The Michigan DaiMy-gaturday. June 7, 1980-Page 5
Profs say race
riots may erupt
more frequently
By MAUREEN FLEMING
Unless government policy regarding
race relations is fundamentally altered,
incidents similar to the recent Miami
riot will become more commonplace,
according to a pair of University
professors.
The disturbance in Miami, which
claimed 15 lives and $100 million in
property damage, began May 17 after a
Tampa jury acquitted four ex-police of-
ficers in the beating death of a black
Miami man. "The fundamental cause
of the riot," according to Aldon Morris,
assistant professor of sociology, "was
that blacks remain an economically,
politically, and sociologically
dominated group."
SOCIAL UPHEAVALS erupt around
any of these causes, he explained. The
trigger in the Miami riot was police
brutality, a long-standing social cause,
Morris said. The riots suffered by cities
like Detroit and Newark in the late '60s
were also triggered by police brutality,
he added, and it remains a major
grievance in all urban areas with a high
concentration of blacks.
"The black community," Morris
said, "is sick of the fact that blacks can
be shot down by whites and get away
with it."
Howard Brabson, associate professor
of social work, agreed. "Miami blacks
have become increasingly upset with
whites in the justice system," he said.
"The acquittal was 'the straw that
broke the c mel's back'."
BRABSON SAID the Miami
Association of Black Social Workers
published a newsletter in April
forecasting the riot. "They wrote," he
said, " 'Let no one doubt the strength of
our determination not to be passively
victimized by a perverted criminal
justice system'."
"Until powerful national whites are
willing to restructure police
arrangements in communities to give
powerful positions to blacks," Morris
warned, "then Miami will happen.
Police will continue to engage in
brutality."
Most persons believe riots are spon-
taneous events, Morris said, but they
are mistaken. Rioting, like all social
movements, occurs with the aid of
planning and organization.
MORRIS ADDED it is unclear to
what degree riots are organized, but
said some sort of organization is
present. "For example," he said, "par-
See NEW, Page 6
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL candidate Sen. Edward Kennedy lifts a
container of sample water from a residential well during hearings yesterday
on Capitol Hill concerning the disposal of hazardous wastes. Kennedy charged
that President Carter's Office of Management and Budget slashed funds
earmarked for dealing with the problems.
People n toxic dump
ar11eas 11V~atell Kennedy
gov 't not responsive
M WASHINGTON (AP)-People who
live near apparently toxic dump sites
told Sen. Edward Kennedy yesterday
that government officials have been
unable or unwilling to respond to their
pleas for help.
"By and large the government is not
interested," the Rev. Bruce Young of
Woburn, Mass. testified at a hearing as
Kennedy returned to the Senate from
his campaign for the Democratic
nomination for president.
"MOSTLY WHAT happened was that
we got the royal run-around," added
Skip Foss of Erwin, Tenn. t
"Nobody has the money to help us,"
said Kathleen Benesch of Jackson
Township, N.J.
Kennedy (D-Mass.) charged that
President Carter's Office of
Management and Budget had
eliminated funds to give the Environ-
mentai Protection Agency the ability to
respond to health effects of hazardous
waste disposal.
"IT IS EXTRAORDINARY that .. .
health considerations were explicitly
omitted from the administration's
legislative proposal to deal with this
problem," he said.
Kennedy's underdog quest for the
presidential nomination came up
briefly at the hearing when Young said
to him, "I don't know whether you have
ever had a big dream, senator ..."
Kennedy at first deadpanned but
responded with a grin after a ripple of
laughter swept through the standing-
room-only crowd.
YOUNG THEN WENT on to say that
his dream was to bring about "an in-
vestment of money, time, and resour-
ces to see if there is a cause-and-effect
relationship between chemicals and
leukemia."
"Amen," Kennedy said.
Young and other witnesses described
severe illnesses, including leukemia,
that they believe stem from chemicals
at dump sites near their homes.
One witness, James McCarthy of
Jackson Township, wept as he pleaded
for the health of his children.
"I AM 33 years old. I don't care what
happens to me in the future. But I have
two children. Are they going to live?
Somebody has got to help us," McCar-
thy cried.
"We'll try," replied Kennedy, chair-
man of the Senate Judiciary Committee
and of a health subcommittee, which
held the hearing jointly.
McCarthy, who lives a mile from a
landfill dump site, said 10 persons out of
about 160 in his neighborhood have
serious kidney ailments. He said he lost
a young daughter to a rare kidney
disorder and has had a kidney removed
himself.
Young said the statistics show that
Woburn has the highest cancer rate in
Massachusetts and a high incidence of
miscarriages and stillbirths.
Foss, whose home is on a rural area
of Tennessee near Erwin, said lung
disorders and other illnesses had been
noticed in the area for several years
and residents have sought to close a
inearbydump.