The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Tuesday, January 13, 2015 — 7

Same-sex marriage 
ban unconstitutional 

Senior executive 

says the project will 

not use public or 
taxpayer dollars

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The 

developers behind a sprawling 
sports and housing complex 
in the Los Angeles suburbs — 
whose 
centerpiece 
stadium 

could become home for an NFL 
team — expect to recoup up to 
$100 million in local tax dollars 
in the first five years of opera-
tion, an Associated Press review 
has found. 

When 
the 
proposal 
was 

unveiled last week, Christopher 
Meany, a senior executive with 
the joint venture designing and 
financing the project, empha-
sized that “there will be no pub-
lic dollars, no taxpayer dollars, 
used for this project.”

While the plan does not 

include any upfront tax money 
to build the 298-acre community 
of homes, offices and entertain-
ment venues, a 187-page outline 
released by developers includes 
provisions 
for 
multimillion-

dollar public paybacks to them 
over time from tax dollars gen-
erated by the project, which 
would cover costs ranging from 
installing street lights and fire 
hydrants to running shuttle 
buses and providing police secu-

rity on game days.

The documents submitted to 

officials in Inglewood, where 
the stadium would be built, say 
that if annual tax revenue to the 
city from the completed project 
exceeds $25 million as expect-
ed, the developers, including 
a company controlled by the 
owner of the St. Louis Rams, 
would be entitled to reimburse-
ments for funds they invested in 
streets, sewers, parks and other 
projects deemed dedicated to 
the public.

Chicago-based sports finance 

consultant Marc Ganis said 
claiming no tax money would 
be used in the project is “hyper-
spin” and could damage the 
project’s credibility.

“It’s not an outright lie ... but 

there will be people who think 
it is,” Ganis said. “They might 
be prospective tax dollars, and 
it might make sense for Ingle-
wood to contribute them to the 
project, but they are tax dol-
lars.”

Inglewood 
officials 
are 

reviewing the proposal, but 
Mayor James Butts said the 
deal appears favorable because 
the city isn’t required to invest 
hundreds of millions of dollars 
into the development. The city 
about 10 miles from downtown 
Los Angeles could end up with a 
steady source of tax income and 
a vibrant entertainment mecca, 
he said.

“We get revenue that we 

didn’t have to make a financial 
investment for. That is unheard 
of in a project of this magni-
tude,” Butts said.

The proposal envisions a 

domed, 80,000-seat stadium ris-
ing on the site of a defunct horse 
track and would also include a 
6,000-seat performance venue 
and parking. 

It’s the latest in a string of 

stadium proposals in the Los 
Angeles area since the Rams and 
the Oakland Raiders abandoned 
Southern California after the 
1994 season.

According to the plan, devel-

opers could be reimbursed an 
estimated $50 million to $60 
million for building the struc-
tural backbone of the site: 
sidewalks and road work, land-
scaping, water mains and utility 
lines. 

Meany said in a statement 

that those costs are expected to 
be paid back within the first few 
years from tax revenue generat-
ed by the project, and they rep-
resent a fraction of the overall 
investment.

Additionally, the records say 

developers can be reimbursed by 
the city for costs on event days 
for police, emergency medical 
crews and shuttle bus services 
from off-site parking. 

They estimate that could tally 

$8 million annually, or $40 mil-
lion for a five-year period.

Hebdo, ‘Interview’ stir 
dialogue on free speech

Jay Pickthorn / AP

Same-sex marriage supporters rally outside the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Sioux Falls, S.D.

New Mexico police officers 
charged in shooting ill man

Camera footage 

shows police killing 
mentally ill homeless 

man in March

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) 

— Two Albuquerque police offi-
cers were charged with murder 
Monday in the shooting death of 
a knife-wielding homeless man 
that led to sometimes violent pro-
tests and a federal investigation 
into the city’s police force.

The decision to bring murder 

charges occurred at a time when 
police tactics are under intense 
scrutiny nationwide, fueled by 
the fatal shooting of an unarmed 
18-year-old in Ferguson, Mis-
souri, and the chokehold death 
of another unarmed man in New 
York City. Grand juries declined 
to charge officers in those cases, 
leading to large protests.

Acknowledging 
the 
frus-

tration over the secrecy of the 
proceedings in those cases, the 
Albuquerque 
district 
attorney 

said she would bypass the grand 
jury process and instead present 
the murder case to a judge at a 
preliminary hearing that will be 
open to the public.

