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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