4A -The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 24, 2005
OPINION
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JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALISON GO
Managing Editor
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
420 MAYNARD STREET
ANN ARBOR, MI 48109
tothedaily@michigandaily.com
NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
We're proud
of being white,
we want to
keep being
white."
-Thirteen-year-old singing sensation Lynx
Gaede. Lynx and her twin sister Lamb make up
"Prussian Blue," a new musical duo dedicated
to spreading white nationalism and racism,
as reported yesterday by ABCnews.com.
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The AAPD in action
ELLIOTT MALLEN IRRATIONAL EXUJBERANCE
fter finally find-
ing ourselves
free of the con-
straints typically associ-
ated with dorm life, my
~; seven housemates and
I decided early this fall
that a party was in order.
We made the necessary
arrangements: the neigh-
bors were invited, the
laughably obligatory "You must be at least 21 to
drink" signs were hung at key points around the
house and the Pabst was procured. Everything
was going swimmingly when the guests began
to arrive. The DJ managed to move asses on the
dance floor with everything from Ray Charles
to Boards of Canada, and the pleasantly crisp
autumn weather allowed attendees to escape to
the side porch for a brief reprieve from the mass
chaos inside.
Problems arose when the police arrived
around midnight in response to a call from the
neighbors. This shouldn't have come as a sur-
prise, as we were being a bit noisier than one
would expect in our normally tranquil Ker-
rytown neighborhood. Sighing heavily at the
sight of illuminated blue and red, I expected
a bored policeman to simply go through the
motions, writing us a noise violation ticket
and ordering us to turn the volume down. Two
white Ann Arbor Police Department officers
emerged from the car, one female and one
male. The male officer singled out one of my
housemates who was trying to usher guests
off of the front lawn, beckoning him off of the
porch with a shout of "You come here!" The
officer advanced and placed his arm around
the housemate while demanding to see his ID.
The housemate opened his wallet and asked to
be allowed to go inside to retrieve his license.
He barely managed to take one step towards
the door before the policeman seized his arm
and shoulder, dragged him off of the porch and
across the lawn, forced him against the patrol
car, cuffed him and threw him in the back seat
without any reading of his rights. As he was
being led to the car, the policeman ominously
emphasized that the housemate had just com-
mitted a crime and would be spending the night
in jail. He would have to explain to any future
employer why he was at one point deemed a
menace to society, and he would have to call
his parents and have him bailed out of jail.
Dismayed and surprised by the forcefulness
of our friend's sudden arrest, three other house-
mates and I approached the patrol car to deter-
mine why he'd been arrested and how we could
get him out. The male police officer did all of
the talking, explaining that he could have just
as easily arrested any of us for failing to show
ID on demand, and that the wide-eyed house-
mate now sitting in the backseat of the shiny
new AAPD patrol car just happened to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
This raised a few eyebrows among us, and we
wondered if it was truly a coincidence that out of
all the supposedly criminal residents to choose
from, the white cop managed to single out and
arrest the only nonwhite resident in attendance.
After about 20 minutes of negotiations (during
which our queries were answered with "because
it's the law" or "because I can") we finally got
our housemate out of the car and back inside the
house. The remaining four of us tried (in as rea-
sonable tones and words as we could, given our
anger and alcohol intake) to determine how we
could prevent this from happening again, and I
think I was pushing it a little when I found myself
inquiring into the intricacies of filing a Freedom
of Information Act request for the police report
and expediting its release so that we could see it
prior to our trial date.
The white male cop tried to commiserate, say-
ing that the parties his frat buddies used to throw
at some big southern university were broken up all
the time. This elicited a round of eye-rollings and
a scream of "fucking racist pigs" from one of our
more incensed housemates. The police gave us a
noise violation before leaving, and we retreated
back to the party to lick our wounds and salvage
as much of the party as we could. Despite his cop-
induced ripped clothing and bruised shoulders,
the previously arrested housemate's breakdancing
prowess elicited cheers of redemption from the
remaining attendees.
The AAPD has a reputation for being a laid
back police force. The Ann Arbor City Council
passed a resolution in 2003 requiring that the
AAPD not follow some of the Patriot Act's more
draconian measures, and Ann Arbor folklore has
it that the AAPD's policy on marijuana use plac-
es the department just a rung above handing out
joints at traffic stops. But this stereotype offered
little solace when I actually saw Ann Arbor's fin-
est in action, keeping the streets safe from social-
izing youths through patronizing scare tactics and
superfluous displays of power.
Mallen can be reached at
emmallen@umich.edu.
VIEWPOINT
LSA-SG: real issues, real results
BY ANDREW YAHKIND AND PAIGE BUTLER
In covering the work of student government
at the University, The Michigan Daily has
historically chosen to focus on the Michigan
Student Assembly. For better or worse, the
smallest of assembly actions appears to receive
significant attention. As we learned last week,
placing a root beer keg in the Diag is enough to
earn a front-page article. While this coverage
is certainly important, as MSA has the poten-
tial to greatly affect the lives of all students,
it overshadows the work of the University's
"other" student government.
