Tuesday, August 2,, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Rage Three
Tuesday, August 2, 1977 UHE MiCHIGAN DAILY Page Three
Detroit police nab
19 connected with
prostitution ring
By PHILLIP BOKOVOY
Special To The Daily
DETROIT-The Detroit Police Department (DPD) conducted
an early morning surprise raid on a suspected prostitution motel
Saturday that would've made even Starsky and Huotch turn green
with envy.
The police, after, three weeks of undercover investigation,
swept into the Goldenaire Motel, beat on doors, and arrested a
total of nineteen people suspected of running a prostitution ring.
THE MOTEL is situated on a two mile strip of Woodward
Ave. between Six and Eight Mile roads that has become the
Metropolitan area's most notorious center of porno and flesh
peddling.
The two mile stretch contains a dozen motels catering prim-
arily to the hookers and their johns, numerous gay bars and a host
of pornographic book and film stores.
Sgt. Lee Caudill of the Organized Crime Division of the DPD
said the action at the motel was "much bigger than I thought".
Although Caudill said there were "no direct money payoffs" found
during the investigation, police said five dollar bills were found
in the mailboxes of room that had suspected prostitutes operating
in them.
THE INVESTIGATION and the subsequent raid were the
result of community pressure brought to bear on the police de-
partment over the past year.
Last summer the president of the North Woodward-John R
(NWJR) Community Association, Mary Ellis, organized a picket
line designed to drive the prostitutes out of the neighborhood.
The NWJR Community association also tried to drive away
the customers by copying down the license numbers of cars
stopping to proposition the prostitutes.
THE PROTEST received widespread attention but little action
from the city's political leaders, so the Association started its own
undercover surveillance and turned the results over to the police.
Ellis, a candidate in the upcoming Common Council primary,
ladged a formal complaint on behalf of the NWJR and helped the
police acquire a building next to the motel for surveillance.
She was elated over the results of the raid but said, "When
these boys (the police) make an arrest, the next morning they
(the prostitutes) are back on the street before the police are
finished with their paperwork." She blamed this on a judicial sys-
tem that she claims has no regard for the people in the city's
neighborhoods
The area received widespread attention two months ago when
it was found that many teenagers were plying their trade along
the avenue and that some were part of a child pornography ring.
Council tentatively OK's kf
o !!y cab fare increase
wudpythe re ar metered rate and additional pas-
senger would becharged S0 cents.
Council also acted to make Project Grow a line item in
the citys Parks and Recreation Department. The community
gardening project, which serves over 2,700 area residents,
was also ap rtioned $5,000 to help cover this year's accu
mlated deficit
COUNCILMAN Louis Belcher (RFifth Ward) said making
the organization a line item in the Parks and Recreation
budget will "insure that it goes through the budget processK
at the same time every year, so they can better plan their
management. Project Grow has weathered the tests of sur
vival and acceptane by the community"
M ft: .... ,y5 E: ... .,. Mt .,'s.'r :?$W :':?:;.4 ,
DETROIT POLICE officers from the vice squad and organized crime division arrest a suspect-
ed pimp during a surprise early morning raid on the most notorious porno and prostitution strip
in the Detroit metro area. The police officers' faces have been blacked out to protect their iden-
tities in continuing investigations.
- cericals pushingo
By SUE WARNER
lhe Organizing Committee for Clericals (OCC)
will meet tomorrow night to elect steering com-
mittee officers and interim OCC officials. Site
Ellen Hansen and Patty Schwartzman believe the
committee will add new force to the OCC'a drive
to establish a clericals union at the University.
According to Hansen and Schwartzman, the OCC'
has spent the past month working to complete
a set of bylaws for the group and spreading infor-
mation about the OCC's objectives to other cler-
icals.
"THE MAJOR STEP was getting a structure
organized," says Hansen. "Focus will be pro-
vided once the steering committee is in place."
The clericals group is also working to attain
signatures from at least 30 per cent of the Univer-
sity's clericals authorizing a union to bargain
collectively for them. If OCC is successful in
attamiing the signatures, it wilt petition the Mich-
igan Employment Relations Comrnission (MERC)
for a union certification election.
At this point University clericals will be able
to vote on whether or not they want a union.
According to Michigan law the clericals will not
be able to certify before August 1--one year after
members of the former clericals union UAW,
local 2001 voted to decertify.
PRIOR TO LAST summer's decertitication two
opposing factions had developed in the union
local. Hwever, Schwartzman contends the O('Ci
has not met any serious opposition, "at least not
in an organized way that we know about," she
adds.
According to Hansen, "Many clericals iwere un-
happy about what happened with the last union,
but, when they get information on the 1CC they're
usually very satisfied."
"One of the main things OCC is trying to get
across," she continued, "is that factions can be
healthy if there is a democratic structure. The
structure we've set up will permit free flow of
ideas and factions."
HANSEN ALSO stresses that the OCC is pres-
ently involved in simply inforiming clerical work-
ers of the OCC's structure and the possible bene-
fits of unionization.
"Right now we're going over questions people
have and arming organizers with the answers so
they can effectively organize."
"After the election there will be a list of people
who clericals can contact for further informa-
tion," Schwartzman adds.
TODAY
Commencement commences
Saburo Okita, internationally known Japanese eco-
nomist, will be the main speaker at the University's
summer commencement Aug. 21 Some 2400 students'
are expected to receive their degrees in the cere-
mony that will begin at 1:45 p.m. in Hill Auditorium.
Okita, president of the Overseas Economic Coopera-
tion Fund, has long been an advocate of international
cooperation in economic affairs. The Fund is the
Japanese government's chosen instrument for pro-
viding aid to Third World nations.
Happenings ...
... begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Union Ballroom, when
noted nuclear power foe Harvey Wasserman will
speak on nuclear power in Michigan. There will also
be a film on the protest at Seabrook . . . also at
7:30 there will be three free films shown at the
MLB, Aud. 3.
Soviet news agency. Furniture factory empltyes ap-
parently like the diversions of the "rooms of good
cheer." "Observations have shown that such rooms
remove fatigue and improve the general sense of
well-being, at the same time raising labor produc-
tivity by 10 to 15 per cent," Tass commented bright-
ly. If only they could book Star Wars
Lithuania goes Hollywood On the outside
Sure gets doll building furniture out in Lithuania, The beautiful weather will continue for at least
and the Soviet authorities there have done something another day, as today's high will be a mild 79 under
about it-they're letting the oppressed workers watch partly sunny skies. But clouds will move in by the
films. Educational films, of course. All about the late afternoon, and there is a chance of showers by
Baltic Sea and the Kursh Spit, or so says Tass, the evening. Tonight's low will be in the upper-S5s.