100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

July 26, 1980 - Image 8

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1980-07-26

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Page 8-Saturday, July 26, 1980-The Michigan Daily
FOUR PERSONS SLAIN PER DAY
Jamaican politics spur killings
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP)-An average of four last year in Kingston. The election fight between Manley and Seaga is a
people are being murdered each day in this Carib- POLICE STATIONS HAVE become frequent bitter one. The prime minister's People's National
bean capital, in a tide of bloodshed rising with the ap- targets for attack by men with automatic weapons, Party is a socialist-leaning group seeking stronger
proach of parliamentary elections. and 10 policemen have been killed since the beginning Jamaican ties with the rest of the Third World.
Robbery and other ,crimes play some role in the of the year. Seaga's Labor Party advocates a stronger private
mounting death toll, but many of the murders are The situation has become so bad that earlier this sector and closer ties with the United States.
believed to be politically motivated-attempts by month the leaders of both major parties, Prime The balloting is expected this fall. No date has been
adherents of one party or another to terrorize op- Minister Michael Manley and opposition leader Ed- set, but voter registration is now under way.
ponents. ward Seaga, usually bitterly antagonistic, joined Manley announced the election earlier this year
THE LATEST FIGURES, released Thursday, together to call on their supporters for a "halt to this during an economic crisis set off by the nation's
show that 114 people were slain in the first 24 days of savagery." inability to meet the terms for the next installment of
July in Kingston and the neighboring township of St. ".. . We decry and denounce the frequent attacks an International Monetary Fund loan that has been
Catherine, an area with a population of about 860,000. by gunmen on the security forces, and we propose to underpinning the economy. The financial crisis
Of the total, 101 murders occurred in Kingston, a turn over to the police any supporter who is found to caused food shortages, which led to rioting.
city of 650,000, meaning that Kingston's daily be involved in these attacks," their statement said. Seaga has charged that the mounting violence suits
homicide rate was almost 10 times the rate in New THE GOVERNMENT - HAS extended a special Manley's purposes, setting the stage for declaring a
York City in 1979, when 1,733 murders were commit- crime suppression law through Aug. 20, giving state of emergency, as Manley did when a similar
ted in that city of 7.5 million people. security forces special powers of search and arrest. wave of violence broke out before the 1976 elections,
In announcing the July figures, Assistant Police McKay said that in the 77 days between May 1 and which he won.
Commissioner Sam McKay pointed out that the mur- July 17, security forces confiscated 141 guns-39 of Officials in the Manley's party, on the other hand,
der rate was more than twice that of the same period them homemade. accuse their critics of being in league with the U.S.

