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Friday, March 22, 1991 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Police brutality
Public scrutiny will not remove police violence; recruits need education about when to use force
T the long arm of the law has reached too far.
The recent nationwide focus on police brutality has turned up some alarming figures. In some large cities, such as Dallas, as many as 2,000 complaints were filed during a five-year period from 1984 to 1989. One only can guess how many more have gone unreported out of fear.
The issue has entered the spotlight because of the recent beating of Rodney King, a motorist who was stopped by Los Angeles police officers for speeding. A video tape of the incident, filmed by a private citizen, showed officers beating King with clubs and shocking him with stun guns.
The beating left King with nine skull fractures, a shattered eye socket and cheekbone, a broken leg, a concussion, injuries to both knees and nerve damage that left his face partly paralyzed.
Of the at least 21 officers who were at the scene, only four have been indicted. One of the officers involved was a graduate of the Kansas City, Kan., Police Academy and a former Shawnee officer.
The Midwest is not without incidents of police brutality. A television crew videotaped
Kansas City police officers assaulting a suspect last year. Other cases made the news as well.
Last week the U.S. Attorney General said the Justice Department would review all police brutality complaints from the last six years and determine if patterns such as race and location exist. But studies do not automatically change policies and actions.
Local police departments need to start at square one and require stricter standards from recruits. The training process must include instruction on how officers should deal with difficult arrests. Guidelines also need to specify when force can be used and to what degree. When officers are accused of brutality, a thorough investigation should be made of the incident by an outside law enforcement agency.
Police officers are charged with an important responsibility to uphold the law. When they step beyond the boundaries of their authority, the public's trust of law enforcement is severely weakened.
The police must not become judge, jury and executioner. And it's a community's responsibility to demand limits.
Stacy Smith for the editorial board
Laughable policy
Start drug enforcement at home,not in Bolivia
T The U.S. government has proposed a backward method to fight the war on drugs.
Last week, a Bolivian government official announced that the U.S. government would spend $33 million to train 500 Bolivian soldiers for anti-drug operations. The program, agreed to by both countries last May, is designed to stop the illegal cocaine trade between traffickers in Bolivia and the United States.
The effort is there, but the execution is all wrong. The result of training Bolivian soldiers to fight the drug lords in their country will not stop cocaine trafficking for any significant amount of time. The more likely result: Traffickers will find other places to do their dirty work and continue to rake in
addicts' money.
The U.S. government should take the $33 million and put it toward anti-drug education programs in U.S. schools. Teaching U.S. children how to cope with the problems that life presents will result in their ability to resist drugs even if the temptation lies before them.
The U.S. government's latest approach in battling the country's drug problem is laugable. It is about as realistic as a dieter's attempt to remove all of the food from his or her home. It is time for the U.S. government to realize that drugs always will be around. The real challenge is to make U.S. citizens strong enough and smart enough to oppose them.
- Editorials reflect the opinion of the University Dailly Kansan editorial board. Editorials appear in a box on the left side of the page. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the board but not necessarily the opinion of the editor.
Carol Krekeler for the editorial board
Opinions expressed in guest and staff columns and cartoons are solely those of the author or artist. Views expressed in columns and cartoons are not necessarily shared by the Kansan.
Let's forget the mustache, what Iraq needs is stability
ell me if I'm wrong."
Slats Grobnik said.
"But when this war was
going on, didn't we want to yank off Saddam's ears, bash in his nose, feed him to the hyenas and even pull out his mustache one hair at a time"?
The proper term is "take him out." But, yes, it was generally accepted that his demise would be no great loss to the human race.
Yes, there are foreign policy experts who think that, all things considered, it would be preferable for Saddam's group to retain control of Iraq and to put down the various corrections that are now breaking out.
"That's what I thought. Then how come I'm reading that some of our Washington deep thinkers say that the only thing might be for him to stay in power?"
"I don't get it. He's still a rotten guy, ain't he?"
Oh, yes. Despicable, loathsome, cruel, murderous, totally without conscience or remorse or any weakness with it. He even cheats on his wife, the cad.
The Shites. Saddam is a Sunni, although it's rumored that he isn't very devout and is probably a closet Muslim. He doesn't even say, "Alah bless you."
"Then why ain't we cheering for the Iraqis who are trying to have a revolution against him?" Like all Muslims, he knows kinds of Muslims that Saddam isn't.
Mike
Royko
Syndicated
columnist
"Whatever. If these people got the guts to rise up against him, how come
we're not on their side, maybe slipping them some ammo, or at least saying that we'll give a million dollars reward to anyone who brings us his mustache, including the lip, plus a trip to Disney World?"
Because we don't want to see Iraq destabilized. And if the Kurds were able to become autonomous, with their own separate country, and if the Shites, who are in the majority, would be destabilized, and that would lead to further destabilization of the entire Arab world.
"Who cares if Iraq gets destabilized? They didn't care if they destabilized Kuwait. And why shouldn't the Kurds have their own country, though they'd be smart to change their name. Kurd. It sounds like sour milk."
You have to look at the big picture. It is feared that if the Kurds broke away and Saddam's party was overthrown by the Shites, then it would open the door for Iran to take partial or even total control of Iraq. And because of its recent weakness it would put Iran in a much stronger position to spread its fanatical Islamic fundamentalism to the Arab world, which is its goal.
