Monday, March 4, 1968
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5
...Report says cities unprepared
Continued from Page 4
Continued from Page 4 It recommended that the Defense Department study the pros and cons, and said that "at the very minimum" military units should be ordered to use nonlethal chemical agents before fixing bayonets.
One of the "critical" needs in riot control is better communications facilities for police departments and National Guard units.
The commission commended the Federal Communications Commission for making additional radio channels available for police use. It urged the federal government to underwrite research aimed at developing small, low-cost two-way radios for use by police officers.
Other needs reported by the commission:
Powerful portable searchlights, mounted on helicopters or trucks, to illuminate riot areas at night and to aid in flushing out any snipers.
Reports of sniping in last summer's riots were "exaggerated" and much of the alleged sniping was simply chain-reaction gunfire by police and National Guardsmen.
- Stockpiling material for constructing roadblocks. Much needless damage and some loss of life have resulted in past riots, because troops lacked adequate materials for roadblocks and "resorted to gunfire to stop vehicles."
- The information of "intelligence sections" composed of undercover police personnel and informants to gather and evaluate advance indications of a potential riot.
for police. Police recruits get an average of only 18 hours of riot training and supervisory officers get "practically none."
- Coordinated training of policemen and firemen to insure teamwork in riots. Not a single one of the 30 cities has any such system.
- Mutual assistance pacts between neighboring cities to send police and fire units to each other's help.
- Better screening and training of National Guard officers, some of whom "displayed inferior
leadership" in last summer's disorders.
- More riot control training
- Recruitment of more Negroes into National Guard.
- Placing small cadres of National Guard troops on alert status at night and on weekends—the chief times when riots break out—during the "crucial summer months."
- Amending a 1792 law dealing with conditions under which the President may send federal troops to assist a governor in dealing with domestic disorders.
The law needs to be reworded to make clear that federal troops may be sent whenever violence is uncontrollable without necessarily proclaiming a state of "insurrection."
- New criminal laws to govern the manufacture and possession of Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices; to make it a crime to attack or harass firemen on duty; and new restrictions on firearms sales. A new suggestion was that gun stores be required to lock weapons in vaults at night
for gun control legislation and urge its prompt enactment."
Proper planning is essential to cope with riots and there has been very little of it to date, the commission reported.
"The fact that firearms can readily be acquired is an obviously dangerous factor in dealing with civil disorders," the report said. "It makes it easier for a serious incident to spark a riot and may increase the level of violence during disorders. . . We therefore support the President's call
It obtained aid from the FBI and the International Association of Chiefs of Police in preparing model mobilization and operations plans for police departments to follow in their riot control measures.
The model plans emphasize the importance of bringing an impressive amount of police manpower into a disorder area very quickly, under command of a "seasoned senior officer" who can make the all-important spot decisions on just how much force is necessary to contain an incident without inflaming it into a full-scale riot.
Remote control device aids professor's research
A teletype remote terminal installed in his home has allowed a KU professor to continue his various research projects, despite a serious illness.
Charles F. Weinaug, professor of petroleum engineering, is able to work with KU's GE 625 computer in Summerfield Hall from his home, using the remote terminal. The terminal also makes it possible for Weinaug to feed his programs into other computer centers in the United States.
Weinaug has been doing extensive programming research under the Water Resources Program and in mathematical modeling of petroleum reservoirs while recuperating.
The installation was financed
by funds made available by the dean of the School of Engineering and Architecture and grants from two oil companies.
Shawnee Mission offers award
The Shawnee Mission High School District Education Association is offering the Howard D. McEachen Scholarship of $200. Students applying must be juniors or seniors in the school year 1968-1969 and plan to make teaching their career.
Applications must be filed on or before April 1. They may be obtained from: Scholarship Chairman, Shawnee Mission South High School, 5800 W. 107th St., Shawnee Mission, Kan., 66207.
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Jr. Class Party
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