Secret police?
The Missouri State Senate Monday approved a bill that will close all arrest records to public scrutiny. The bill was passed 16-15 then temporarily set aside because of a drafting technicality.
The bill, according to its initiators, is designed to protect those who are arrested for a crime, then cleared. It will eliminate any record of an innocent person's arrest and he will not have to suffer through life with a police record.
In this sense, the bill provides a long-needed protection for persons who are arrested and then cleared of charges. The law, however, like any law, is subject to different interpretations by different people.
While in one way it protects those who are unjustly accused of a crime, in another way it could lead to secret arrests and detainments. If arrest records are kept secret, what is to prevent police from arresting and holding a person without charge?
Under this interpretation, police would have a relatively simple time holding anyone without that person having any contact with the outside world or vice versa.
Ever wonder where the money you pay for football tickets or the $11 taken out of your student fees that each semester go?
This law is one that now seems beneficial to society, however, it is one of those little-noticed laws that when placed in the context of another time and other little laws can add to a police state—one where citizens are held incommunicado for indefinite periods of time.
That legislator, Rep. Jerry Harper, R-Wichita, has introduced a bill to apply regular accounting practices to athletics, student union and student publication funds. (Am I cutting my own throat?)
Diplomacy
Perhaps Mr. Stinson should have answered the question or at least avoided it with a more diplomatic comment. Now we may find out where our money goes. (ATJ)
While some protection should be given innocent persons who are arrested, this law does not do that. In fact it allows police to hold innocent persons. Perhaps a better solution would be the destruction of the records of arrests, without allowing police the privilege of secrecy.
A state legislator asked KU Athletic Director Wade Stinson that same question. "That is none of your damned business," Stinson answered.
It is a law that should be considered by the Kansas Legislature. It should go well with prohibition and mandatory expulsion of dissenting students. (ATJ)
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Readers' write
To the Editor:
There is no doubt that Mike Shearer (the Kansan colleague of Calder M. Pickett, Professor of Journalism, "Voice from the Establishment") has been properly chastised by the older and wiser generation. As one who is not in the 18 to 21 year-old age group I only wish to lend my support to the Nestor of the Kansan, Calder M. Pickett, Professor Journalism, "Voice from the Establishment." Professor Calder M. Pickett clearly acknowledges that exams could be made which he would not pass. Yet that is not what is important. What is important is the wisdom which he shows in making up his exam.
Perhaps if others of us (who are not in the 18 to 21 year-old age group) would pool our resources, we could help Professor Calder M. Pickett, "Voice from the Establishment," compose more questions and expand the exam. We might suggest questions like:
1. Why did Douglas Fairbanks use a pseudonym when he wrote "The Count of Monte Cristo?"
2. What kind of considerations went into Al Smith's decision to become F.D.R.'s vice president?
5. Why did Thomas Pickwick write his famous papers?
4. Write an expository essay on the virtues of astynomocracy.
There are obviously a great many more questions we could ask. The introduction of these essay questions would allow us to gauge the talents of people in a more comprehensive manner. With such an examination Professor Calder M. Pickett, "Voice from the Establishment," could unambiguously select those who are indeed "equipped to run the world." The rest of us could then return to our pablum, mass media, and an occasional sniff of glue without worry. Keep up the good work Calder M. Pickett, Professor of Journalism, "Voice from the Establishment." You obviously do know the word "relevance."
Randall Guynes, Graduate Student
To the Editor:
Your report of the College faculty meeting on ROTC grossly falsifies by its implications the true spirit of that meeting. The motion that you labeled "support" of ROTC was nothing of the sort; you completely ignored a major qualification. In voting to keep ROTC courses available "in some form" to College students we simply recognized the fact that the College faculty has no power to forbid ROTC activity entirely and, I think, reaffirmed freedom of choice for students. The question of credit toward graduation is quite another matter; this is the substantive issue, the point where the College faculty can most directly affect ROTC programs. We postponed action on this question simply because we ran out of time. When we take it up again you can be certain that substantial numbers of faculty will not be supporting ROTC.
There are far too many notions around campus that exaggerate differences of interest between students and faculty. Irresponsible journalism worsens that situation.
William O. Scott Associate Professor of English
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