoot-out in which one STRESS
officer was killed and another ser-
iously wounded. Brown escaped,
and after the most intensive man-
hunt in the city's history, he was
captured and brought to trial on
charges of assault with intent to
kill.
Brown has been to trial three
times. Two weeks ago he was ac-
quitted for the third time on charg-
es stemming from the shoot-out in-
cident,adespite eyewitness testi-
mony and lamning evidence. The
Wayne County Prosecutor William
Cahalan, whose office trie: the
cases, has called the acquittals a
miscarriage of justice.
Close, Mr. Cahalan, but no cIar.
THE BROWN CASE points out
one of the essential inequities of
Motor City Justice. Namely, the
importance of color. Cahalan has
been accused not only of incompet-
ence, but also of "whitewashing"
every case his office has handled
in which a white STRESS officer
killed a black Detroiter.
For example, during the Detroit
riots three police officers and a
private hotel guard killed t h r e e
black youths - apparently wits no
reason. Again despite eyewitness
testimony, the four got off.
Brown's attorney, Kenneth V.
Cockrel, has raised valid points:
First, why was Brown, a two-bit
hood, the subject of such an in-
tensive search? Secondly, what
about the equal protection clause
CAHALAN'S sputterings about
the Brown verdicts have been
laughed at by anyone who knows
Detroit politics. His criticisms have
brought thinly-veiled threats of cen-
sure by the bar.
Yes, there is a good chance that
Brown is guilty; and no, he should
not go free if he is. But because
of widespread corruption, o p e n
prejudice, as well as incompetence,
Detroit's city government, notably
the police, has lost all legitimacy
it once held with the black com-
munity. It is difficult to convict
an inner-city black for almost any
crime nowadays, especially when
blacks see white police going scot
free for similar offenses,
The city of Detroit, in perhaps
oversimplified terms, has become
little more than an occupied area.
An armed cadre of mostly white
police attempt to rein in the boil-
Inevitable
of the constitution?' Cockrel right-
ly charges that. Detroit's standard
of justice is a dual one, with blacks
getting the shaft and whites, not-
ably policemen, having little less
than a James Bondish license to
kill.
Cahalan, meanwhile, screams
that the only reason Brown was
acquitted was because he w as
black, the jury was predominantly
black, and he had a sharp lawyer.
He has also criticized Judge Sam-
ual Gardner, the man who tried
the cases, for being unfair.
If Brown represents one side of
Detroit, Cahalan represents t h e
other. He is a member of the notor-
ious "Irish Mafia," a tight-knit
clan that has controlled the city
of Detroit and the County of Wayne
for years. The Irish Mafia is
known fursbeing touch, aggressive,
and for having an intense dislike
of the ghetto.
voDfwn
conflict
ing black community.
In short, the city is in trouble.
Justice, strained as it is, may
become a thing of the past.
And until black Detroiters g e t
some represenattive city govern-
ment, a government willing to pro-
secute the white along with the
black, there will be more Hayward
Browns and more Bill Cahalans and
more miscarriages of justice.
AND THE CITY will continue to
bubble. When will it boil over?
Gene Robinson is co-editor of
The Daily.
The Editorial Page of The
Michigan Daily is open to any-
one who w i s h e s to submit
articles. Generally speaking, all
articles should be less than 1,000
words.
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