4a
Opinion
Monday, April 30, 2001
Perspective
For comments, contact Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
Police don't have probable cause at checkpoints
The police should have specific reasons to detain specific people. I had this subversive thought after some friends and I were stopped at a police checkpoint outside a bar district in Kansas City, Mo. My friend said he believed he was safer — note that verb, we'll come back to it later — knowing that the police would pull a few drunks off the road. I responded that I believed I was less safe knowing that the police could detain us without probable cause.
The pamphlet the officer gave us said that road had a high incidence of drunken driving accidents. A good reason, to be sure. But if the police can use statistics to pull over people, then what's wrong with racial profiling?
Notice how most of the drive to increase police power comes from conservatives, who also want a less powerful government. The problem with the police using statistics is that the police don't detain statistics. In my case, they detained three individuals who weren't guilty of anything.
Let's jump back to that verb: believe. You can believe whatever you want. In our society, that is an unlimited right. The law is based on actions.
John
Audlehelm
columnist
opinion@kansan.com
not beliefs. Everyone has beliefs. Not everyone commits crime. We limit the government by allowing it to punish only certain actions. So if we start making laws based on our beliefs, then where is the limit on government?
Emotion makes bad law. A lot of people in this country believe that drug use and homosexual sex are wrong, but some people believe that they aren't. These actions don't affect anybody but the persons choosing to commit them in the privacy of their own homes. But apparently it's OK for us to outlaw them because the majority feels better knowing that it's not lending its stamp of approval to actions it considers immoral.
Group actions based on emotion are great at depriving some individuals of their rights, but they're terrible at actually making us safer. A nationwide missile defense system makes our enemies more likely to attack us. And if the system is anything less than failsale, we'll all die in a big nuclear fireball. Private gun ownership increases the risk of getting shot. But that's OK, because we'll all sleep better with guns under our pillows and President George W. Bush's multibillion dollar, worthless defense satellites floating over our heads.
Let's tie this back in with the subject of police power. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions we have. But if we don't control our fear, we'll elect whoever scares us the most. We'll give our freedom to a small, powerful group of people who say that they'll keep us safe. But what happens if those people are the criminals?
The law protects us from the police by making them do their job carefully. If it's easy to convict the guilty, it's easy to convict the innocent.
The conservative response is to insist that the police are upstanding, law-abiding citizens committed to upholding the public trust. (Conservatives, of course, also have an inherent mistrust of government.) Of course the police are good, I say, because we have laws to weed out the bad police.
We know that we want a limited government, but we don't know why. We have forgotten that if the government has unlimited power to protect us from crime, then it also has unlimited power to do whatever else it wants.
We are all going to die. Most of us will die quietly, without much fanfare. Some of us will die violent deaths at the hands of criminals, no matter how many police we have.
Once we accept this, our objective becomes not to stomp out all crime, but to stump out as much as we can. That means having the police to protect us from criminals, and having laws, such as probable cause, to protect us from police. If that means letting a few more drunks drive through Kansas City, then so be it. It's better than the mindless authority-worship con servatives engage in.
You might say that it's just a police checkpoint, that it's not that big of a deal. I reply that assaults on our liberties always start small, and they're always done in the name of public safety. And what kind of public safety do we have if the police never have enough power to enforce it?
Audleheim is a Des Moines, Iowa, senior in political science and journalism.
ONE PLACE THEY COULD TRY DRILLING FOR OIL BEFORE PLANTING RIGS OFF FLORIDA'S GULF COAST.
Kansan.com poll
Chan Lowe/TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES
Last week's question: It's been two years since the Columbine massacre. What's the most important lesson to come from this tragedy?
The United States needs stricter gun control.
Parents should spend more time with their children.
There's too much violence in the media — on television, in music and in video games.
Schools must do more to crack down on bullies.
Other.
Next week's question: Do you approve of Bob Frederick's resignation from his position as Kansas athletics director?
Log on to www.kansan.com to cast your vote.
This poll is not scientific. Numbers do not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. Total votes: 270
Perspective
Don't be a Jackass; media isn't responsible for idiocy
It seems like everyone wants to be a jackass these days.
Recently, there has been a rash of people doing dumb and dangerous acts to get on MTV's hit show Jackass. Those dumb things have included a 12-year-old covering his arm with bug spray and lighting it on fire, and a 16-year-old unsuccessfully trying to jump over a moving car.