“Unlike Ferguson and unlike 

in New York City, we’re going to 
know. The public is going to have 
that information,” District Attor-
ney Kari Brandenburg said.

Police said SWAT team mem-

ber Dominique Perez and former 
detective Keith Sandy fatally shot 
James Boyd, a mentally ill home-
less man who had frequent violent 
run-ins with law enforcement. 
Video from an officer’s helmet 

camera showed Boyd appear-
ing to surrender when officers 
opened fire, but a defense lawyer 
characterized him as an unstable 
suspect who was “unpredict-
ably and dangerously close to a 
defenseless officer while he was 
wielding two knives.”

“I’m looking forward ... to the 

DA’s office presenting one single 
witness that says this is murder,” 
said Sam Bergman, a lawyer for 
Sandy.

The district attorney refused 

to provide specifics about the 
reasons for bringing the case, but 
said it was a lengthy and delib-
erate process involving several 
members of her staff.

Each officer faces a single count 

in the March death of the 38-year-
old Boyd. The charges allow 
prosecutors to pursue either first-
degree or second-degree murder 
against the officers.

Even before Boyd’s death, the 

U.S. Justice Department was 
investigating the use of force by 
Albuquerque police. The depart-
ment recently signed an agree-
ment to make changes after 
the government issued a harsh 
report. The agreement requires 
police to provide better training 
for officers and to dismantle trou-
bled units.

Since 2010, Albuquerque police 

have been involved in 40 shoot-
ings — 27 of them deadly. After 
Boyd’s death, outrage over the 
trend grew and culminated with 
protests that included a demon-
stration where authorities fired 
tear gas and another that shut 
down a City Council meeting.

The criminal charges were the 

first Brandenburg has brought 
against officers in a shooting. 

She is in her fourth term as dis-
trict attorney and is waging a 
fight with the Albuquerque Police 
Department over allegations that 
she committed bribery while 
intervening on behalf of her son 
in a burglary case.

Police believe she should be 

charged with bribery because, 
they say, she offered to pay a 
victim not to press charges. The 
attorney general’s office is han-
dling the matter.

Brandenburg said the charges 

against police had nothing to 
with the agency’s investigation 
into her and that her office got 
the case long before the bribery 
claims came to light.

The next step in the case will 

be a preliminary hearing where 
a judge will decide whether the 
case can proceed. The officers 
have not been booked or arrest-
ed. That would not happen until 
a judge renders a decision at the 
preliminary hearing. A date has 
not been set.

Brandenburg has been criti-

cized for her office’s decades-old 
practice of using grand juries 
to affirm prosecutors’ decisions 
that no probable cause existed to 
charge officers in shootings.

Under a revamped system, 

county prosecutors now decide 
whether there’s probable cause 
that a crime was committed and 
either take the case to a grand jury 
or opt to file a “criminal informa-
tion” charge on their own.

Bregman said there is “not one 

shred” of evidence to support 
the case and insisted the officer 
had no criminal intent when he 
encountered Boyd. He said Sandy 
followed training procedures out-
lined by the police department.

South Dakota judge 
says couples have 

right to marry

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A 

federal judge on Monday declared 
South Dakota’s same-sex mar-
riage ban unconstitutional, but 
marriage licenses won’t be imme-
diately issued because the ruling 
was put on hold pending a poten-
tial appeal.

U.S. District Judge Karen Sch-

reier sided in favor of the six cou-
ples who filed the lawsuit in May 
in Sioux Falls. 

The lawsuit challenges a 1996 

state law and a voter-approved 
2006 constitutional amendment 
that ban gay marriage.

“Plaintiffs have a fundamental 

right to marry,” Schreier wrote. 
“South Dakota law deprives them 
of that right solely because they 

are same-sex couples and without 
sufficient justification.”

Attorney General Marty Jack-

ley on Monday said the state will 
appeal the case to the 8th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals, a conserva-
tive-leaning federal appeals court 
that in 2006 affirmed Nebraska’s 
right to ban same-sex marriages.

“It remains the state’s position 

that the institution of marriage 
should be defined by the voters of 
South Dakota and not the federal 
courts,” Jackley said.

He said he’s obligated by law to 

defend both the state constitution 
and state statutes.

Two other states — Arkan-

sas and Missouri — already have 
appealed similar federal district 
court rulings to the 8th Circuit. 
The U.S. Supreme Court again is 
considering whether to hear a gay 
marriage case, and more appeals 
court rulings — especially if they 
conflict — could increase the like-

lihood the justices will do so.

