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·Uos AU!leles(gimes
"me'n't··
Com NATION .
'THE
. ',.
ON
Clinton Plays
the Race Card
..
in California
.. ..
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By Dan Schnur
bout a week and a half ago,
President Clinton came to
, Southern California. He was
.here only for a day or two. But before
he left, he took the time to call me a
racist.
.
Like all Americans, Californians
have been' outraged by the recent
spate of burnings of black churches
across the South. And so it was
entirely appropriate for Clinton to use .
his campaign appearance in San Diego .
to speak to that outrage. But it was
inappropriate for the president to use
the backdrop of the California· Mexico
border to imply that opponents of ille
gal immigration are guilty of the same
racist sentiments as arsonists who
have been bombing th~se churches.
For Californians who have gotten
tir.ed of seeing billions of. tax dollars'
spent on. providing services to people
who come to this country illegally, this
argument is both offensive and insult·
.
We·know that cracking down,on
al immigration has nothing to do
with an individual's race, ethnicity or
country of origin, but only with
whether they entered the United
States through legal or illegal means.
And while we.deplore the tragedy of a
church being. torched, we resentbeing
lumped together with the kind of
hatemongers who would perform such
an. act..
.
So under most circumstances,
Clinton's remarks could have been
dismissed as' just another candidate
playing the race card. On one level, he
was just one more in a string of politi
cians telling. Californians that we are
bigots for wanting our state's legal
residents to have first call on our tax
dollars. And most Californians, smart
enough to recognize campaign race
baiting when they hear it. would have
shaken their heads and gone on with
their lives,
But merely tying together these two
unrelated stories was not enough for
. Clinton. What made his remarks trulv
astounding in their audacity was that
they were deli\'ered at the tail end of a.
A
,pmh ;n which h. was taking credit·
for his own efforts against illegal
ilnmigration. . . '
,
"
I So if you took Clinton's remarks literally, he. seemed to be saying, that
some anti~i1legal immigration senti.:
ments were racist, but that. his own
were not. Which means that Clinton,
somehow, was trying to take the moral
:, high ground against his own position,
: an act of political gymnastics that was
. 1,'at once disingenuous;',sanctimonious
~ and demagogic.
. In his address, the president essentially made four points to the people of
California. First, he told them that
racism is bad. (No argument.) Second,
that the· racism behind the church
bombings is bad. (Again, no argument.) Third, that this same racism is
responsible for anti-illegal immigration sentiments. (Absurd, but stan·
dard liberal posturing.) And finally,
! that his own efforts to crack down on
r illegal' immigration deserve praise.
(So remarkably hypocritical and
duplicitous at so many different levels
that it would be impossible to detail
i' them in this limited space.)
Delineating a difference· between
his own motivations for taking on the
illegal immigration issue and the less
laudable motivations of others is an
espeCially difficult proposition for a
president who has so resolutely strad
dled the issue since its emergence on
the political landscape. Since taking
office, Clinton has juggled conflicting
constituencies and ideologies, talking
tough about keeping illegal immi
grants out while Simultaneously
defending the rights of those same
illegals to receive government
mandated services once they get here.
Clinton had the political instincts to
,leap aboard the illegal immigration
bandwagon when it was pulling out of
the station. Because he has displayed
that same dexterity on issues ranging
, from tax cuts to welfare reform in an
effort to repudiate his own record in
! office al'1d, claim the political middle
ground for his reelection campaign,
we should no longer be surprised at
this sort of maneuvering. '..
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d;(flnt.
But thm on. ;,
Bocaus.
even as Clinton extols h'is own record
on fighting illegal immigration, he
,somehow manages to disparage the
' rest of us for
oring sentiments
that he cdnside
istas~efu!. A:1d left
unsaid is that it was those same sentiments and the i>9litical forces behind
them that coerced him into action in
the first place.!
!
'~ Two years. ago, 60 % of California' S
voters spoke ou(againstl illegal immi
gration by passing Pr6position 187.
'None of us appreciates! being called
racist simply for: wanting to see our
borders protecl'ted and our laws
enforced.
I
The debate over illegal immigration
has been a long and difficult one for all
. Californians. And the scars will be
'long. enough in i healin~ without
preSident who feels compelled to pick
at, them for his OW!' n pOlitiFal benefit.
•
Dan Schnur is a visiting Ischolar at the
University of California's Institute of
Governmental Studies and Q political
analyst at KGO Radio in
Francisco,
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The drafters of the district maps-state legis
iatures-are in an irnpossiblesituation. The.Vot-;
/
.
ing Rights Act forbids .thli!m to dilute minority
.1"",.
T
. - . voting strength, and the Supreme Court forbids
them to draw shapes that are too weiJ"d. The only
guarantee is that somebody will sue, and the court
aJ.
will have to do the whole dance again.
But the rules Wlder which the 'Iegislators must
work imply ·.standards that are nonexistent. A
'dilution' ofniinoritY voting strength fro!1l wlultP
From what it was before the new district bound
aries were drawn? From the best possible shot for
minorities to elect the greatest possible number of
. members? The bizarreness disqualification sug
gests a previously existing paragon of. compact
ness and neatness.
~I shaD not today attempt further to define the: . But there never were any electoral checkerkind of material I Wlderstand to be embraced'.. boards. Districting maps have always been politi
within that shorthand defmition (of hard-core porcal documents, and the court says they may'go on
nography) and perhaps I could never succeed in
being political documents. They still may, without
intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it."
any requirement for compactness, be drawn ~o
The late justice Potter Stewart, who wrote . protect incumbency. They can be drawn to'retain
those words in a concurring opinion in a 196Ldisproportionate party strength. They can .be:
pornography case, might have felt right at home in ' drawn (as in Arizona) to make· sure that the HopI
the current court.
.
and the Navajo have different representatives.
Only race is an illegitimate moti~e, the court says.
This court, in its latest visit to congressional
redistricting, declined to embrace any definition of .. "And its majoritY will be aghast when the result
to reduce by half or more the number of black
an Wlconstitutionally odd-shaped district .. Nor did, .
it . suggest what degree of race consciousness
membel'll of Congress.
.,
""illiam RasnbeiTy' ..
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F1Il'rne·ss·.
- . e·" K
...~ 'II . now I t·· '.' . . ,.
'When ··~e S'e'e It
.is
. The court has·made-and keeps'making-two
fundamental errors. First (as has been said in a .
different context) it has made th.e perfect the
enemy of the good. In a perfect America, race
would be of no electoral significance. In the actual
. America, race matters, no matter. how fervently
. the court majority wishes it didn't.
The second error is its refusal to distinguish
between "gerrymanders~ created to preserve an
Wlfair distribution of political power and "bizarre"
on the part of the drafters is too much or even 'teU . boWldaries created to move us closer to fairness.
It's like refusing to distiAguish between the doc
us why it is all right for people who map districts'
tor's slap on a newborn's rump and a stranger's
to pay serious attention to party afflliation or
child abuse; like charging a paramedic with battery
incumbency protection-but n~ .to race.
for POWlding on your chest to get your heart
The justices-at least a plurality of them-' .' beating again. .
.
could have expressed their "lews regarding. what
. justice Stevens, in a dissent joined by justices
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor described as exces
Ginsburg and Breyer, stressed the distinction the
sively . "bizarre" districts by borrowing Potter
majority keeps missing:
Stewart's words: I know it when I see it.
I know it too. I get a queasy feeling just looking· . "The court-imposed barriers limiting the shape
of the district will interfere more directly with the
at some of the districts the court examined in its
ability 'of minority voters to P!lrticipate in the
latest detisions (and some it didn't examine as
political process than did the oddly shaped districts
well). Nor is it merely the bizarre shapes of the
that the court has struck dovJn in recent cases," he
districts that bother me. I'm bothered as well by
wrote. Then:
the notion that it's in the interest of black Ameri
"Rather than attach blameworthiness to a deci
cans to create a black-majority district by stripping
sion by the majority to share political power with
surrounding districts of their black voters.
.
. But I'm bothered more by the court's bumbling: the victims of past discriminatory practices," the
court ought to concern itself with the palpable and
mability to settle the districting debate in any way
admitted partisan abuse of power.
that candidates. voters .or legislator-drafters call
rely on. As with the pornography case. the court
virtually guaranteed the controversy will be kept
alive. And as with Justice Stewart, rhE:' reason is
the insistent search for the nonexistent-in tht'
. redistricting cases, the search for a solution tila tis
'~ constitutional, rational. politically acceptable and
faii, without rewriting existing law ...
In the actual America,
race matters, no matter
how fervently the court
majority wishes it didn't..
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€ht~~'\t' ilor1, €iml'!j
DA'!'E~:
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Abroad at Home
ANTHONY LEWIS
Handcuffs on Learning
SAN DIEGO
Universities around the world
came to understand long ago that the
Quality of education improved if they
had students with varying life expe
riences. That is why Oxford colleges
sought working-class students. It is
why Harvard. Yale and Princeton
are far bener universities today than
when they were confined largely to
privileged young white men.
In the life of Americans, race is a
profound factor. Blacks may be
bright or dull, rich or poor. but their
experience in life has been different
from whites'. And so, long before the
phrase "affirmative action" was in
vented, universities thought it wise to
have students of varied racial back
grounds,
The freedom of American univer
sities to consider race along with
other factors in choosing students
has JUSt been struck a devastati~g
legal blow, It came in the deCISion of
the United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit in the case of
Hopwood v. Texas.