The show chronicles a bunch of guys doing dumb things, pushing the limits of what is socially and morally appropriate. Those dumb things have included host Johnny Knoxville voluntarily getting hit in the testicles with a sledgehammer, and another guy bobbing for jellyfish and jump-
big and tough swings.
I'm a huge fan. Simply put, I like watching dumb people do dumb things.
Reality shows are so popular because we get to see people making the mistakes we make. It actually gives my life some measurable dignity seeing someone else drink until they vomit. I can relate, although I wasn't drinking milk.
It's just tasteless fun, right? Sure, until someone starts trying to outdo those stunts on their own.
To free themselves from liability, MTV offers disclaimers not to imitate the acts and not to send them any tapes imitating the acts either. Despite these warnings, impressionable teenagers videotake themselves doing dangerous acts to get on the show.
The latest case involved a boy who tried to jump over a car. The act was caught on videotape and shown across the nation.
It's shocking. We watched the tape in my Journalism 101 class, and I watched in disbelief as the kid tried to jump Superman-style over a car that was traveling at a considerable speed.
Once again, MTV is on the hot seat, and once again, society debates what role the media played in the stunt. The kids explained their actions by saying they were trying to get on Jackass. So the show draws irs for its content, and then MTV gets criticized for airing it. Then defenders of the show say that it's up to parents to be responsible for what their kids watch and that it's just entertainment.
Eric Borja columnist opinion@kansan.com
He got nailed. His whole body was thrown out of the camera frame, and he landed on the ground like a pancake.
There have always been questionable shows on TV that push boundaries and influence people into doing stupid things. But then the debate always raises the question of whether the show or the person is at fault. Was it the fault of the gun or the person pulling the trigger?
Then around we go in a circular argument that has been plaguing the media ever since the radio was invented.
People have trouble admitting they were wrong. Nothing is ever anyone's fault! Bill Clinton didn't have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. That boy killed himself because he was listening to Marilyn Manson. That girl dresses in skimpy outfits because she listens to Britney Spears. That couple went on a killing spree after watching Natural Born Killers.
Our generation is lazy. We watch too much TV. But bad things will always happen, and this debate will always rage on. Impressionable youths will always imitate what they see. So we must encourage people to imitate what they see on TV and suffer the consequences so the rest of us can learn from their mistakes.
We need to say, "Hey, go ahead and jump over that moving car. Anyone who sees the tape will never want to be do that again."
But if you decide to do something stupid anyway, please don't videotape it.
Editorial
Course retake policy delayed for far too long
Unequal representation in University governance keeps students' interests at bay.
University rules already allow students to retake a class, but the second grade is averaged with the first. The new policy would allow any student who received a D or F in a class to wipe the slate clean, with the second grade replacing the first.
Thousands of faculty, staff and administrators slighted students when they delayed the fate of a proposed course retake policy.
The policy passed through University governance last year, but administrators remanded it because of alleged problems with how it would be enforced. Student Senate passed the policy again, including a clause that would keep students guilty of academic misconduct in a class from getting a new grade. It also would limit the policy to students with less than 60 credit hours.
April 19, the policy went before University Senate, comprising 1,400 faculty members, staff members, administrators and student senators. Although 50 of 80 student senators showed up to vote, only about 20 professors appeared; 280 members are required for a quorum. Now, University senators will vote via mail ballot.
Borja is a Springfield, Mo., sophomore in journalism.
No University Senate meeting has had a quorum since the 1980s. And while only 80 out of about 25,000 students, or about 6 percent, are represented in Senate, all of the 1,300 administrators, faculty and staff members have a say.
One student senator complained that University Senate is not a democratic body in any way. And last week, student senators passed a petition to abolish University Senate for that reason. They're right. Any group whose members are too lax to show up for meetings should dissolve because of sheer apathy.
Most University senators agree the existing policy needs to be revised in some form, the benefits of doing so include better freshman retention, a statistic at which the University ranks 97th out of the top 100 public universities. Unfortunately, a select few keep delaying the new policy from even being considered.
It's time to cut through the red tape. And it's time for the people who make the rules for us to quit giving us the cold shoulder.