0

a

Johnny White: A bottle -collecting
Continued from Page 3) shit! He don't know nuttin'. So me an' mouth opens, and he begins to choke.
in the dark. "This time o' night," he my friend, we gonna take it to a dump After seven or eight powerful coughs,
says as he picks through more garbage, today in Detroit, see?" he finally brings the foreign matter into
"sometime, it really bad. Johnny says he was born in Ohio in his mouth. He rises, shuffles off to the
"I been in fights, you know. Some 1928, then married and moved to curb, and flips the matter off his tongue
guys, they jump me." But he Michigan. He says Ann Arbor has been into the street. He brings his shirt
straightens up and looks me in the eye. his home since 1964. Since then, he has sleeve across his mouth, then sits down
"But they ain't never whoop me, see? I divorced his wife, and takes frequent again.
always whoop them." He breaks into a trips to Illinois and Ohio, but always He talks non-stop. He hints at his
guttural laugh, and displays a mouth returns to Ann Arbor. loneliness by piping: "Shit! I ain't
absent of front teeth. His black face is "I COULD MOVE somewhere else, never talked this much." He changes
hard and wrinkled, and his scruffy and be a millionaire. But twenty-eight subjects capriciously, and often trails
black beard is splotched with gray. His times I left," he explains, "an' twenty- off into a stream of inaudible mum-
smile comes from his eyes, which are eight times I come back here." blings. He talks about the price of gas,
squinted and twinkling. We walk back to a bench sitting his four cars that he doesn't have any
The slow-moving man explains there against a shop on State Street. Johnny more, his children. "No, no, I . . . I
are "two or three" places where he founda large box into which he lays, like never see them any mo'. They growed
lives. His lack of possessions (he owns a baby into a crib, the overflowing up, you know. They don't need me no
only some clothing and a transistor bag, now splitting at the bottom. Then mo'."
radio) makes it easy for him to main- he lowers himself onto the bench, and IS HE LONELY for his wife? "Well,
tain his transient style of life. as he talks, he examines his long, dirty see, it was nice fo' awhile, But I never
HE ALSO EXPLAINS that he doesn't fingernails. It is now 4:45 a.m. He ex- do it again, see? Nope," he said,
have a steady job. He once worked at a plains that he is going to wait for shaking his head.
car wash, he explains, and before that, Frank's Restaurant to open so "I can "But I have women, you know," he
a factory, so he periodically receives get me some water. says smiling. "But don't you get me
retirement checks. In a mumbling "Breakfast? I don't go much fo' talkin' 'bout women!" Johnny admits
voice, he claims that he sometimes breakfast. Just water. I used t' drink being in jail because of his fights over
earns $500 a week doing odd jobs. 'bouta gallon a day." women. He says he has been locked up
He shares a recent disappointing job for vagrancy, trespassing, and assault
venture. "Me and my friend, we took I ASK HIM what he ate the previous and battery.
this 'figerator down to the dump, see. It day. Johnny slowly takes a cigar from his
be worth twelve dollars, sometin' like The question puzzles him. He screws breast pocket. With all the finesse of a
dat. Well now, this guy at the dump, he up his face into a look of bewilderment. rich man, he wets the cigar while
said it ain't worth nuttin'. Shit! Bu' "Lessee, I had some ... no ... dat was slowly turning it. With the band still
Wednesday. I'm sho' I ate. What did I wrapped around it,- he looks at the
have?" he mumbles. His voice trails cigar, raises it to his mouth, lights it,
Ihe Ann Arbor Film oopemive off. There is a momentary silence, and and takes a long draw.
Presents at MLB: FREE suddenly, his head flies forward, his "A HALF-GLASS o' whiskey every
SATURDAY, JULY 26
Drums Along The Mohawk
(John Ford, 1939)
7:00 MLB 4 FREE
Bert Glennon's striking technicolor photography
toryof young couple'otruggletosurvndT T PS
se rot i ho Mohawkh Valley doring theoS A 1A S !
Revolutionary War. Based on Walter Edmunds
poplor" hittoricl novelD rums Along th Mo s-Gene Siskel,
haowk too Fod's firstcolorofilm, the third of hos CHICAGO TRIBUNE
famous 1939 trilogy (with Stagecoach and Young
Mo. Lincoln) ond features tsome of his greatest
see.Willim, Faulkner helped twith the da
logo. HENRY FONDA, CLAUDETTE COLBERT,
EDNA MAYOLIVER. p-
(John Ford, 1939)
9:00 MLB 4 FREE
Of oIl the great films made in 1939, this Ford
,teofibl"'othr*t's ooo'tot MARK HAMILL HARRISON FORD - CARRIE FISHER
perfect rendering of a national iont hin'.a
deoo;rticsystem. FONDA'S pfomneo* BILLY DEE WILLIAMS - ANTHONY DANIELS
simply brilliantanod helps 5toke thistflmts
emotionally moving as it is historically fascinat-ot ctDAVID PROWSE KENNY BAKER : PETER MAYHEW FRANK OZ
ing. "...it is one of the most elegant, the most
omusing and captivatingone of the most strik-
ing of olthe filSm of Fod. It in a film I would DAILY AT 1-3:15-7:30-10
lihe o manke."-Sergei Eitentteit.
Next Tuesday: Jacques Rivette's E 'SEATS AVAILABLE AS LATE
PARIS BELONGS TO US and Ber- AS SHOWTIME
nordo Bertolucci's THE SPIDER'S
STRATEGEM at Aud A. $1.50.

transient
day keeps me going," he says, smiling.
"Yep, a little whiskey, an' this," and he
withdraws the cigar from his mouth to
gaze at it, "is all I need."
After a couple of puffs, he reaches in-
to his pocket and withdraws a coin. Like
a jeweler examining a gem, he holds
the coin at arm's length, and turns and
twists it to catch the light from the
street lamps. He then hands it to me.
"This here," he says slowly, "is a
nine-teen-o-one nickel." The coin is
deeply scratched and tarnished, and
the face is worn armost flat. A good-
luck charm?
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I
jes got dis in some change." He takes
the coin, and jams it deep into his loose
pocket. "I figger she worth . . . 'bout
five-hundred dollars. But some guys,
maybe all they gonna give me is a hun-
dred. But I know somebody, he pay at
least seventy-five fo' it."
As the eastern sky grows lighter,
Johnny's yawns grow more frequent.
He rises, picks up his box, and asks me
to follow him. His steps are unsteady
under the weight of the box he cradles.
He speaks again of his travel to Detroit,
and attempts to find a clock in a store
window to make sure he arrives at
Frank's when it opens at 6:00 a.m.
He is discouraged when he discovers
it is only 5:45 a.m. He says he will con-
tinue to walk around until Frank's
opens. He puts the box down, shakes my
hand, and with glistening eyes and a
wide, gaping grin, says "I'll see you
'round, alright?" He bends to pick up
the box, and favoring one leg, he shuffles
down the street. My eyes fix on him un-
til he disappears around a corner.
Be an angel...
*
av
Read Mid 1
764-0558

0
I

4

4

I
I

Back to Top

© 2025 Regents of the University of Michigan