"Wait a minute. You mean now we got to worry about Iran taking over Iraq? And that Iran is a bigger problem to us than Iraq?"
Oh, yes. it is been a major problem
of the Shah of Iran, who was our
spiritual leader.
"I remember him. Wasn't he kind of a mean guy? Secret police torturing and bumping people off?" Stealing the right? Kind of a bully and a crook?
True. But he was our bully and crook. Anyway, that's why we sort of supported Iraq in its eight-year war with Iran, because Iran hates us and Iraq was trying to prevent Iran from taking their fundamentalist revolution
"So what would happen if Iran all of a sudden decides to invade Iraq? Now that we wrecked Iraq's army, it is now that we have invaded that, whose side are we on? Iraq's?"
It's unlikely that Iran would do that, but some experts have said that, yes, we would have to support Iraq. It would be in our national interest and it would be necessary to prevent destabilization of the Mideast.
"Hey, that would be something.
Then I had to stop hating Saddam for a while and start hating the guy then, and I don't even know his name."
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
Spring break is best spent far awav from familv members
W that I have to tell you is of such great importance to your sanity and general
♥ your sanity and general welfare that the government is planning to send this column to every residence hall, fraternity and sorority house across the United States to ensure the message is spread.
The message is as follows: Never, ever (not even if you're threatened with something really terrible like a poetry reading by Brigitte Nielsen) or parents that you have no plans for breast cancer results are not pretty. Yes, my friends, I am a survivor of a spring break spend with parents.
This is my hellish tale.
"Camping," my dad said beaming,
"The whole family is going campin
My whole notion of camping in Kansas had consisted of pitching a tent in a wheat field and bass fishing in a manmade lake. Nonetheless,
Matt
Walsh
Staff columnist
Dad passed around a brochure for a campsite that looked like the Midwest version of a redwood forest.
"I'll be great," he said. "This trip will bring the family together!" Everybody seemed to warm up to the idea, even my mother, who made it happen. I was resisting that there would be a mail within a 20-mile radius of the campsite.
I think everybody had different expectations about the trip. My mom thought we all "camp out" in a backyard or on the beach behind it. Both of my brothers thought we were going to go bear hunting and eat off the land. My
father seemed to think he was not only going to catch the bear with his sons, but also build a log cabin with trees he chopped down himself. I would either freeze or stave to die or have one of Dad's trees fall on us.
The big day came, and we all squeezed into the family roadster. We were all decked out in matching L.L. Bean camping outfits my mom had ordered for just such an occasion. Along the way I experienced the true meaning of that "family closeness" Dad had mentioned. The back-seat of the car looked like packed sardines on vinyl, and my brother's elbow had found a permanent resting place deep in my side. Then the dreaded car songs began. The only songs my entire family knows all the words to, however, are television jingles. After the 300th round of the "Brady Bunch" theme, we pulled up to Big Bob's Great Plains Wonderful
World o' Nature Campsite and Souve nir Shop.
"Well, I'm sure it was a lovely park, before that darn fire wiped out my yard," she said.
Possibly detecting our disappointment — my mother was crying — Dad tried to brighten our outlines.
We pulled up to our campsite and tested our tents on the ground to be set up.
"Dad, I'm really sorry that cologne I bought for Christmas is so bad," she said.
I bought you for Christmas is so bad, "i gasped after inhaling the air. "Oh, yeah," my friend smiled sheepishly. "I found out at the registration office that we're two girls now." You can only smell it on windy days.
My father had attempted to divert attention away from this fact by calling my brothers over to see up the Army Bullet outlet at the Army Surplus.
After seeing the outhouses pro-
used every 50 miles along the path, I thanked God I'm a man. When you're a guy on a camping trip and nature calls, all you have to do is unzip the tent and remember to wear shoes the next morning.
Dinner was an event. Dad forgot the camping stove, and my mom was sure someone had been cremated on the complementary grill. After a delightful feast of hot dogs grilled on the car's cigarette lighter, my father (who was now nicknamed "idiot" by my mother) informed us that he'd miscupped the sleeping bags and that we were one short. Dad knew at this stage in his popularity not to ask Mom to share breakfast with me. Old Faithful" for a reason. I opted to just go without and sleep in the car. All the while I was thinking how lucky I was not to be at the beach in Padre or Cancun, burdened with all those scandally cold beauties jogging on the beach and
having to go from party to party for a whole week (subtle sarcast).
The next morning, after Pop-Tarts cooked on an open lighter, Idiot called the family together for a group hug. Drawing the line, I said, "Dad, I know this is your job," but they say too many of these may lead one of your children to grow up, buy a rifle and attain a copy of the president's travel itinerary."
It worked. I got out of the clutches of the group hug, and it gave Mom more time to sew her vooodoo doll in Dad's likeness.
I hope I have shed some light on the importance of making outside plans on school breaks. It's great to spend quality time with family, but too much may be hazardous to your health. Have fun over your future breaks. I'll be somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere if I can help it.
Matt Walsh is an Emporia freshman planning to major in journalism.
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by Tom Michaud