"
The Umversity of Texas Law
School some years ago had. what
amounted to a' segregated admis
sions process. Minority applicants
were considered by a separate com,
mittee and on different standards.
Cheryl Hopwood and other rej~ct
ed white applicants sued, ,c1aimmg
that that system denied them the
"equal protection of the laws" guar
-anteed by the 14th Amendment. The
Fifth Circuit, ruling in their favor,
could have limited itself to the par
ticular admissions process at issue.
But it went much further.
The court said, that the Texas law
school,"may not use race as a fac
tor" in admissions. It did not speak
of a dominant or even slgniffcant
factor but outlawed consideration of
race as any factor at all. Moreover,
In an extraordinary display of hostll
ity,the court left the way open for the
plaintiffs to collect m~ney damages
for what it said was "mtentlonal dis
, crimination."·
; The Equal Protection Clause of the
Constitution, which the court found
violated, applies only to state action.
But private universities may also be
affected, civil rights laws forbid ra
Cial discrimination at private univer
sities that receive any kind of Fed
eral aid -~d nearly all do..
The ultimate danger is to the free
dom of American universities. The
as If it ,
Fifth Circuit treated this
were the same as the Supreme
Court's recent decisions limiting set·
asides for minority contractors and
broadcast licensees. But education is
different: Its freedom in deCision
making - an urgent, need In our
society - has to be weighed against,
the rightful claims of equal protec
case
tion,
,Reading the Fifth Circuit's opin
ion, by Judge Jerry E. Smith, one
feelS a sense of detachment from
reality, For' instance, it rejects as
racist the assumption that an indi
Vidual "possesses characteristlc~"
because of his race. Right. But the
,
A court verdi~t
I
h~pers college
,admissions.
Issue Is not characteristics. It Is ex
perience. And any judge who thinks
black Americans have not had 'a dif
ferent expenence Is blind.
I
Think about women judges or Su
preme Court justices. They are not
wiser or less wise by virtue of Ithelr
gender. But they have had a different
experience from men, and 'th,at Is
why it is Important to have them on
the bench.
. I
The, reality of university admis
slons,as opposed to the mechanical
abstractions of the Fifth Circuit 'deci
sion, is on display here in California. '
Gov. Pete Wilson, playing to white
male resentment, pushed through
the Board of Regents a rule forbid
ding the use of race or gender 'as a
factor in admissions to the Universi
, ty of California.
'
II
Now It turns out;that regents who
voted for what they called "merit"
admissions had leaned on the ,Unl" '
verslty of California at Los Angeles
to admit the children of fnendsl An
Investigation by The Los Angeles
Times shows that U.C.LA: gave spe.
cial consideration to children of poli
tlcians'and the nch.
I
In other words, we have afflrma
tlve action for: the ,privileged. Bu( not
for the race that was enslaved fo~ 2()O
years and abused for another 100 and
more.
' . I
, UnIversities. In their freedom. ~
increase understanding across jthe
racial lines lrithis country. Unless
the Supreme Court undoes this las
sault on their freedom, we are going ,
to be an even more divided SOCiety. 0 .
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',' ,tt~~PECTIVE ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION " '
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The Case· Against Preferences
, seriously by Texas officials found ,it wanting. Tl'Ie fundamental
',until the eve of trial, in 1994,' problem with \he opinion is that Powell '
, whereupon the school decided justified the use of race in terms Of "di
, to "mend" its' admissions versity." But no Supreme Court ma)ority
procedures.
has ever endorsed this as a suitable
,Like most institutions of ' rationale for government-sponsored
posing as a 'rerriedf for higher education; the school racial preferences. Indeed, in recent'
had
years
prefer
.,bias in TeJl:as law schools. from for years taken its' cue ences the, court has declared that remedy
Justice Lewis, F. PowelJ
might be justified only to
Jr.'sopmionin the 1978 Bakke the ill effects of past discrimination,
T'
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case, There, the UC Davis
medical' school had set aside
he school also made a remedial argu
ment , which the 5th CircUit ruling also
:.esident, Clinton sa,~s, ~e ShO?ld, '16 out of 100 seats in each dil;ss for cer.
, mend, not end,afflrmatlve' tain minorities, There was one'admis- rejected. If the:school itself was cur
action," ,But the Texas case rule,d' , sions committee for the regularappU_rentlydiscriminating against African
on thiS week by the, ,U.S. ,5th CirCUit ,cants,another for the "special" Am~ricansand'MexicanAmericahs, then
Court of Appeals demonstrates ',why applicants, with the'latter committee there might be an adequate remedial
preferential treatment cannot be salis-: 'using lower standards. Powell found this premise. But the school long ago ceased
dual system illegal on the grounds it had ,to discriminate against African Ameri·
factonly mend.ed and has to be.,ended.,.
•In 1992, Cheryl Hopwood applied for 'discriminated against a white man, Allan cans and had riefer discrimmated against
admission to the ,University of Texas ,Bakke, because of his race: There must Mexican Americans. Moreover, !l major·
School of Law, She had a 3,,8 grade-point, '"be one committee evaluating all appli- ity, of the African Americans/admitted
were not even from Texas. "At) inference
,ayerage as anund~rgraduate at Cal State ,cants fOT all seats; everyone had a right
Northndge andscored39 out of 48 on the to "competitive" comparison" Powell, is raised," the court, dryly notes. "that
Uiw School A.dmission Tes~. Strong cre- " however, also allowed the use of race, the program was the result of raCierl
dentials, but the)aw school turned her ,but as a "plus factor." His op\i'lion effec- 'social engineering rather than a desire to
down, "The only thing I could think of':' 'tiv.ely allowed colleges and univerSities 'implement a remedy,"
,
The University of Texas now has sus
she told me in .~n interview last year, to discriminate against those not of the
,~'was that the class'the school,a'dmitted '''right'' race, So Il?ng asachools mainpended its,..discriminatory, admissions'
must have bee,n very, yery good."
tained "proper" form.
,pro~edures.,~ It has,for the 'moment'
What she found, was ,an admiSSions "" In 1991, the Texas law sch06i reVived a ended prefe~ntill.l affirmative action:
policy that had discriminated against her, dual system. nOt unlike that con.deinned The' 5th Circuit't!ould be overruled' in'
because she is white. Under that policy, ' by Powell. The appllca tlt)~'~ from ·80me particulill~ b~robatily not alI: The
the school had reserved 5% of the . '~whites andotbers" were sorted into one' direction of consill1ktional law seems
roughly 500 seats f?r African Americans pile, those from African Americans and firmly. set again'st~ 'Preferences. The
and 10% for Mexican Americans. Mem·, , Mexican Americans.into,another·with:a 'important ques~ion now is whether'
bel'S of these two minority groups were' subcommittee' of the full adn;issions highere.ducatiosf~ill understand, that It
admitted under lower academiC atan - , ,committee passing judgment on the lat. 'mus~ qWt;,the r'.i.cial soci~~nglneering in
,dards than those used to measure the ter. The lawachool thus thought it could admumons that has dj~ed and embit
applications of "whites' and others," the '~mend" a(firmative action by replacing tered the nation. Onlytace-blind admis
'others being all who were not white, . the dual admissions system with a uni- sions procedw:es-those that treat indi
African American or Mexican Amencan .. ,ta'ry one that would proVide "competi- Viduals without regard to their, racial or
The school assigned .applicants a com- live" comparison.,,;.and of course enable ethnic identity-can ensurefaimess and·
p()site nurpber based,on grade;poin't Itatill to discrimin~te against applicants ,protect rights that are personal in
average arid LSAT score.' Hopwood's ,like Hopwood. :;"
•.
' nature.
was 199.....higher f.!:1an ~ose of most of ' This satisfi~ the trial eourtjudge, who
Terry Eastland, editor of ForlJesMedia
the African Americans and Mexican •. ,took Powell's opinion to be the law of the
Americans whowereadmitted.
,
land: But now, the 5th Circuit has Critic, is the author of "Ending A//iM'7Ul
, Hopwood's lawsuit was not taken . reViewed 'Pow.. tll'S ~opinion and lightly tive A ctian" (Basic Books, 1996). ,
t
.
.
.,A federal court strikeS a
blow a¢nst 'r~cial ' .
social engineering' •.
,
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PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
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IWaterloo for quotas
in landmark ruling?
or the first time since the
hated racial quotas were
foisted on an 'unsuspecting
country by unconstitutional
and extralegal means, a federal
court has ruled that racial quotas in
university admissions are unconstinitional.
.
The ruling has sent Deval
Patrick, the Clinton administra
tion's quota henchman into a fren
zy of activit)' to find a means of
voiding the March 18 decision by a
panel of three judgt!s of the Sth U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case began when the Uni
versity of Thxas Law School prac
ticed reverse discrimination against
Cheryl Hopwood and three other
.white applicants. Miss Hopwood '
and her fellow victims of reverse dis. crimination reasoned there was .
, nothing in the U.S. Constitution that
F
permined government to discrimi
nate against people because of the
color of their skin.
