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OPINION


Page 4

Thursday, April 3, 1986

The Michigan Daily

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Ee a d1 managedbtudnsganr it M ia
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

Students

battle

Vol. XCVI, No. 125

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board

Declassify research

T HE committee reviewing the
University's classified resear-
ch guidelines should recommend
that the Board of Regents ban all
classified research here.
Under the current guidelines, no
classified research is allowed
unless its existence is public
knowledge, its results are
pblishable within a year of com-
pletion, and no application of the
research is harmful to human life.
Confusion over interpretation of
guidelines led the regents to call for
the review and it is this same con-
fusion that justified a ban.
The process by which conformity
to the guidelines is determined
provides the readiest example. A
classified research proposal in 1980
was approved before the student
member of the Classified Review
Panel had a chance to review it.
While the student member did
ultimately approve the project, it
was only after several weeks, by
which time the project was under-
way.
In a more recent example, a
project to study the viability of
defense-oriented research
technologies was completed before
it reached the student member of
the panel.
These examples and numerous
interpretations of the human life
King's
SPRIL 4th is the anniversary of
the, assassination of civil rights
agtivist, Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr. It is also to be a National
Divestment Protest Day, which
will be observed on campus by a
Ftedom March against Racism
and Apartheid.
It is only appropriate that we
should remember the death of
Reverend King by protesting the
cintinuing injustice in South Africa
aid everywhere else. Dr. King's
vision for equality applied to
discrimination of all peoples, the
world over.
:In 1962, Dr. King called for the
U'S. to end trade and corporate in-
vestments in South Africa. Twenty-
four years later, the crises in South
Africa still exists. But it is hear-
tening that the anti-apartheid
movement has survived as well,
and is presently gaining momen-
tim.

guideline and the one-year
publication requirement have
allowed some questionable projec-
ts to slip through that might not
have under different circumstan-
ces. The inconsistency of guideline
enforcement is the most com-
pelling reason for elimination of
the guidelines.
Since the guidelines were enac-
ted in 1972, University researchers
have done only 44 classified
research projects. Today, only two
projects are under way, at a total
cost of less than $500,000.
The time to eliminate classified
research is now, when it will have
minimal economic impact on the
University. With a commitment by
the administration to bring in more
defense department dollars and the
growth of Strategic Defense
Initiative, more classified projects
are sure to find their way to the
University, increasing the chance
for further disagreement over in-
terpretation of the guidelines and
the procedures for determinig their
application.
In a free academic environ-
ment, research must be open and
available to everyone. Stopping
classified research at the Univer-
sity would prevent the ambiguities
of the past, and insure against
future problems.
vision
The shanty on the Diag, built by
members of the Free South Africa
Coordiinating ComnAttee, is a form
of protest that is part of the
National Weeks of Anti-Apartheid
Action. The shanty's purpose is to
attempt to arouse and maintain
public awareness of the situation in
South Arica, despite news black
outs.
Even so, it is difficult to sustain a
commitment to protest apartheid,
when progress seems to distant.
For this reason, above all others,
the commemoration of Reverend
King's assasination should serve as
an inspiration to continue the fight.
He died because he believed in
his power to change the world; let
us remember his death, not by
mourning, but by re-affirming our
power to solve the problems of our
world. The problems, it should be
remembered, are the same.

By Henry Park
Nothing ever came of my experience as
an accused cocaine-dealer, basketball-bet-
ter and murder accomplice - except my
own intimidation at the hands of the police.
Police use a certain amount of intimidation
to obtain information or simply to keep
people under control. That intimidation does
not apply to all people equally. It applies to
activists and minority communities
especially.
The first time I had trouble with the police
I was a freshman, who worked for a more
radical version of PIRGIM called ACORN.
In one suburb of Boston I was raising money
for ACORN when police stopped me and
asked for identification. I showed it to them.
They took it from me and said that New
York drivers' licenses are the easiest to
fake. I asked repeatedly for my iden-
tifications back and began to threaten legal
action, but instead the police took me in
their car for a ride. They said they would put
me outside town boundaries with no tran-
sportation if I did not cease my soliciting ef-
forts.
Before I left the suburban house where I
was canvassing, I asked the homeowner for
his name for future testimony. He said he
was not involved. I also showed the police a
stack of newspaper articles about ACORN
and its lobbying activities and my can-
vasser's identification. Still they said I was
likely guilty of grand larceny, fraud and a
host of lesser crimes.
When the police brought all the can-
vassers in the neighborhood together,nthe
police told my field director that I had
caused the most trouble. Indeed, I had been
uncooperative because I was confident that
I passed as white and middle class. Ad-
ditionally, ACORN was a respectable lob-
bying group that worked in the state