In representing more than 17,000 students
in both academic and nonacademic arenas,
the student government of the College of Lit-
erature, Science, and the Arts is charged with
a serious mandate. It is a task that we believe
LSA-SG has successfully tackled over the
last six months. By focusing on "real issues,"
the government has quietly been delivering
"real results."
Have problems with the LSA foreign lan-
guage requirement? Today, the LSA faculty
will be voting on a proposed change to the
college's foreign language requirement. The
proposed "2-2" option will allow students to
complete the language requirement by dem-
onstrating second-semester proficiency in two
different languages. If the proposal is to pass,
it will be a testament to the government's per-
sistence in lobbying the faculty on an issue that
students have brought to LSA-SG.
Want to taste some of Ann Arbor's finest
cuisine for free? Walk through the Diag dur-
ing lunchtime this Tuesday and grab a sample
from one of the 16 local area restaurants that
will be participating in LSA-SG's "Taste of
Michigan" event.
Interested in the debate surrounding the
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative and affirma-
tive action? Come to LSA-SG's MCRI forum
this Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Pend-
leton Room of the Union. The nonpartisan
educational event will feature such speakers
as University General Counsel Marvin Kris-
lov, who was a member of the University's
legal team in the Grutter and Gratz affirma-
tive action cases and Prof. Carl Cohen who is a
member of MCRI's steering committee.
Want to travel a little cheaper? Students trav-
eling for Thanksgiving and winter breaks will
be able to utilize a special travel discount that
LSA-SG's Student Life Committee has nego-
tiated with StudentUniverse.com. By entering
"GoBlue20" as their promotional code, stu-
dents will receive an additional $20 discount
of their total travel cost.
Ever have issues with academic integrity in
a class? After more than four years of work-
ing with the LSA administration, LSA-SG has
secured the creation of college-wide Honor
Council. Twenty student members will serve
on the council, which has a dual mission of
educating students with regards to issues of
academic integrity, as well as assisting with
the adjudication of cases involving alleged
violations of related college policies.
Believe that you should be able to study
international relations in college? After sev-
eral years of. diligent research and lobbying,
LSA-SG is now working with members of the
International Institute to finalize details for
the launch of an International Studies minor
within LSA.
Think that the cost of preparing for gradu-
ate school examinations is too high? LSA-
SG is finalizing plans for the creation of a
self-directed LSAT preparation course to be
offered in conjunction with the University's
career center.
These events and projects represent just
a small sampling of what LSA-SG is cur-
rently tackling. LSA-SG members have been
working tirelessly to improve the quality of
life for students on campus, both inside and
outside of the classroom. Interested in getting
involved or just learning more? Visit www.
lsasg.umich.edu.
The American Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser
once said, "When your work speaks for itself,
'don't interrupt." We're done interrupting.
a0
Yahkind is LSA-SG President,
Butler is LSA-SG Vice President.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Columnist unfairly narrow
in her definition of talent
To THE DAILY:
This is in response to Sowmya Krish-
namurthy's column (A-List overdue on campus,
10/20/2005) about the lack of A-Listers coming
to campus. I know you'll get others, but I have
to chime in as well. I have just one question:
Are you kidding me? Your column is ridicu-
lously ignorant and completely without factual
evidence, insinuating that celebrities are A-List-
type people and assuming the rest of the campus
agrees with you. For example, you talked about
how the collective "we" loves celebrities, how we
lack of celebrity idiots the University brings in
and the plethora of real talent it provides. You
cited David Davis Jr., the Automobile Magazine
guy, as evidence of our inability to bring in well-
known speakers. I concede he's not a celebrity,
but you should have at least sat in on that speech.
He gave one hell of a speech - one of the only
graduation speeches I actually remember - and
it was about what a real successful person actu-
ally is ... somewhat applicable here, don't you
think? Did it ever occur to you that maybe in this
case the University has its priorities as straight
as an arrow and yours are the ones that need
adjusting? Maybe this is a great opportunity for
you learn a little about what real A-List-quality
people actually are like.
referred to as one of the cultural centers of
Michigan, Ann Arbor is known for the wide
variety of musicians and performers who come
both to the city and more specifically, the Uni-
versity. We are blessed with Hill Auditorium,
which has bragging rights to some of the best
acoustics around. A great number of perform-
ers come to Ann Arbor specifically because of
Hill, and those who appreciate true musician-
ship were able to see both Sonny Rollins and
Pat Metheny perform in the past month. Even
the Michigan Theater, though not directly tied
to campus, brings skilled musicians. With acts
such as Death Cab for Cutie and Sigur Ros, the
theater caters to emo/indie hipsters, appeals
to Phish-heads by bringing Mike Gordon, and
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