,
They took the case to court. Dis
trict Court Judge Sam Sparks ruled
that their constitutional rights had
indeed been violated. He gave them
'a moral \ictory and awarded each
, $1 in damages, but he refused to ,
enforce their right to equal protec
tion, thus emphasizing that the con- .
stitutional rights of victims of
reverse discrimination are not
worth protecting.
With the help of pro bono attor
neysand the Center for Individual
, Rights, Miss Hopwood and fellow
victim Douglas Carvell appealed
the decision to a higher court. The
appeals court ruled that "Within
the general principles of the 14th
Amendment, the use of race in
admissions in higher education
contradicts the aims of equal pro- '
tection."
'
The ruling threw out the so
called "diversity standard." Diver
Sity, the panel ruled, is not a com
pelling state interest that justifies
creation of -racial privileges. The
problem with the diversity stan
, dard is that it creates group law by
treating "minorities 'as a group.
rather than as individuals." Having
different laws for different groups
I
violates the equal protection clause
of the Constitution.
The Sth Circuit's ruling is a broad
one that removes barriers that have
prevented victims of reverse dis
criminetion from suing in behalf of
their right to equal treatment. Con
sidering the extent of reverse dis
crimination in university admis
sions, a tidal wave of cases soon will
hit the courts.
The Sth Circuit also leveled the
playing field by opening the door to
punitive or compensatory damages
for white victims of racial discrim
ination.
The Sth Circuit made plain that
if the University of Texas Law
. School continued to 'practice
reverse discrimination in the name
of diversity, it would find· itself sad
dled with an injWlction and punitive
damages.
Score one for Thxas Law School
professor Lino Graglia, who has ,
long warned his colleagues against
their unconstitutional practices. It.
is not clear to this writer what a stu
dent could learn from a law school
that has only one professor with
the legal knowledge to recognize
unconstitutional behavior.
If the Repl.lbliean Congress was
capable of leadership, it would
immediately enac~ the Sth Circuit.'s
ruling as a federal sta~te. This
would end the divisive debate over
racial quotas overnight and pre
vent Deval Patrick from pressuring
ambitious judges in other circuit
coUrts Vt'ith eyes on Supreme CoUrt
appointments for different rulings
that would ~p the final outcome in
limbo for a long time.
,
45
Judges Jerry Smith, Harold
DeMoss and Jacques Wiener have
acted decisively to overt.I1row the
status-based legal system in which
"protected minorities" are more
equal than others. It would be crim
mal for Congress to dither and let
pass this opportunity to reclaim the
U.S. Constitution: from the foul·
hands of social en~neers.1
'.
In his famous !dissent to the
Supreme CoUrt's 1896 segi-egation
. ruling, Justice JOM MarsJlall Har
lan said: "Our Constitutioh is col
orblind, and neither knows nor tol
erates classes among citizens. In
respect of civil rig,hts, all ICitizens
are equal before the law." ,
.'
For the past qualiter·century, the
. practice of reversel discririUnation
has made a mockery of equal pro
tection.Congress must seize this
occasion to reclaim the Constitu
tion, or it may be forever lost.
I
I
Paul Craig Roberts is a nktional
Iy syndicated columnist arid is co.
author with Larry Stratton lo! "The
New Color Line; How Quotas and
Privilege Destroy Dernocraey:"(Reg
·ner,. 1995).
I
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·1!os Au,geles mimes
Beatings·Spur U.S.
Investigation and
a National Debate
• Civil rights: U.S. begins probe after Riverside County
deputies are videotaped clubbing twqsuspected illegal
immigrants. Incident draws attentiot:l ofClinton, others.
ByERJC MALNIC. HENRY VlEINSTEIN and ABlGAIL GoLDMAN
TIMES STAFF WRITERS
i
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Federal authorities Tuesday began in\'estig~ing possible criminal
charges against two Ri\'erside County sheriffs ~puties captured on \'id~
eotape clubbmg two suspected illegal immigrants-while a national debate
erupted about whom to blame. the baton-wj.t'lding officers or the fleeing
~eXlcans.
•
I
the two beating victims. But they
The IS-second beating touched
acknowledged on Tuesday that
off a sort of national soul
they may not have found everyone.
searching. From the go\,ernor's
Trees near the Peck Road offramp
mansion to the "'hite House. from
in South El Monte, where the chase
radio talk shows to FBI conference
ended, may have shielded some of
rooms. "emotional que~tlons about
the escapees.
institutional raCism, police brutali
"We got most of them, but not all
ty. illegal immigration and high
of them," sa,id Rosemary Melville,
speed chases coalesced into a pas
deputy director for the Immigra
sionate discussion,
tion and Naturalization Service's
"This is an International
Los Angeles district. "We're not
incident." Councilman MIke Her
even sure we have the driver in our
nandez said. noting that the tape
custody."
has aired around the world. "It is
Leticia Gonzales-Gonzales, 32,
our countr~"s image that's at stake.
was treated at San Pedro Peninsula
It's our countr~"s soul that is being
Hospital for a contusion apparently
judged," .
caused by the beating and also for
The two deputies im'ol,'ed in the
an underlying disease •. believed to
incident-Kurt Franklin. a 20- year
be cancer. Melville said. Another
\'eteran of the force. and Tracy
" attorney 'who spoke with her said
V.'atson. a five - year veteran
Gonzales-Gonzales suffered cuts
remained on paid' administrative
on her legs, back, arms and face.
leave whi1e the U.S. Justice
,and, kept repeating in, Spanish.
Department and Los Angeles
"They beat me. They beat me."
County Sheriffs Department
The male victim. Enrique Fun,ez,
im'estigated their actions.
'
, was briefly treated and is now
Franklin and \\'atson were cap
being held at a Riverside County
tured on \'ideotape )londay night
, detention c'enter. The remaining 17
beating two occupants of a pickup
were held in the Los Angeles Fed
eral Building.
truck that had evaded a border
"They're terrified, after the
cherkpolr.t and lc,j ~'J'V enforce
chase. the arrest, the beating, the
ment officials on a wild SO-mile
,incarceration." said Juan Jose
chase. The video. shot by a hover
Gutierrez, executive director of
ing KCAL-TY helicopter. showed
One Stop ImmigratiQn and Educa
other passengers bolting from the
tional Center.
truck and. dashing for cover in a
But many critics had little sym
nearb:-: f]o\yer nursery.
pathy .for the immigrants. who
Law enforcement offiCials cap
apparently sneaked across the bor-'
tured 19 of the runawa~·s. including
der Friday,night looking for work'
in California's agricultural fields.
"(Their pickup] was a rolling
death trap, crammed with' people
;
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I
¥ ~ 31..,,,
I
,
and speeding dO~'n the freeway in a
reckle,ss manne~," said! Ira Mehl
man. a Los Angeles spokesman for
the ~ederation for American
Immigration Ref?rm. I,
RiverSIde County sheGiffs depu
ti~s said the overcrowded pickup
tried to ram into two Icars, and
claimed the immigrants tossed beer
cans ~t' them d~ring t~e pursuit.
he plckup's camper f1e-r' off dur
mg the chase. whjch started on 1-15
and moved onto the Pomona
Freeway.
I
'
:r
Fled From ~hecl~point
. Border P~trol o~ficers ~rjed three
times to stop the pickup truck near
the Temecula checkpoint. But the
driver. who has not been identified
defiantly kept goipg. So tne Borde~ ,
Patrol called on the RiverSide
County Sheriff'sl Depar;tment to
pursue the pickup. Bor
Patrol
officers stopped chasing
cted
ill~gal immigrants; after a :1992 pur ~
SUlt ended in tragedy when a run
away station, wagon smashed into
another car and killed four
teenagers.
j
I
In the wake of Monday's beating,
the American CiVil Uiberties
Union's Southern .California chap
ter called for la~w enforcement
agencies nationwide to take a cold
hard look at their high-speed chas~
policy.
I
I
Far t()() often, spokesman Allan
Parachini said, ani adrenaline rush
pumps up officers so high that "lit
erally, the cops ca~'t stop when the
cha~e does." Instf~ad. theylcontinue
the IT aggressive pursuit with
nightsticks or gun Ibutts after they
have collared their suspects. Para
chini said.
I
I
"That may explain Why the
~deputiesJ were inexplicably obliv
IOUS to the fact that two helicopters
were ~o:vering aboye them" during
the brief beating, P,arachini added.
. The Video shot ,from those heli
copters was repl~yed again and
again, airing on Mexico's 'morning
news and on teleVision [stations
acr~s the United States. rohe pow
erfll .,motional ~punchl of the
fodtage--both the deputies' blows
aad the other immigrants' flight
ricocheted across tpe country, and
Over the border as well.
I
�President Clinton reportedly
called the Justice Department to
e},.-pre~s his concern oyer the inci
dent. GO\'; Pete Wilson' issued a
statement urging Californians not
to let the beating damage their
trust in law enforcement.
And in ~fexico Cit \', ordinary cit
izens and gOYernment officials
alike watched the \'iolent scenes
with disgust and sorrow. One taxi
driver called it typical of the anti
Mexican sentiment in America
known as "Mexico bashing."
Mexico's gOYernment filed a formal
protest with Washington, e:-.-press
ing indignation at the treatment of
its citizens.