Chris Borniger for the editorial board
New! Post your own message and view others in the online Free for All, or join message board discussions on a variety of topics.
www.kansan.com/forum
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansas reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed. For more comments, visit www.kansan.com.
To James Godwin, who wrote about low turnout reflects disinterest in Student Senate. Don't worry; 83 percent of the University is behind you.
图
-
True evangelism does not lie in what we say but in what we do.
蜀
Hi. I was just calling to say that I'm really sad to see Bob Frederick is leaving because he is a really, really nice, and I don't think he deserved all the criticism he received while he was here.
Now that Frederick is gone, do we get
o swimming and tennis teams back?
Bye bye, Bobby boy. Have fun messing up another sports program.
Did anyone else find that headline in Thursday's article, "Viagra to help building its erection," a little amusing?
Yeah, volunteer to be a GTA. Like, I wanted to grow up to make $7,000 a year just so 19-year-old man can stare at my butt for 50 minutes a week while I write on the chalkboard.
Now that Bob Frederick is gone, let's hope Terry Allen follows him right out the door.
蜜
图
104
This is to the campus Christian organizations that condemn homosexuals: I was born gay, and gay I will stay.
Clay Wheeler's comment in Friday's Kansan, which implied that Christians are happier than Jews, made me nauseous. It was disgusting, disrespectful, and it's impossible for me to fathom how any sane person can believe that.
Online enrolling, online enrolling,
online enrolling, online enrolling. That's
all I have to say.
I love Breakfast for Beatlovers
There is not one single good thing about Jayhawk Tower. I pray this alarm that is going off now from a fire from someone cooking grease on their stove or something will run the roaches away, but quite frankly I don't think it will.
Yeah, um. i just called KU Info on a question regarding marijuana, and they gave me Oliver Hall's number. Does that mean anything?
How to submit letters and quest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columns: Should be double-spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The writer must be willing to be photographed for the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kansan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Chris Borniger or Nathan Willis at 864-1934.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
News editors
... Lori O'Toole editor@kansan.com or 864-4854
Managing editors ... Mindie Miller editor@kansan.com
... Matt Daugherty or 864-4854
News editors ... Chris Borniger 864-4854
... Sara Nutt 864-4854
... Amy Randolph 864-4854
... Jason Walker 864-4854
Readers" reps ... Leita Schultes readerrep@kansan.com
            Warisa Chulindra or 864-4810
Opinion ... Chris Borniger opinion@kansan.com
Associate opinion Nathan Willis or 864-4924
Sports ... Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com
Associate sports ... Shawn Linenberger or 864-4830
The University Daily Kansan
Campus ... Jay Krall,
... Kursten Phelps
Features ... Kristi Elliott
Jayplay ... Erinn R. Barcom
Online ... Katie Moore
Associate online ... Chris Hopkins
... Andrew Vaupel
Photo ... Selena Jabara
Design, graphics .. Kyle Ramsey
Wire ... J.R. Mendoza
Special sections .. Sara Nutt
General manager
wurter@kansan.com
or 864-4810
features@kansan.com
or 864-4824
jayplay@kansan.com
or 864-4810
webbatter@kansan.com
or 864-4810
864-4821
864-4812
864-4810
864-4810
teblen@kansan.com
and news adviser... Tom Eblen
Business... Trent Guyer
Retail sales... Cecily Curran
Marketing... Anika Entwistle
Campus... Adam Lampinstein
Regional... Angle Boley
National... Chris Davenport
Online sales... Katie Mariani
Mark Ruud
Online creative... Jeremy Gaston
Creative... Erin Endres
Advertising managers
or 864-7667
addirector@kansan.com
or 864-4014
retailsales@kansan.com
or 864-4462
864-4358
864-4358
864-4358
864-4358
onlineads@kansan.com
or 864-4358
864-4358
864-4358
Special sections ... Katy Hyman 864-4358
Production ... Rebekah Gaston 864-4475
... Emily Knowles
Classifieds ... Jared Thurston classifieds or 864-4358
Zone ... Nik Reed 864-4358
Zone ... Jenny Moore 864-4358
Zone ... Chrissy Kontras 864-4358
Zone ... Kelly Feille 864-4358
Sales and marketing Matt Fisher nfisher@A
mfisher@kansan.con
or 864-7666