In November, the 6th Circuit 

Court of Appeals based in Cin-
cinnati became the first appel-
late court to recently uphold 
state bans on same-sex mar-
riage. 

Plaintiffs 
from 
Kentucky, 

Michigan, Ohio and Tennes-
see are asking the court to 
reverse that decision. Four other 
appeals courts — based in Chi-
cago, Denver, San Francisco 
and Richmond, Virginia — have 
ruled in favor of gay and lesbian 
couples. Arguments over bans in 
three Southern states were held 
last week before a New Orleans-
based appellate court.

Romero said that the more 

cases that are pending at the 8th 
Circuit will only increase the 
pressure on that court to issue its 
ruling. But the court could put 
the cases on hold if the Supreme 
Court decides to take on the issue.

Developers of complex 
in LA expect paybacks

AP

In this file photo taken from a video shot March 16, 2014, James Boyd, 38, left, is shown during a standoff with officers in 
the Sandia foothills in Albuquerque, N.M., before police fatally shot him.

Attacks on outlet, 

threats to film lead to 
international outcry

LONDON (AP) — These are 

dark days for those who want to 
believe that the pen is mightier 
than the sword.

The attack on French satirical 

newspaper Charlie Hebdo has 
caused grief and soul-searching 
around the world, and exposed 
the risks humorists can run 
— only intensified in an era of 
instant global communications 
where starkly opposed ideolo-
gies can collide.

British 
cartoonist 
Gerald 

Scarfe expressed his anguish 
in the Sunday Times newspa-
per with the image of a sword 
slicing off a hand holding a pen. 
In the Sunday Telegraph, Bob 
Moran depicted a cartoonist in 
full body armor under the slo-
gan “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

For centuries, satirical sto-

ries and cartoons have mocked 
the powerful and sacred in the 
societies that produced them. 
Often they drew a harsh reac-
tion. Offending an absolute 
monarch could mean death. 
Well into the 20th century, 
comedians from Lenny Bruce to 
the editors of British magazine 

Oz were prosecuted for offend-
ing society’s sensibilities.

Today, societies in countries 

like France are more diverse 
than ever before. Once over-
whelmingly Catholic, France 
is a now an officially secular 
country with 5 million Muslims, 
about 7.5 percent of the popula-
tion. There’s less consensus 
on what’s taboo and where the 
boundaries of taste and offense 
lie.

And now that words and 

images move around the world 
at the click of a mouse, there 
more chance for provocative 
humor to collide with rigid 
ideas, whether Islamic funda-
mentalism or North Korean 
communism.

When comedian Seth Rogen 

and his collaborators chose 
the imagined assassination of 
North Korean dictator Kim 
Jong Un, who presides over 
one of the world’s most isolated 
countries, as the plot of slacker 
comedy “The Interview,” the 
distant leader took offense. 
North Korea condemned the 
movie as an “unpardonable 
mockery of our sovereignty and 
dignity of our supreme leader.” 
There were threats against U.S. 
movie theaters, and Sony was 
hit by a cyberattack that spilled 
sensitive commercial data and 

embarrassing emails across the 
Internet. (U.S. authorities have 
blamed North Korea for the 
hack, though some cybersecu-
rity experts have their doubts).

Charlie Hebdo springs from 

a French satirical tradition that 
reaches back to the republic’s 
revolutionary roots: rude, sca-
brous, an enemy of power and 
piety. Its targets have included 
popes, politicians — and the 
Prophet 
Muhammad. 
Many 

Muslims believe all images of 
the prophet are blasphemous; 
Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons could 
be deliberately crude and outra-
geous, once showing Muham-
mad as a star in a porn shoot.

Some witnesses reported that 

the attackers who killed 12 peo-
ple at the paper’s offices shouted 
“We have avenged the prophet.”

The attack is another bloody 

chapter in a story that stretch-
es back to Salman Rushdie’s 
1988 novel “The Satanic Vers-
es,” whose ironic take on the 
prophet drew a death edict from 
Iran’s religious authorities. The 
British Rushdie lived in hid-
ing under police protection for 
years. Many miles from both 
Britain and Iran, his Japanese 
translator was stabbed to death. 
Rushdie’s Italian translator and 
Norwegian publisher were also 
attacked, but survived.

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