An official statement from
Mexico's foreign ministry warned
that the incident . could crank. up
international tensions. "The obvi
0us abuse of authoritv demon
. s trated in this case confirms the
urgent need to take firm action to
eradicate discriminaton' attitudes
that lead to institutionai\'iolence,"
it added,
Yet to some critics, '~ob\'ious
abuse" was committed not only b\'
the deputies but also b): the smug'~
gler who piled at Il?ast 19 peopte
into his rickety pickup, then
thumbed his nose at authorities.
"This guy put in jeopardy, in a
rri 0 s t S I' rio u s wa \'. 21 Ii \' e s.
Whether you're legal or illegal.
these were still human beings who
should not be treated as caged par
rots," said Harold E::ell. former
commis!'ioner' of. Immigration and
Naturalizallon Sen.'ice for the
western C.S ..
"The :'-!exicangovernment
should be saYIng from the house
tops that smugglers are mistreating
the citizens of 'their] nation, not
saying that these two deputies are
mistr.:ating all the ~Iexican citizens
who come here illegally," Ezell
said.
The federal inHstigation
launched Tuesday began when FBI
officials picked up a copy of the
videotape. Federal officials said
they would work with LOs Angeles
County im'estigators in the probe,
"It is important that the public
ha\'e confidence that any rights
which may ha\'e been violated
state, federal or local-be vindicat
ed," U,S, Atty. Nora ~fanella said,
Coordinated Inquir-y
Legal analysts said coordination
hE>tween federal and local officials
would help the investigation. pro
ceed ~nloothly,
"Any time you han multiple
agencies doing their own in\'esti
gations, yop haH problems.
. because differen't agencies han
different. inten'iew formats, differ
ent im'e~tigative strategies, , , and
I
different ideas about how it should
be done," said Cornell Uni\'ersity
law professor Stnen D. Clymer. "If
you generate multiple inter\'iews,
there might tie inconsistericies thaI'
could be damaging at trial.'~
Clymer was one of the prosecu
tors who won the federal case
against the Los Angeles police
officers accused of violating Rod
ney G. King's civil rights,
Long before in';'estigators have
decided whether to file any charges
against the Riverside deputies,
many commentators have already
drawn parallels between the King
case and, Monday's beating.
Councilman Richard Alarcon,
who represents the east San
Fernando Valley dis.thct where
four LAPD officers were taped
beating and kicking King in 1991.
said Monday's "ideo "stirred the
cup of coffee again," piquing the
same feelings of shock and trauma
that emerged after the King case.
"It's like deja vu all over again,"
Loyola law school professor Laurie
Levenson agreed, "We were naive
to think the Rodney King case
would solve the problem of police
abuse, It's a much bigger problem
than one case. , , , You have to take
these issues very seriously, The
federal involvement sends a strong
message to the community that this
will be taken care of and not
whitewashed/'
But Levenson also pointed out
that the Riverside deputies might
have a stronger defense than the
LAPD officers found guilty of vio
lating King's civil rights, Not only
was the beating shorter, it was also
less violent. King was shot twice
with a Taser stun gun and suffered
a concussion and broken bones, In
contrast, Monday's victims
required only brief medical
treatment.
Furthermore, Levenso!'J said, the
Riverside deputies had few back
ups around when they approached
the two suspected immigrants,
"The fewer. the officers, the stron
ger the defense argument that they
had a reasonable belief they had to
resort to force because they didn't
have the manpower to. handle the
situation differently," Levenson
said,
While reservingjudgment pend
ing the ·investigation, Dan Swift,
president of the Riverside County
Sheriff's Assn" said Tuesday: "We
are lOO'iC behind our deputies, The
department is expected to investi
gate allegations of force, but so far
. the facts aren't in, All we have is 15
sec'onds of videotape and a whole
lot of excitement."
Watson .and Franklin have both
hired attorneys who defended the
LAPD officers im-o!\'ed with the
King case, Watson will be repre
sented by Michael P. Stone;
Franklin's lawyer is John Barnett.
As in the King case, concerns
about racism have SWirled around
the Riverside incident.
.
. Dozens of Latinos demonstrated
outside the Federal Building in Los
Angeles on Tuesday morning,
declaring the beating an example of
"institutional violence against the
. Latino community,"
And a group representing 15 civil
rights groups blamed the incident
on anti-iinmigrant sentiment that
.. has exploded across the nation.
Roberto Lovato, executh'e director
of the Central American Resource
'Center, said Gov, Wilson "and all
others who promote and fan the
flames of anti-immigrant senti
ment, , , are ultimately responsible
for this,"
"This is what gave these officers
permiSSion in their minds, , . to do
what they did with impunity," said
Joe Hicks, executive director of
MultiCultural Collaborative,
But Riverside Countv Assistant
Dist. Atty. Randy Tamagi insisted
that the taped clubbing "is not a
raCial issue, It is an inCident that
arose from a stressful situation,"
Indeed, several Latino leaders in
Riverside County said they were
proud of their strong relationship
with the Sheriff's Department.
"What we see is two individuals
out of control, not a department out
of control." said Robert Nava, a
member of the Riverside Unified
School District board, "We do not
have institutionalized racism in
Riverside County,"
The American Civil Liberties
Union has reprimanded the
Sheriff's Department for "woefully
deficient" efforts to diversify its .
force, Only 13% of sworn. officers
are Latino, according to a two
year-old ACLU survey, compared'
to an overall Latino population in
the county topping 25%,
Yet some community leaders
praised the Sheriff's Department
for reaching out to minority com
munities, Sheriff Larry Smithrou
tinely meets with neighborhood
groups .to hear .their concerns, and
will confer with the heavily Latino
Home Gardens area today in a ses
sion scheduled long before
Monday's beating incident.
"We have never had anything
like the crime [Monday] night,"
said Armando Navarro, a political
science professor at theUC River
side, "This was not typical. They
have been not better or worse than
any other law enforcement
agency:"
�<, •
Attorney Stephen Yagman's
office recently filed a brutality suit
against Riverside deputies in fed
eral court. .'
Yagman alleges deputies violated
Edward A. Luers' civil rights by
fatally shooting him during a
domestic disturbance call, when
Luers was acting strangely but not
threateningly. ~'In our office, they
have a reputation for brutality,"
Yagmi:ln said.
"If anyone other than a cop had
gone out and beaten these peopJe
like that, they would be in custody
. now. and the only question would
be ifthey could get bail," said Yag
man: who has made a living pursu
ing police brutality cases. "A
nightstick wielded at someone's
head is always considered deadly
force. It was attempted murder."
Times Iteff write,. Kenneth Chang,
Don Lee,' Eml Endo, Robert Lopez. Jean
I Merl and Eric Slater contributed to thl.
report from Loll Angele. and Mark FIn.
man reported from Mexico City. Tlmea
correapondent John Cox al,o
• contributed.
5
�DATE:'
PAGE:
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'i -3 fit
ft"'3
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California Deputies Taped in Beating
FBIto Probe1ncidentlnvolving Suspected'Rlegal Aliens That Recalls King Case
"
,
By Kathryn Wexler
5pecjaJ 10 Tbe WIIIIiDIIOI> filii
LOS ANGELES, April 2-1n an incident
reminisc:ent of the Rodney King police bru
tality case, two sheriff's deputies in River
'side County were caught on videotape
Monday by a local television news crew
beating two suspected, illegal Mexican im
migrants, part of a group crammed into a
battered pickup truck that led authorities
on a 7~mile high-speed highway chase.
, The FBI said it will investigate the inci
dent The two deputies were placed on paid
leave as immigrant rights groups, the
, American Civil Liberties Union and the
Mezican government protested the beat
ings, which were broadcast repeatedly to
day on local television news programs.
The videotape shows the deputies using
batons to strike a man and a woman on the
shoulders and back, as they scramble out of
a pickup truck that reportedly evaded an
Immigration and Naturalization checkpoint
near Temecula on Interstate 15, about 60
miles from the Mexican border.
, One deputy held his baton with two
hands to club the man-apparently the
pickup's driver-several times on the back
and shoulders, even as he fell to the'
ground. When the woman emerged from
the passenger side of the truck, the same
her with his' bat~n and then
pulled her to the ground, by ber hair. The ,
suspects did not appear in the· video to be
resisting or attempting to get away.
The other 18 people traveling in the
, back of the truck fled up a nearby embank
ment but eventually were apprehended by
the deputies and turned over to ,the INS.
, Senior Deputy Lori Marquette, a spokes
woman for the Riverside County Sheriff's
Department; said the man and woman had
been taken to a Ioca1 hospital for treatment.
Riverside County is southeast of downtown
Los Angeles, though the beatings occurred
in Los Angeles CoUnty.
The sheriff's department is not releasing
Dames of the two offiCerS involved, but one
was a 2~year police veteran and the other
had been on the force five years, according
to Marquette. "We are all embarrassed by
this," Marquette said. During high-speed
, chases, "the adrenalin is a lot higher than
normal. How a person reacts is different
from person to person," she said.
Bobbi Murray, an official with the Coali
tion for Humane Immigrants' Righis of Los
Angeles, said, "We were really sickened
when we saw it. But we're not inordinately
surprised because we've been concerned
for a long time that this inflariled election
year rhetoric, of bashing immigrants and
singling them out as an enem~' creates an
'deputy
bit
,
atmosphere that gives license to this sort of
stuff."
