4 OPINION Page 4 Thursday, March 20, 1986 The Michigan Daily U1ie MiEp 3aan tat Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 2 police violate civil rights Vol. XCVI, No. 115 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board Pension conflict W HEN the University decided to divest an additional nine per- cent of its investments in cor- porations that do business with South Africa, there was some hope that the University's power- brokers were beginning to under- stand the political realities of cor- porate investments in the apar- theid-ridden nation. Corporations have a vested in- terest in apartheid. As long as there is apartheid, there will be no minimum wage laws nor political power for a vast majority of South Africans to improve their living and working conditions. Cor- porations will be able to continue making profits without fear of legal strikes or government regulations defending workers's rights. To trust corporations to push for real political change is naive. Many supposedly liberal cor- porations point to the Sullivan Principle which do improve con- ditions for their black employees in South Africa. But they neglect to say that less than one percent of black South Africans work for these corporations, and the prin- ciples themselves apply no political pressure on the government to give power to the blacks. Another myth about apartheid is that reform is possible. The whole problem in South Africa is that whites, who make up a small yet privileged population in the coun- try, hold all the political power. This leads to significant, yet secon- dary problems such as poor working conditions, and systematic segregation which could be slightly alleviated by reform. But these problems will not end until the fun- damental problem of blacks being ruled disproportionately by whites ends. On Tuesday, it was disclosed that ithe University's faculty con- tributed $15 million and the University added another $31 million last year to a national pen- sion plan that holds over six billion in South Africa-related investmen- ts. James Brinkerhoff, the Univer- sity's Vice President and Chief Financial Officer sits on the program's board of directors. When asked about his and the board's stance, Brinkerhoff said they opposed divestment because they thought it was ineffective. By keeping their power in the cor- porations as shareholders, they could push the corporations for reform. What Brinkerhoff does not un- derstand is that corporations, even if they achieve some relatively minor changes in their own work- place, help support the political system of apartheid through taxes, political legitimacy, and the selling of such products as computers to the government. TIAA-CREF, the national pen- sion plan, has filed shareholder resolutions with several cor- porations asking them to either sign the Sullivan Principals or to pull out of South Africa. Pulling out of the pension program would lead to stringent financial penalties for faculty and staff at the University. But faculty can take a stand against apartheid and the misguidedness of University ad- minstrators by urging TIAA-CREF to file a different resolution with corporations: Leave South Africa or faculty at America's univer- sities will divest. By Peter Rosset I am a friend of many of the 39 courageous Ann Arborites who were arrested yesterday at the vigil at Rep. Pursell's office. They committed a difficult act of conscience, protesting Pursell's record of voting for death and destruction in our names in Cen- tral America, and his refusal to hold a public meeting with his constituents on this issue, something he promised to do last year. As a friend of those arrested I felt that someone should be at City Hall while they were being booked, in case they should need bail or a lawyer. My lawyer informs me that it is common practice for friends of people who have been arrested to wait for them at City Hall, which is also the police station. The lobby is normally open 24 hours a day, so that citizens can contact the police for any reason. I arrived alone at about 7:30 p.m., asked the desk officer, L.D. Stearns, if the people had been released yet, and he said that they hadn't. I then sat down quietly in a chair in the deserted lobby to wait for my friends. After five to 10 minutes a policeman, Officer Ehnis I believe, came out and the following conversation ensued: * Ehnis: Are you with the people arrested at Pursell's? * Myself: Yes. s Ehnis: You'll have to wait outside " Myself: Why? " Ehnis: The building is closed to you people. " M: But this is the police station, and I'm a taxpayer and voter of Ann Arbor. b E : It's only open to people with police business. " M: I'm on police business, I'm waiting for people who are being booked. " E: Look, if you don't leave immediately Captain Klinge will come out and read you the trespass act, and you'll be arrested. " M: I'm going to call my lawyer. At that point I called my lawyer from the pay phone in the lobby to ask if they had the right to throw me out of City Hall. He said he'd never heard of anything like it. At this point two other police officers came over and stood by me, informing me that I would be ejected as soon as my phone call was over. My lawyer told me to ask the nearest one her name, which I did. She responded "badge 9". He insisted I get her name, so I Rosset, a graduate student in Biology, is co-author of the Nicaraguan Reader. asked again. She again replied "badge 9." I then walked up to her to read her name tag: "Officer D.A. Ceo." My lawyer then said I should file a complaint with the desk officer that my rights were being violated by polic- e officers. So I went over to Officer Stearn at the desk, and had the following conver- sation: * Myself: I would like to file a complaint please. . Stearns: I don't accept complaints. " M: What do you mean, you don't accept complaints? " S: I'm under orders not to accept any complaints. So I went back to the phone, and called my lawyer again. He said of course they accept complaints, that's why the police station is open at night, and that's why there is a desk officer. By this time three other people had entered without any problem, and were talking to the desk officer about a towed car. I waited behind them for my turn, and told them what happened. When I told them what Officer Stearns had said, he piped up and said "that's a lie, I never said anything about 'orders', I just said I don't take com- plaints." I couldn't believe it, I felt like I stumbled onto the set of Brazil, or Orwell's 1984. When my turn came, I told him that my lawyer said they had to accept my com- plaint. He replied that he was a patrolman and didn't accept complaints. I said that someone must, and finally he said "only a command officer takes complaints." So I asked to speak to a command