legislature and had many lawyers. Also, I'
knew I was a Harvard student and the Har-
vard Crimson publishes arrests of student
drunks as front page police atrocities. I was
not going to make it easy for the police to
stop my political efforts.
Still, the police won that day in my short
canvassing career. They intimidated my
field director into taking us home. He knew
why the police were so angry: The year
before a similar group called MASS FAIR-
SHARE had sued that very police depar-
tment and had won. Wisely, the field direc-
tor did not trust the police enough to leave
his canvassers in state hands for an over-
night arrest.
Later though, I became too adventurous in
struggling against police intimidation. A
large and notorious Cambridge cop asked
me to shut down my literature table in a
public place. I assured myself that I had
plenty of witnesses and told the police of-
ficer I would not shut the table down.
Specifically invoking my class privilege, I
told the officer that I was a Harvard student
on Harvard property. The cop said, "Oh, a
wise guy." He took out his radio. Harvard
police arrived. They conferred and the
Cambridge cop left. I continued my work.
Thereafter, I arrived to set up a literature
table even as the same cop shut down other
tables in the same public area.
Still, what I did was stupid because my ac-
ts bordered on an individual battle with the
police force. Since police repression has a
certain uniform quality from place to place,
I should have done what I did with much
more public involvement. I don't know why
I counted on the Harvard Crimson to cover
my potential beating at the hands of police.
While it is true I pass as white and middle
class, press coverage has never protected
Black people from police murders. During
the Vietnam War, even white people in large
public demonstrations at Kent State and the
Berkeley People's Park got shot and killed.
Somehow it is difficult to convince my
peers to go back and study the history of the

police
Vietnam experience in books like SDS by
Alan Adelson. It is even more difficult to
convince elite university students to look at
the revolutionary Black Panthers' ex-
perience with police. For those interested,
there is a book called The Black Panthers
Speak. Black activists have always had the
worst of police repression.
To me, it seems that the police are quick
to talk about syndicated murder, cocaine-
dealing, basketball-betting and grand lar-
ceny. Yet, if it were not for the experiences
of people deemed more threatening by the
state than myself, I would never mention
my minor experience with police in-
timidation. I would even try to forget about
what I read about the 60s and American im-
perialism.
It is contemporary events like the
Philadelphia MOVE bombing and the police
shooting of an incapacitated Black woman
named Elanor Bumburs in Chicago that
convince me that democracy and freedom
remain utopian illusions in the United States
of the 80s. Petty harassment of University
students is only a small part of a larger pat-
tern.
In all my experiences with police, the bot-
tom line is not who makes the best argumen-
ts in court. Rather it is intimidation and
response. Those who think that they have
actual free speech in this society obviously
haven't tried it much and are easy suckers
for police repression. Freedom of political
operation comes only through struggle
against the police and government. It does
not come free.
Students who understand the government
record in support of police-states like South
Africa will know better: Police use in-
timidation. as a matter of course
case, where intimidation fails there is
always imprisonment, deportation and
murder around the corner.
This is the second of a two part series.

4

Park is the associate editor of
Opinion Page.

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LETTERS:

Gay caucus endorses city Democrats

Student power

To The Daily:
The Lesbian-Gay Political
Caucus of Washtenaw County
recently sent questionnaries to
all candidates in the Ann Arbor
General Election, asking their
views on civil-rights protection
for lesbians and gay men. We
later met with some of the can-
didates to discuss this issue.
Based on our discussion, we en-
dorse the following candidates
for city council: Larry Hunter,
Susan Contratto, Dave DeVarti,
and Doris Preston. These can-
didates expressed interest and
support for protecting and ex-
panding civil-rights protection
for gay women and men, par-
ticularly in terms of providing
more education on AIDS to the

The Democratic endorsements
were based either on past record
of action on our behalf, as in the
case of Larry Hunter and Doris
Preston, and/or based on a
response to our questionnaire and
meeting with caucus represen-
tatives, as is the case with Susan
Contratto and Dave Devarti. Let
it be clear, however, that these
four candidates' expressions of
concern for our interests have
been timid at best, and our en-
dorsement in no way means that
we feel they will go out on a
political limb for us. Our endor-
sement is based on indications
from them that well remain open
to input from gay men and
women in this community.
In these times it is a rare

As gay women -and men, we
should realize too that our
struggle for total liberation is
closely related to the struggles of
opressed peoples throughout the
world. In particular, the people
who need to suppress our
liberation as human beings are
the same ones who, for whatever
economic, political, or
psychological reasons, need to
oppress the poor peoples of Cen-
tral America.
For this reason, the L-GPC/WC
wholeheartedly urges you to vote
"YES" on Proposal A for peace
and justice in Central America. If,
passed, proposal A would require
that the City Clerk express to the
federal government that citizens
of Ann Arbor would rather have

napalm. Furthermore, a task
force would be established to set
up a sister city in Central
America for the creation of
cultural, educational, and other
peaceful exchanges between the
people of Central America and
Ann Arbor. This would go a long
way in showing that people are
people, with the same basic needs
for happiness and the same
vulnerabilities to hunger,
economic oppression, and (U.S.)
bombs and bullets.
In sum, the Lesbian-Gay
Political Caucus of Washtenaw
County urges gay men and
women not only to vote for the
aforementioned candidates, but
to organize politically to fight for
complete social freedom and

0

A CROSS the country, the
ovement to cut U.S. ties to
South Africa has continued to gain
steam on a number of fronts. The
struggle at the University of
Michigan to gain an honorary
degree for Nelson Mandela is far
from isolated.

Trustees are beginning to hedge.
Now the Trustees are saying they
support divestment if it is affor-
dable and if apartheid does not end.
At other universities students
must work to expose the Sullivan
Principles as inadequate
guidelines for U.S. companies that
"t-n in nat.it w;+ith Ca:i. fav