Ann Bradley, a spokeswoman for the
ACLU in Los Angeles, said the beatings
,were not isolated incidents. California High
way Patrol statistics from 1992 show that
for three Southern California counties, in
cluding Los Angeles, 7 percent of suspects
involved in chases are injured after they
come to a stop, Bradley said.
The most famous past incident occurred
in 1991 whenI.Os Angeles city police badly
and repeatedly' beat motorist King after he
lead them on a high-speed chase through
the city's suburbs. The incident was caught
on videotape by a bystander. When the four
'officers involved were acquitted on state
criminal charges in 1992, massive riots
erupted South Central Los Angeles. Two
police later Were found guilty of federal civ
il rights violations.
The King beating lasted about 1112 min
utes. The man and woman in Monday's
clubbing were hit for about 15 seconds.
"We cannot excuse officers because the
situation is volatile and, fraught with emo
tion. If they see it as a moment to explode,
you have a powder keg for all involved;
Bradley said. "We need to change the way
these high-speed pursuits are conducted."
m
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DATE:
PAGE:
j;deotape ofBe~tingby A uthorities Jolts Los A1ng,les
By KENNETH B. NOBLE
LOS ANGELES. April 2 - A tele
vision news crew's videotape of two
. white sheriff's deputies clubbing
two unresisting Mexicans has
jarred the Los Angeles' area and re
vived accusations. of a pattern of
police abuse of minorities that law
enforcement authorities have failed
to confront.
The videotape, which was shot .
from a helicopter and shows the dep
uties swinging their nightsticks like
baseball bats at a man and a woman
suspected of being illegal immi-.
grants. is reminiscent of the tape
that captured the police beating of~·
Rodney G. King by officers of the Los
Angeles Police Department five
years ago. That beating stirred
national revulSion and made police
brutality a subject of national
debate.
The video of the latest beating,
which followed an SO-mile high-speed
chase that began in Riverside County
to the northeast and ended in the Los
Angeles County community of South
EI Monte, was broadcast on local
.and network television on Monday
night. and today heated reaction fol
lowed.
In MeXICO City, the Ministry of
Foreign Relations announced that it
had sent a letter to the United States
Department of State to express its
"indignatiOn" at the incident and the
"flagrant violation of the human
rights" of Mexican citizens.. The
ministry added that the "eVIdent
abuse of authority shown in this case
confirms the urgent necessity to take
effective actions· to eradicate dis
criminatory attitudes which lead to .
acts of institutional Violence."
Civil rights organizations, includ
ing the American Civil Liberties
Union and bfack and Hispanic advo
cacy groups, joined in the public co!,!
demnation. saying there was a pat
tern of violence and racial abuse
among law-enforcement officers not
only r 1 Southern California ~ut
across the nation as well...
In Washington, the Federal· Bu
reau of .Investigation opened an in
quiry into the. possibility of civil
rights violations. . .
Other investigations were under
taken by the Riverside County Sher- .
iff's Department,. the agency to
which the two deputies belong, and
the Los Angeles County Sheriff .
Addressing reponers today, Sgt.
Mark Lohman,.a spokesman for the
. Riverside County Sheriff,.said: "I'm
not going to stand up here and say
that there was no force used, because
you would laugh me out of the room.
We saw it. We saw the same video, tape that everyone's seen. and we're
embarrassed." The department
identified the two deputies as Tracy
Watson and DOnald Franklin. and
, said they had been placed on paid.
leave pending the· outcome of the
investigation.
.
The events that led to the beating
began shoftly before noon on Monday
neat the Riverside County town of
Temecula, where there is a Border
Patrol checkpoint along an lIiter
statel:lighway..Border Patrol offi
cers there became suspicious when
they spotted a dilapidated pickup
truck traveling a side road adjacent
to the Interstate as if, the officers
suspected, to avoid the checkpoint.
The officers called the Riverside
County Shereiff's Department. which
dispatched patrol cars that began
the pursuilt. Deputies chased the
pickup as it movM north on Inter, state 15 and then west on the Pomona
Freeway at speeds of up to 100 miles
an hour. officials said.
.
Sergeant Lohman, the spokesman
for the Sheriff's Department, said
the occupants of the pickup - there
proved to be 21 of them - had
thrown not only beer cans at the
· pursuing patrol cars but also pieces
· of the metal frame that was bolted to
I the truck's bed. At least twice, he
· said, the truck sideswiped other cars
in an effort to divert attention. No
one in the other cars was reported
•. injured, he said,
.
.
Ultimately. In South EIMonte,
about 20 miles east of downtown Los
Angeles, the truck came to a halt
. : along the freeway. The videotape,
· shot by a·helicopter news crew from
1
. station KCAL that had been follow.
ing the pursuit. ·shows peopl~ began
bolting from the. trutk and dashing
for cover.
I
For a moment, the man behind the
wheel and a female p'asseng~rin the
front seat remained near the Vehicle.
It was then that the beating began.
.
I
1
For about 15 seconds. the tape
shows, one· deputy rep~atedly
clubbed the man on the back and the
shoulders with a nigh'tstickand con
tinued doing so as he fell. fac~ down,
to the ground. When the female pas·
senger got out of the f~ont seat. one of
the two deputies - it is not clear
which - hit her twice in th~ back
with his nightstick arid then yanked
her to the ground by her hair. her
head hitting the front ,bumper on the
way down. Neither t~e wom~n nor
the man appeared to offer anYI resist
ance or make any attempt to get
I .. '.
away,·
The driver was later identified as
Andrian Flores . ,
Ma~tinez. 26. He
I
I·
suffered bruises and a hairlin,e frac
ture of an elbow, the authorities
said. He was transported to iRiver
side General Hospital and a,waited
booking on charges of evadi,ng .ar.
rest. throwing objects ,rom a y~hlcle .
and possible assault or felony hit and .
I
.'
run.
\
The woman was identified as Letl·
cia Gonzalez-Gonzalef' 33. S~e was
reported to have suffered numerous
bruises but not to hav~ required im
mediate medical attention. ,
The other occupant~, who were un
injured. were taken If,lto .custpdy .by
the Immigration and Nationalization
I
Service for questioning. .
Meanwhile, Distric~ Atton1ey Gil
Garcetti said his office is offering
legal assistance and ~rson~~1 .from
the Special Investigauon~ Dlv1slon to
assist the Los Angeles County Sher
iffs Departments Investigation of the
. conduct of the two Riverside sheriffs
deputies In the highfspeed pursuit
and arrest.
'
�"When the sheriff's department
completes its investigation, we ex
pect the case to be submitted to the
district attorney's office to deter
mine whether criminal charges are
warranted," Mr. Garcetti said.
Roberto Lovato, executive direc
tor of the Central American Refugee
Center in Los Ange1es, said, "This is
"something that we know goes on ev
ery day in the lives of immigrants,
African-Americans and poor people
generally. It's been "a disease we
haven't been able to ridciurselve~
of."
He suggested that the Riverside
Sheriff's Department statement that
it was embarrassed by the beating
only reflected the lessons learned on
crisis management following the
Rodney King incident. ''I'm sure
they have some kind of internal man
ual that says if you get caught, say
something to appease them," he
said.
I
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DATE :
'_·I...,..r_/_'__
:_~',_.i_':,·1_·_.. . . ._ _
PAGE: ___
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\FBI probes videotaped
.
'.',
'Calif. incident
has araII Is
b:eating"
"
"
,
.•.
, p
e!
.. King cas'e , T h e chase began at noon
,,0
By Sally Ann Stewan
and Gale Holland
USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES .,.. The FBI
launched' an investigation
Tuesday into the videotaped
beating of two suspected illegal
immigrants from Mexico by
two white Riverside County
Sheriff's deputies,
'
The beatings at the end of a
70-mile freeway chase were
caught ,on videotape Moriday
by two 1V helicopter news
crews. They stunned southern
Californians, who are still
haunted by the 1991 Rodney
King beating and the deadly ri
ots it spawl)ed.
The While House moved
swiftly to acti\ate a federal
probe of potential civil rights
violations.
President Clinton, who in his
bid for re-election has visited
California so much that insid.
ers call it the first family's sec·
ond home, isn't about to ignore
.any crisis here.
'
"He's concerned," White
House press secretary Mike
McCurry said wben asked Din
ton's reaction.
The sbnilarities between the
beatings are Striking. .Both oc~
curred after high-Speed tree
. way .chaSes. In both cases, po
Uce used nightsticks to beat
suspects who were already Iy. ,
, ing on the ground. BOth times,' ,
the pollce wielding the batons
were white and the dvilians
were minority. And ever since
this video became public, it's
been played noMtop - not just
here, but in Mexico.
.
I
Monday w,hen the truc~ by
passed a Border Patrol check··
point Riverside County sher·
iff's deputies pursued the truck
at speeds up to 100 mph.
The truck's camper shell dis
integrated in the wind to reveal
the people huddled inside.
"It is my understanding that
the driver of the vehicle was
deliberately trying to ram cars
and that the occupants were
throwing beer cans and bottles .
as well as pieces of the camper
sbell at the pursuing ollicers,"
said Dan Swift of the Riverside
Sheriff's AssOciation.
