4- The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 5, 1993
CA U~ttbeal
420 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Edited and managed
by students at the
University of Michigan
JosH DUBOw
Editor in Chief
ANDREW LEvY
Editorial Page Editor
,
Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Daily editorial board.
All other cartoons, articles and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
T
my in Detroit
i hope for the future
me Court justice the flesh" to get badly needed dollars for Detroit. In
county Prosecutor fact, the city saw a 15 percent cut in government aid.
troit mayoral race Archer must work with the U.S. Conference of
city. Twenty years Mayors topusha national agenda that focuses on the
administration are cities. It is less than two years since the L.A. Riots,
yes that the people and little has been done to relieve the pressure and
look to the future. the problems of the cities. Action must be taken by
ry kind - crime, the government to make these pressing changes, and
pregnancies, high Archer must lead the call for this change.
;tructure and a de- Another principal responsibility of Archer's is to
Lke their toll on the bring jobs to Detroit. He must paint the city in. a
n a policy of coali- favorable light. And with his established relation-
n the healing," and ship with the suburbs, he must convince the rest of
the state that Detroit has needs that are relevant to
John Engler has Michigan as a whole.
ayor, promising to As the auto industry slowly moves out of Detroit,
ation to aid Archer jobs must be found to replace them. And in the highly
:ity. But talk is not competitive state-to-state tug-of-war for jobs, Ar-
cher will be a welcome addition.
I be a scrapping of Beyond funding and jobs, Archer must bring a
ce reform bill, in sense of change to Detroit. The social problems of
provides the same the city are immense, but they must be tackled. The
tudents, suburban city government had grown stagnant. And in the
process, a generation of young people is being lost.
Archer's. He will More than half of Detroit students do not graduate
ie federal govern- from high school. One-third of all babies are born to
y into Detroit. For teenage mothers. It is not enough to lament the
oung, in his later problems. Increased funding and a change in policy
nwilling to "press is desperately needed.
Sng habeas corpus
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Clinton anti-crime package
:k Brooks (D-Texas), chair of the House Judi-
ary Committee and long-time opponent of gun
rol, recently allowed the Brady Bill, which would
ire the purchaser of a handgun to wait five
ping days to allow for a background check, to be
rated from Clinton's anti-crime package. By
ng the Brady Bill from the clutches of the anti-
e package that has been stalled in Congress due
logjam of bipartisan opposition, Brooks has
:ased the likelihood that both will pass Con-
;. Passage of the Brady Bill is a small step toward
h needed and long overdue gun-control legisla-
But sans the Brady Bill, Clinton's crime bill
s to be shot down.
he anti-crime package proposed by the admin-
:ion would deploy an additional 50,000 police,
'ell as authorizing funds for drug treatment
rams and boot camps for juvenile offenders -
noble goals. However, this bill would also
:ase to almost fifty the number of federal crimes
shable by death and limit to one the number of
as corpus appeals a death row inmate could file
Ieral court. Habeas corpus, the right of prisoners
.se constitutional objections to their convictions
ides a precious outlet for innocent victims of an
rfect judicial system. Restricting this right, as
on 's anti-crime bill proposes, will only restrict
ustice and equality America espouses and per-
now just death-penalty bill.
whelmingly black and poor. Since 1932, only one
white has been executed for killing a black, whereas
the numbers are staggering on the opposite side. The
poor suffer from inadequate legal representation and
insufficient funds requisite for a fair trial and often
pay the price. Minorities and the poor have virtually
no hope in a system based more on skin color than
justice; more on financial status than equality.
Furthermore, as habeas corpus appeals are re-
stricted to one, individuals unjustly sentenced to
death-row become lambs to the slaughter of the
State. In the last 20 years, 48 death-row inmates have
been found innocent following their convictions.
That's at least 48 fatal flaws in the system of capital
punishment.
Proponents of this provision in the anti-crime bill
claim that limiting habeas corpus appeals will be an
effective deterrent to the most serious crimes, and
will also reduce excessive time and effort put into
unnecessary appeals. However, no credible study
has ever proven that the death penalty is a deterrent
to crime .
More importantly, because only about 125 ha-
beas corpus petitions are filed annually, restricting
appeals will sacrifice the rights of inmates for the
minor relief of reducing a relatively small amount of
paperwork. This is hardly the justice on which
America prides itself.
On Wednesday, the House endorsed increasing
the number of police on America's streets. Clearly,
Congress can pass anti-crime legislation without
committing a crime of its own. The racist and classist
death penalty fix must be considered separately from
proposals about drug awareness and the state of the
police bureaucracy. Such a sacrifice of justice is
neither an effective nor a democratic solution to
fighting crime.
By KRIS SWARTY
I write in response to your
editorial "DPS Report Card," (10/14/
93). As soon as I saw the headline, I
said to myself, "Ahh, the Daily must
not have had anything better to do,
you know how they cop-bash when
the get bored ..."
I have several problems with your
editorial. First off, you refer to the
statistics provided by DPS as
"internally generated," like this is a
cover-up. Please tell me what else
you would expect. Maybe you think
it is proper and even widely practiced
to hire an outside agency to tally the
crimes reported each day. I hate to
burst your bubble, but crime statistics
are internally generated in just about
every law enforcement agency
around. This reflects on how well
educated you are when it comes to
reporting standards.
Second, you try to propose
another cover-up by DPS because
their statistics reflect only those
crimes reported. How is one able to
produce statistics on unreported
crimes unless you are an outside firm
calling people at random to find out
if they failed to report a crime to the
Swarty is a School of Natural
Resources junior.