officer, and he said "I'll see if he'd like to speak to you," and made a phone Zall. He then told me to'sit down, that an officer would come out "when he had some time." Irasked to borrow a pen (because I wanted a record of the Officers' names), and he said he didn't have any ex- tra. I then pointed to a cup on his desk holding pens and pencils, and asked if I could borrow one of those. He looked at them, and then said "no". I sat down again to wait quietly for the command officer. At this point other friends of the arrestees had arrived, and were wait- ing outside in the cold. Someone who had nothing to do with us then tried to enter, and was told that the building was closed. She said she comes every night at 9:00 PM to wait for her friend who works upstairs, and always sits in the lobby. The Officer at the door, Ms. Ceo, replied that she was sorry but the building was closed tonight. The woman said "does this mean that I'll never be able to wait for my friend again?" and Officer Ceo replied "only tonight." The Ann Arbor News reporter then tried to enter the building to interview the police, I think, and was denied entrance. She was furious! After about half an hour Officer Car- nahan, apparently a "command officer" came out to take my complaint. He im- mediately started asking questions like, "so, are you the coordinator of leader of this group?" I said that I was just a friend, wanted to file a complaint, and didn't come to be interrogated. He replied, "don't get smart with me and I won't get smart with you." He then took my complaint, which has 2 parts: first, that my right to wait in the City Hall lobby for friends being booked, a right other citizens apparently have, was being denied without reason by a police of- ficer. Second, Officer Stearns had made a strong attempt to deny me my right to lodge a complaint, which I was finally able to do only because of my persistance based on en- couragement from my lawyer. Officer Carnahan took the complaint in distinctly bad humor, and then told me they'd "get in touch with me." He then star- ted to interrogate me again, asking "so let me get this straight, what is your title with this group?" I replied "I don't have a 'title' with any group, I'm just a friend of people who have been arrested."- He left., The police were apparently chagrined enough by my filing a complaint that they did not carry out their threat to arresttme, and I was then allowed to remain in the lobby until all of my friends were released, while everyone else had to wait outside in the cold. What is going on in Ann Arbor? It seems like the police, the University and :Rep. Pursell have lost their minds. Last week police and campus security followed studen- ts across campus after a peaceful protest had ended, seemingly to intimidate them. And Rep. Pursell prefers to have his con- stituents arrested rather than meet with them. The insanity goes beyond Ann Arbor, of course, with the President shrilly calling all opponents of aid to the Contras "un- American, un-patriotic." Are we reliving the KucCarthy era, ghoulishly combined with the early sixties? In the 1960's ours countrywas marching inexorably into the quagmire of an unwinnable and immoral war in a poor country, Vietnam. Police in Chicago, Madison, Berkeley, Washington, D.C., Kent and Jackson State, and yes, Ann Arbor, rioted against peaceful protesters. The signs are all here again, as our in- volvement in Central America escalates daily. Wasserman 0 F-Mep. WE iUND 11AEWW1VAS OP. W4EL NAVETo SEND U.5. TROOPS YOURETWIVImG OF &SENVIN& U.S. TRDOS ? h / Fizzled peace march l.A I .?~ Li . r -/ I - I IT SEEMED like a noble idea. A peace march from California to Washington D.C., with over a thousand people, was to last for 255 days in order to reach its goal. But' the march seemed suspicious from the start. Too much glamour and too many celebrities seemed to be involved-too much worrying over how to fly Madonna.: in at the right time, how to ensure that the pre- march celebrity dinner would run smoothly. Unfortunately, the suspicions proved correct. Less than a month after it started, the Great Peace March is in ruins: its sponsors are filing for bankruptcy and the possibility of the march's ever being completed are slim.. The Great Peace March was not going to be another product of grass-roots activism. With the help of Madonna, pre-march festivities raised over four million dollars. This money went to the over 113 paid workers, who worked for months beforehand in order to get the march off the ground. For the march itself, according to the New Republic, a moving city of 5,000, was built including six mobile kit- chens, 2,500 tents, a bank, stage, meeting halls, and even a post of- The march was the brainchild of David Mixner, who expressly kep the march apolitical. He wanted it to raise public awareness of the fact that politicians are failing to negotiate peace and an end to the arms race. On Monday, however, Mixner was no longer talking about in- fluencing public opinion and policy-making. Much of the mobile city had simply packed up and gone home. More than half of the original marchers had also given up, obviously disgruntled after having planned to make the sacrifice of giving up nine months of their lives for the cause of an "apolitical peace." So, the victim of the Great Peace March isn't the bureaucratic struc- ture of the Pro-Peace group. Nor it is Mixner. He will doubtlessly come back with another harebrained scheme in the near future. The victims of the Great Peace March are the cause of peace, the public, which was so easily duped by Mixner and the celebrities he brought in, and most importantly, the 500 or so mar- chers left virtually stranded in the Mojave Desert, still trying to figure out a way to complete the march. L- - - -r. . - 0"" A350LUTELY NoT!. But YOU J1UST SAID...e ifi" 7*P .. ! J 'DoSKFOCloN l PI7MOVzMr*Ow! nI 41 Z D_ 4 d; L LETTERS: BPC letter misrepresents the facts e 'To the Daily: This letter responds to the let- ter by Rick Frenkel, which con- cerns the ongoing investigation of the Michigan Student Assembly's Budget Priorities Committee. (Daily, March 14.) Unfortunately and a former Meadow Party can- didate, and Kurt Muenchow, the chair of BPC and the Meadow Party Presidential candidate, have stonewalled the in- vestigation in the MSA Steering Committee while opposing any release of the findings before the because Eric Schnaufer, a mem- ber of MSA, is also a member of Freedom Charter. However, other groups which have MSA members have been funded by MSA. Frenkel also claims that the Freedom Charter's liberal perspective was not the reason that BPC does not fund projects sponsored by other student governments. However, the BPC, under Muenchow's leadership, has funded projects sponsored by other student governments in the past. I