The truck stopped on the
side ot the treeway and most
occupants ran away. The driv.
er stayed to help his common
law wife out ot the cab.
A deputy, holding his baton
two-banded,was vJdeotaped
clubbing the man on the back
and sboulders. The beating
continued as the driver tell,
face dOwn, on the ground.
When the ,woman got the
door open,the deputy beat ber
on the back with the baton.
then pulled her to the ground
by .the hair. Another deputy
struck her with bls baton.
Neither vic:tlm seemed to re
sist or attempt to lee dunna
the l5-second beating.
The beaten man, Eru1que
Funez, 30, was in a hospital jail
ward with bruises and a posst.
I
i
s::~w, sberitr~
,:k=
a
The woman, Leticia Gonza:
lez Gonzalez, 33, was bruised
on ber tace and arms. WalJting
slowly and in apparent pain,'
sbe left a federal detentioni
center with lawyer David Rca.
He plans a civil rights SUit
"This Is just anOther exampie of bow very Uttle. has
changed Since the Rodney I
Xi.ng episode," said Jeffrey Ga.,i
len, a lawyer wbo specializes in
potice brutality lawsuits.
i
The sberiff's deputies, Tracy
Watson and Donald "Kun"
Franklin, were, placed on un
paid leave during the probe,
whIch could take months, olli.
dais said. Franklin Is a 2o.year
veteran; Watson has, been on
the force for Ive years.
"I'm not going to stand up
bere and say that there was no
force used, because you would
laugh me out ot the room,"
sheriff's Sgt. Mark Lohman
told reponers TUesday. "We
saw it; we saw the same video
tape that everyone's seen, and
we'reemban'assed."
Public outcry came, Swiftly
trom California's Mexican
American communJty, wbere
the beating
being called
the "Latino Rodney Xing".
"ltlt hadn't been tor the vid.
eotape, this would never have
been exposed to the tight,.. said
Mexican American POlitical
AsSociation President HedOr
81010 during a protest on the
tederal building's steps.
Mexico sent the State De
partment a nOie' condemnJrig .
the beating as a "Iagrant viola
tion of bumanrights."
"Weweren'l surprised to lee
this, given the, anti-lrnilliwant
I
was
I
�rhetoric," said Bobbi Murray
of the Coalition for Humane
Immigrants Rights of Los' An
geles. "It was a license to beat
them."
Though he condemns the
beating. anti-immigration ac
tivist Robert Kiley said police
.are understandably weary of
lighting a losing battle against
illegal immigration. "There is a
boiling. point going on down
therej" Kiley said. "This Is just
the tip of the iceberg."
Nora Manella.. U.s. attorney
for the Central District of Call·
fornia, said federal and local
authorities were coordinating
. their actions. "This Is not a turf
battle. Everyone is on board."
There's no assurance such
Incidents won't be repeated.
"It's naive to think that the
Rodney King case ended all is
sues of police.abuse," said Lau
rie Levenson of Loyola Law
School. "The strongest weapon
against police abuse is the Vid·
eo camera."
Contributing: Susan Page and .
Jonathan LoVitt
10
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~I probes taped beating by deputies
MexiGQ angered by attack m Califorrua
SOL'TH EL MONTE, Calif. (AP)
- The FBI has opened an inves
tigation into the \'ideotaped beat
ing two sheriff's deputies' gave a
Mexican man and woman Monday
after a 70-mile chase. '
. Mexico's Department of For
eign Relations said yesterday it
. had "expressed its' indignation"
and "energetically condemned
this flagrant violation of the. hu
man rights of. its nationals" in a
letter to the State Department.
TV helicopter news crews vid
eotaped the deputies chasing a
baltered pickup truck crammed
with 19 persons suspected of.'
sneaking across the lI.Iexican bor
der. The pickup reached speeds of
100 mph before stopping on the
side of the freeway .
On the color videotape, neither
the ",'oman nor the man appears to .
resist or attempt to get away.
One deputy. holding his baton
two-handed like a baseball bat,
clubbed a man on the back and
shoulders even as he fell, face
down. on the ground.
When the woman got out of the
cab, the same deputy beat her in
the back with the baton, then
grabbed her by the hair and pulled
her to the ground. At least one
other deputy struck her with his
baton.
During the chase, the pickup's
shabby camper top disintegrated
in the wind to reveal the people
crammed inside.
"People inside were throwing
things at officers in the chase and
at other cars, hitting some of
them,",sheriff's Sgt. Mark Lohman
said yesterday.
When police stopped the pickup
on the Pomona Freeway about 20
miles east of Los j\ngeles, most of
the 17 persons crowded into the
bed of the truck dashed down a
brush\' embankment. All but two
were -rounded up by police and
taken to an Immigration and Nat
uralization 'Service center .for
questioning.
;\iembers of the group face .de
portation. a spokesman fonne INS
in \\'ashir»tton said }'esterday.
.
;
,
"I know they've been detained.
They are. in removal-deportation
proceedings," said Greg Gagne,
the spokesman. "There maybe po-.
tential for a smuggling investiga
tion."·
.
It was not clear whether the of
ficers realized they were being
videotaped, but the helicopter was
hovering over the truck in broad
daylight. Most such helicopters
are clearly marked with station
identification.
The Riverside County Sheriff's
Department began an internal in
vestigation and suspended the two
deputies -:- five,year veteran
Tracy Watson and 20-year veteran
. Kurtis Franklin - with pay. .
"I'm not going to stand up here
and say that there was no force
used, because you would laugh me
. out of the room," Sgt. Lohman told
reporters. "We saw it, we saw the
same videotape that everyone's
seen, and we're embarrassed."
lawYer David Ross, who rep
resents the beaten woman, iden
tifiedthe man hit with the baton as
30-year-old Enrique Funez,' who
was in the back of the truck. The
extent of any injuries to the man
was not known, and his identity
and whereabouts CQuid not imme
diately be confirmed.
The woman, identified as Le
ticia Gonzalez, 33, was bruised on
her face and arms and released
yesterday to the custody of Mr.
Ross.
The beating was .shown repeat
.edly on!elevision .in Mexico and
If.
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t h e Umted S · provo k": an
tates,
Ing
outcry from human 'rights gr;oups.
. "He's concerned,"IWhite House
spokesman Michael McCurry said
about President Clinton's reaction.
The letter from Mexico;s For
eign Relations Department hinted
at racism as a motive for the beat
ing, saying it demonstrates the
need to "eradicate discriminatory
attitudes that lead to acts 1of in
stitutional violence,"1 ..
It also demanded;an investiga
tion by the Justice IDepartment,
saying the Mexicangovemment
"will closely followi the develop
ment of this investigation until its
satisfactory conclusion," I
.
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• Staff writer Andy :rhibault con
!ributed .his.
'0
�Uos Angeles mimes
l>ursuits Bring
Out Volatile
Mix of Emotions
By ALAN ABRAHAMSON
TI\I[5 STMF WRIITR
The siren wails. The red lights
flash. But. the car ahead doesn't
stop. InstE'ad. it speeds off. And the
chase is on.
It's a situation that-can very
quickly takE' a dangerous or even
deadly turn. Almost always,
according to eX1>erts. the mix of
danger. fear and speed fuels a rush
of adrenaline and anger in police
officers pursuing a defiant
suspect-a combustible mixture
that sometimes ignites when. as it
must. the chase comes to an end.
"We call it the pucker factor,"
GE'offrey Alpert. one of the nation's
leading ex-perts on police pursuits.
said of the sensations common to
most officers.
''It'~ an enormous rush. an
adren"jinc ril~h. eX1rcmely exciting
and tense and dangerous." said
Alpert. a criminology professor at
the Cni\'ersit\' of South Carolina.
"Decisions ha\e to be made verv
quickly. And you end up making
. decisions flYing by the seat of your
pants-based on what you think
might be be;:t··
The beating Monday of two susp~cted illegal immi
grants by Ri\'erside County shenff s deputies afte~ a
lengthy pursuit has once again highlighted the volatlle
emotions that can come Intp play when, at the end of a
chase the hunter confronts the hunted.
So~etimes. e>..-perts say. that confrontation is driven
not by reason or by law. but by an emotio~al fury.
"Individual cops can go over the edge, said Joseph
P. McNamara, a former San Jose polic~ c~ief now a
research fellow at Stanford UniverSity s Hoover
Institution.
.
."
"They allow their personal anger to get I~v?lved,
said McNamara. Once a beat cop, he added: It s. hard
notto."
.
The issue of high-speed chases has long sparked
emotions-and calls for reform. The latest came Tues
day, as the American Civil Liberties Union of So~t~ern
California labeled the beating an example of hlg.h
speed pursuit syndrome" and' urged the U.S. J~stlce
Department to un?,ertake a complete study of use
of-force dynamiCs.
.
M
any departments, after w.eighing the emo~ions and
unpredictable. risks of high-speed pursuits, have
ruled.them out. Any chase, police officers an~ experts
said Tuesday. involws the r.isk of death or Injury to
those being chased. to the officers chaSing them and to
bystanders.
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In Dallas, for iristance; police now break off a chase if
a neeing suspect speeds or runs red lights. Other
departments, such as Louisville, Ky., pursue only flee
ing felons.