Parking woes
To the Daily:
Our congratulations for
addressing the problem of parking on
North Campus ("Students call North
Campus parking unsafe," 10/22).
However, those of us who have dealt
with North Campus parking for some
time sense that some punches were
definitely pulled in the article.
We were particularly intrigued by
the comments of the Parking
Services manager, Susan Kirkpatrick,
"Parking is being expanded out from
the core area." Excuse us? Don't you
mean "affordable parking is being
made completely inconvenient?" Are
we supposed to be excited about
parking away from the "core area?"
For the moment, the North
Campus crowd seems resistant to the
idea of paying for what we've come
to view as free parking.
In a couple of years, everyone
will be sucked into buying Reduced
Rate permits. And the logical next
step would be to raise their cost. We
certainly aren't the only ones on
campus who are dismayed by the
profit-maximizing tendencies of
Parking Services.
ERIC BISH
CHESTER CHANG
Rackham students
Embrace Jesus Christ
To the Daily:
I have a burden for those who
proclaim to be Christians and
Believers in Jesus Christ and actively
support homosexuality.
The Bible clearly states that males
and females were created so that they
might "be fruitful and multiply."
The assumptions of the Gay Rights
movement are that sexual preference
is predetermined at birth, confirmed
police? Maybe they should guess.
Take this scenario: the computer is
spitting out yearly statistics ...
incidents of burglary actually
reported = 100 - incidents of rape
actually reported = 20. Later, in a
small room around the corner,
several uniformed officers sit around
a table and try to figure out how
many went unreported. "Hey, I bet
old lady Smith was burglarized last
month and never told us, count that
as one. And I bet SOMEONE had to
have gotten attacked after that wild
party at the Michigan Union, count
that as one rape." Wake up, how do
you expect law enforcement agencies
to incorporate unreported crimes into
their statistics? There is no magic
equation to use in order to figure out
how many crimes went unreported
- do you think they should just tack
on another ten percent? If you read
something besides your own paper
and the political science journals,
maybe you would know that crime
statistics are reported in the
University Record once a month
AND include both reported and
UNREPORTED incidents of sexual
assault as reported by SAPAC.
Third, you state the department
would rather focus on punishments
for crimes after they occur (and not
Believers to give opportunity for all
to come to know Christ as Savior.
What an awesome responsibility!
MICHAEL MARTZ
Engineering junior
Taking the moral high
ground
To the Daly:
Let's get the facts straight
regarding last week's poster war!
Nothing cures AIDS - nothing!
Yes, it's true that abstinence from
sex and intravenous drug use will (in
all likelihood) protect you from HIV,
but a properly used latex condom and
a syringe sterilized with bleach are
also reasonably effective
preventatives. If the College
Republicans were really interested in
preventing the spread of HIV or
"curing" AIDS they would include
more facts in their message.
The thing that is most disturbing
about the CollegebRepublicans
actions is not the blatant
misinformation being spewed.
Rather, I object to the underlying
attempt to squelch our understanding
of ourselves and the world around us
by redefining American politics as a
play for the moral high-ground.
JOHN R. SMITH
Music Alumnus
prevention). Please provide me with
some background here - you give
no support to this accusation in your
editorial. I guess you need to be
reminded that the courts are left to
deal with punishments not the police
and I'm sure DPS is aware of this.
Most people learn that in high
school government or middle school
sociology class. Maybe that is why
you had no support for your
accusation. Regarding the
prevention of crimes, maybe you
should visit the Crime Prevention
and Community Relations Division
of DPS. It really does exist and they
have made great strides in both
areas. I bet you are one of those
people that leave their dorm room
unlocked or their book bag
unattended and then accuse DPS of
not preventing theft.
Lastly, on the issue of
professionalism, I ask you to find a
comparable department with higher
ethics and better trained personnel.
And I challenge you to two things:
take a look at the operating
procedures and the training require
for the officers and tell me they are
not impressive, then visit the
department and talk with some of
the officers - you will find that
they really are people, too.
Review was terrible
To the Daily:
Let me take this opportunity to
review Karen Lee's review of last
weekend's Comedy Company
performance (11/1/93).
First, director Rob Green didat
state that most sketches resulted
from improvisation, but rather that"
improv was a frequently used
method of starting rehearsals.
Furthermore, to call a performance'
"...pointless, tasteless, irrelevant,
unoriginal and almost completely
humorless..." would be completely
fallacious.
I agree with Lee that
"Appalachia" was utterly disgusting
and in very poor taste, but it was one
sketch. Sometimes a slap in the face
is good for a society whose main
concern at times is whether to allow
the word "penis" to be broadcast on
television.
Overall, I feel Lee's review was
unwarranted and unnecessarily
harsh. Aside from one sketch, which
was very successful at "waking up
the audience," the show was very
funny, tasteful and original. Why the
Daily assigned a reporter with no
sense of comedy to a comedy show
is beyond me.
CHRIS CURTIS
President, UAC
LETTERS POLICY
The Daily encourages responses
from its readers. Letters should
include the author's name, year in
school and/or University affiliation
(if applicable), and phone number.0
has taken the initiative to ap-
by taking out the Brady Bill,
ocates of capital punishment to
leting the restrictions on habeas
States are over-
Croll's Camera Corner Anthony
V M. Croll
Chester the Molester
To the Daily:
What was going through the
minds of your layout staff when it
was decided that "Chester the
Molester" would be an appropriate
front page photo on Nov. 1?
The fact that the ROTC has
apparently failed in teaching this one
particular student (the photo's
..,'