Across Pennsylvania, under a Jaw that went into
effect in late 1994, police must call off a pursuit when
the risk outweighs the need for immediate arrest.
The Los Angeles Police Department policy caJl~ for
officers to "weigh the seriousness of the offense"
against the "potential dangers to themsel\"E'~ or inno
cent citizens" before beginning a pursuit Unmarked
police cars may not chase; the help of a police helicop
ter is always recommended.·
.
In Sacramento, meanwhile, the Assembly Public
Safety Committee is due ne>..1 Tuesday to consider a bill
making it a felony to flee .in a vehicle from a police
officer. It also would substantially stiffen sentences for
anyone who injures or kills someone while fleeing the
law.
The bill, drafted by Assemblyman Jim Morrissey
(R-Santa Ana), heads to committee in the wake of
three high-speed Orange County chases in December
and January that led to five deaths.
"The only thing I'll say is that emotions run very,
very high during high-speed pursuits," Fullerton
. Police Chief Patrick McKinley said Tuesday.
"Any way that we, as chiefs, can reduce the number
of pursuits and therefore, the physical as well as emo
tional toll caused by them, then we're taking a giant
step forward."
The chase that ended Monday in El Monte was in part
the product of the U.S. Border Patrol's changed pursuit
policy.
The Border Patrol backed away from high-speed.
chases after a 1992 pursuit in wruch a van carrying
illegal immigrants crashed near a Temecula high
school, killing six people.
.
On Monday, after three unsuccessful attempts to stop
a pickup truck that used a side road to make a detour
around the Temecula immigration checkpoint, Border
. Patrol officers called the Riverside County Sheriff's
Department.
From there, experts said, the chase featured a potent
mix of the classic emotional triggers: speed, danger and
defiance of the law.
Deputies chased the pickup as it sped north on 1-15
and then west on the Pomona Freeway at speeds of up
to 75 mph.
At such speeds, "it's a highly dangerous, action
oriented pursuit where, as a police officer, you've got
several concerns going on," McNamara said. "You
want to catch the [suspect) but you don't want to injure
anyone. You especially don't want to injure innocent
people.
"And the person leading you on this chase is defying
you, defying the siren and the red light, defying
everyone and everything."
Twice during the chase, the pickup truck tried to ram
other cars in an attempt to divert the attention of the
pursuing deputies, according to Sgt. Mark Lohman. a
Riverside County sheriff's spokesman. Tht may well
have added to a sense of outrage and rig~teousness
inside police cruisers, experts said.
"It's referred to as 'contempt of cop,' .. Alpert said.
The fact that the chase went on for 80 miles also may
have contributed significantly to officers' emotions,
experts said.
If).
�During the chase. ways to relieve stress and anger
are few. "The most you can do is press on the acceler
ator pedal or a microphone key or squeeze a steering
wheel." said Steve Bunting. executive director of the
Delaware-based American Society of Law Enforce
ment Trainers.
.
.
"When you get out of the .car ... you are basically in
what we call a survi\'al mode," he added. "People, and
pOlice officers are people. have a tendency in this state
to act aggressively." .
. The pickup-which lost its camper shell during the
pursuit-finally pulled to the shoulder onhe Pomona '
Freeway hear the Peck Road offramp. in. South El
Monte, ,
.
.
.
he video.tape.filmed by crew for KeAL Channel
T.9-'showsinpeople boltingafrom the truck and dash
ing for cover a nearby nursery.
/
Two people remained with the truck, a woman and a
man. Those two took the beating.
.
"The main thing that has to [happen] is that cops
haw to know it's wrong to do this," McNamara said.
"Pl'ople who enforce the law have to obey the law. You
r:.r,'t beat' pE'Ople. It's not an option. It's not a little
, ml3take. It's a big deal."
Alpert. who instructs at police departments around
the nation; added that he recommends strongly that the
officer leading the chase not be involved in the arrest.
Another officer. he said, hasn't "been as emotionally
invol ved. hasn't been as threatened."
He added that he usually concludes his training ses
sions by asking officers two questions:
.
"If your mother was out driving on the same street
that there was going to be a chase on, or your kids were
out playing on the sidewalk next to that street, would
\'OU want to be the officer out there chaSing on that
street?
,
"Then we ask--and I've probablyas'ked 5,000 offiC
ers this question and never' gotten a good answer
what are you going to do when you catch up to the
guy?"
Times .taff writer .... Romney Ind OOneipondent Debr.
Cano contributed to thl. itoI').
,.
!
�!los AUl\eles mimes
\ChaseReflects Smugglers'
Determination, Officials Say
.• Pursuit: Tighter border
security is causing drivers to
become more creative and
more daring, according to INS.
By TONY PERRY
TIMES ~ IIFF WRITER
T
DIECrLA- The chase of the bat- .
. terE'd pickup full of suspected illegal
immigrants that enc.:ed with the video
taped beating of two of them began after
the truck evaded the Interstate 15
checkpoint by using a bucolic two-lane
ro.ad through a woodsy area known as
Wolf Yalley.
.
Once SE'en on Pala Road, the truck fled
for 80 miles at speeds up to 75 mph,
endangermg the immigrants as well as
other drh'ers,
Border Patrol offiCials say the incident
illustrates a new fact of border life: As
U.S. authorities step up effortstoseal the
border, smugglers of, illegalinimigrants
are becoming more creative, more deter
mined and more Willing to risk their Jives
and those of their Customers and the
pubhc.
NI'm hearing more and more about
cases of high-speed escapes of smugglers
with trucks crammed With large numbers
of aliens," said Jim Haves, assistant dis
trict director of the. Immigration and
Naturalization SerVice in Los Angeles,
who is onrseemg an anti-smuggling task
force.· "Smugglers don't care about the
safety of the people they're smuggling,
just the profits they can receive,"
The checkpOint along Interstate ]5 just
north of the San Diego County-Riverside
. County border, looks formidable enough" .
with agents able to choke off all north
bound traffic though the steep-Sided
mountainous pass .. But smugglers of ille
gal immigrants are able to bypass' the
checkpoint by using rural roads in the
woodsy DI' Luz Canyon to the west and
the flatter Wolf Valley and the Pechanga
Indi~n Resen'ation to the east..
Taking winding back roads around the
Temecula checkpoint-as well as similar
roads, paved and unpaved, around other
checkpoints in San Diego County-is one
of several methods being increasingly
used by smugglers to evade a newly
beefed -up Border Patrol.
"We're seeing an increasing number of
desperate people turn to smugglers. who
will do anything to get thejr illicit cargo
into this country," said Jim Pilkington,
spokesman for the Border Patrol in San
Diego.
Several an ti - ilIeg!!1 ~imtnigration
efforts in the last two years have pushed
illegal immigrants e.ast from the San
Ysidro port of entry inJ;O the mountainous
terrain ef eastern San Diego County.
B
order Patrol agents from the Temec
ula station often patrol the back roads
looking for smugglers. A Video camera is
attached to a freeway sign at an offramp at
Rainbow, a tiny community just south of
the Temecula checkpoint. The camera is
monitored 24 hours a day,
Hayes said that if the truck had hit a
bump in the road While being
chased Monday, many of the
apprOXimately 20 immigrants
riding in the back could have been'
thrown onto the pavement imd
killed. "Anyone who puts themselves in the clutches of a smuggler
is risking their life,'" he said.
One reason for the smugglers'
new recklessness may be an
increased averSion to bei:.g arrest
ed. Alan Bersin, U,S, attornev for
San Diego. and Imperial counties,
has declared "war" on immigrant
smugglers. In ]995, 74 smugglers
were caught. tried and sent to pris
on. In ]996, Benin wants that
number to be more than 300.
.More rental trucks.are being used
so that if they are caught. the
. smugglers don't risk getting their
own vehicles impounded, One
smuggling ring was renting Lin
coln ConUn.entals.
One smuggler in eastern 3an
lif
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Diego County Sluffed 17 immi
grants iino a portablE' toilet· being
~owe.d by a truck. Thirty illegal
ImmIgrants were found inside a
double-Wide horse trailer on Inter
state 805,
Agents ha\'e reported cases of
smugglers lea\'ing stragglers_
often women-when they cannot
.. keep up with the nighttime trek
through the rough terrain. Most
illegal immigrants hike into this
country and are picked up bv
waiting vehicles.
At the San Clemente checkpoint'
on Interstate 5, 30 illegal immi
grants were found in a truck.
beneath a load of potting soil.
Smugglers have painted trucks to
look like telephone company
trucks, with the drivers wearing
.blond wigs,
"As we get more determined, so
do they," said Kenneth J. Wilson,
assistant agent in charge of the
Temecula checkpoint.
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A 'Rod1J~yKing' Case? ·---:--+-!I"'::::";-1
No, There's a Key Difference,
At this point, officials a.re taking' responsibility
,
T
he sight WaSfrighte,n.inglY reminiscent of be summoned when there are chases, many of
. the Rodney King beating of 1991. Law which end violently in the high intensity of the
enforcement officers swing:ing their moment. That policy should be adopted by any
batons at a downed man and a woman. Over
law enforcement agency that lacks standing
head. a news helicopter, camera rolling.
orders of this sort.
The scene made the network new's. another
Chases also pr~sent a continlrl,ng hazard that
shameful incident for Southern Callfornia law needs broad policy commitments from various
enforcement. But there was a difference this agencies that might become involved. How and
time. In 1991, Los Angeles Police D~partment when is police responsibility in a pursuit to be
officials repeatedly defended the clubbing of passed from one agency to another? Are there
King. saying he posed a threat to the officers ways to handle a chase so it presents less risk to
surrounding him; after Monday's incident. the innocent motorists? In this case, the pickup
Riverside County Sheriffs Department rammed cars and its occupants reportedly
promptly expressed chagrin at this latest out
threw bottles at purs'uing officers.
rage. The department was "very embarrassed," .
This episode, like the King case, has the added
a spokesman said. He declared the department dimension Of race. The occupants of the truck
"seriously concerned about the action of our were believed to be Mexican nationals illegally
officers" and said that'two deputies ,had been entering the United States. Did th.at fact have
placed on paid leave until the incident was fully any 'bearing on police tactics? Was it a factor in
investigated. That was a proper and clearly what clearly was overreaction by the arresting
officers, despite the truck occupants' dangerous
honest response.
The victims were suspected of being illegal and provocative maneuvers?
immigrants, and the beatings came at the end of
Unfortunately. this'is not-the first dangerous'
run along Southern California highways by
a freeway chase. That chase began with a Bor
der Patrol car trailing a truck south of the people bringing illegal immigrants, usually
Temecula checkpoint arid ended when th,€!
seeking work, into this country from Mexico.
truck. then being pursued by Riverside County So-called coyotes, men who solicit the illegal
sheriffs units, pulled onto the shoulder of the entrants and provide the transportation, work
Pomona Freeway in South EI Monte. where the both sides of the border setting up the runs. U.S.
suspects fled into an adjacent tree nursery. In and Mexican law enforcement should work hard
all, 21 people were arrested, including the man to stamp out these dangerous trips before they
start.
and woman beaten by the deputies.
In additionto Riverside County's inquiry, the , Many Mexicans and Mex.ican Americans
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is believe that the beatings may reflect a grOwing
investigating and the U.S. Justice Department anti-immigrant feeling in California, spurred by
has announced a civil rights investigation. race-related politics. That mayor may not be
the case, but the possibility should be examined.
These prompt responses indicate that authori
ties at all levels learned some hard but valuable The tragedy that befell' the Los Angeles area
lessons from the Rodney King case. But. com
after the King beating offers a lesson that must
prehensive policies still need to be developed, ' be learned. The prompt and rational calls for a
and training implemented. to deal with such sweeping investigation of this week's case are'
incidents. 4.APD policy, now as at the time of proper. Officials must get to the bottom of any
.
the King beating. requires that ranking officers incident like this one.
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�Uos Angeles mimes
I'omment
TO
~_."'"'_....'"_".
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0, N CALIFORNIA
,I
jRodney King
AllOver'
Not Likely
.
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By Peter H. King .
ndso once again the billy clubs
'flail, and once again the sus
pects fall, and once again a
camera rolls, and once again a· drum·
beat of public outrage begins to pound.
Pictures don't lie. No more street JUs,
tice. Call in the feds. Prosecute.'
Reform. Rat· .. ·tat·iat. Rat·a·tai·tat.
Yes. in some ways the heavy·
handed apprehension by RIverside
County deputies of two suspected ille·
gal immigrants is. as an American
Civil Liberties Vnion leader put it,
"Rodney King all over again," The
inCident opens ·with a .high -speed.
chase. The deputies are whit~, the
suspects brown. And. teleVision news
directors coast to coast, for the
moment. find the precious frames of
street action irresistible.
Beyond that. the comparison erodes.
To Southern Californians who lived
through it. "Rodney King all over
again" implies. more than a case of cop
thuggery. It implies roiling racial pol·
itics. high-profile investigations, edgy,
stabs at justice. It implies national
scorn. And it implies a riot.
However repulsive the fresh imag
ery from the Pomona Freeway, how
ever loud the' early shouting, what
transpired Monday simply cannot be
eXpected to uncork a King-like erup
tion. Some reasons for this are mun·
dane, almost silly. Others cut deeper,
exposing-as if it truly needed .to be
exposed-the shabby way California
assigns subhuman status to the
undocumented workers who cross its
borders.
A
dIspense with the mundane, this
happened to involve RIverside
County deputies, not LAPD officers.
.Part of what made Rodney King a
national affair was that it happened in
America's favorite anti-city; demon
Los Angeles. It seems implausible that
~ati?nal ~ress crews will set up camp
In RIversIde as they did in Los Angeles
for King. Just for starters, the cuisine's
not nearly so swell.
. The Riverside beating happeried in
daylight. What was especially chilling
aboutKing's thumping was that it was
carried out in the dark hours, by cops
who thought no one was watching.
The officers who gathered to root on
Sgt. Koon's boys looked for .all the
world like a cell of the Ku Klux Klan,
caught with their sheets down. By
contrast, the Riverside deputies come
across a bit more like working cops
deahng, however crudely, with a
rough situation. To be blUnt, they just
. don't seem to be having quite as much
fun.
Which leads to the central reason
this dismal moment is not destined to
become Rodney King II: The people on
the wrong end of the clubs were illegal
immigrants-aliens, as their foes call
them. They enjoy no natural constitu
ency on this side of. the border, no
strong. political support, no real. legal
protection and barely any expectation
of simple human sympathy. One little
example: State law forbids hauling
dogs in the beds of pickups. The rules
are significantly less stringent, how
e\'er, when it comes to migrant
workers.
I
magine the deputies go to triaL
Imagine they are acquitted. (The
defense is obvious: They ordered the
suspects, who had feloniously hurled
objects at them in the c.hase, to go
prone., For whatever reasons
language?-the suspects did not do as
commanded, requiring department~
sanctioned stickwork,) Who will riot
after this acquittal? Certainly not any
undocumented workers. They have
been trained for docility, to know their
place, to understand that the INS is
but a ·telephone call away, It's why
field bosses and factory foremen can't
get enough of 'em.
DATE: --"';......L---=~-.l!!::......._
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Yes, it's true: President Clinton was
said Tuesday to be "concerned" about
the beating. He'JI get over it-once the
White House grasps that the beating is
destined to play out, not as a law
enforcement story; but' as an immi.
gration incident. Clinton appears con
vinced that to win California, and thus
reelection. he must pose as a border
patriot, defending the land from let
tuce pickers. From there, the
indifference will just trickle on down.
For too many Californians, the last.
ing image frdm this incident will not
be one of billy clubs flailing. It will be
the sight of 17 illegals scampering out
of the pickup, heading for the bushes.
See, they will say. They keep coming.
,by the truckload. Sadly, the demoni.
zation of a people who have come here
across generations for seasonal work
is complete.
�,
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Roundup link
offensive :to
rights groups
'
,
By Gary Fields
USA TODAY
The disclosure tbat two At;: agents in
vestigating arsons at black ~urcbes are
faciog disciplinary reviews for attending
racist Good 0' Boy RoundupS beightened
concerns of church and civil rights om
cials.'
I .
. .Wade Henderson of tbe NAAcp c::a1Jed
tbe disclosure !'deeply troubling."
"At the very least they sho'uld be reas
signed pending further inquiry," he said.
The Treasury Department released
the results of its six-month Investigation
into the RoundupS on Tuesday. It said
125 Treasury Department law omcers
had attended the events sinee they be
gan in 1980. None were involved in any .
"overt" acts of racism, the report said.
But it said 31 attended Roundups after
1988, when racist acts became common.
Treasury Secretary Robert; Rubin or
dered that 12 who witnessed the acts and
three others face reviews that will deter
mine wbether punishment ~ merited.
He ordered tbe 16 others to uDderao
,counseling.
"I think it's a public disgrace, and mor
ally it's a disgrace for the T~ry De
partment to take this kind of spank-you
on-the-hand approach," said Bob
Stomta.'l, spokesman for the AfrIcan
Ame,rican Leadership Summit based in
Washington, D.C.
.
Churcb leaders were concerned that
the two agents were not immediately re
movedtfrom the investigations..
"This kind of response breeds distrust
rather than trust," said the Rev. Mac
Charles Jones, whose Nationat CouncU
11
of 'ChurChes represents 33 denomina
tions and 51 million people. "It becomes
" . really insulting at some point to tbe intel.
ligence, not just of.tbe black communi
• ties but people all Over this country."
"I'm not amazed.... It just makes me
think," said the Rev. Davld Upton, whose
Inner ety ChUrcbin Knoxville. Tenn..
Which burned. in January, Is only 60
miles north of Polk County, wbere the'
Roundu\ii are beld.
Justice Department omcials conduct
ed a separate investigation and suspend
ed one FBI special agent for he days
and placed him.on six months' probation
for telling one prospective agent at tbe
Roundup that "we Deed more 800d white
guys like you."
.
'
Joseph Lowery, president of tbe
Southern Christian leadership Confer
ence', said be Is willing to "live the feder
al autborities the benelt· of the doubt
tbat the inquiries Will be serious, but irs
beginning to smell a lot like a white
wash."
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t>fl5cers'ga~ering
for 'fellowship' .
later tumedracist
The Good 0' Boy Roundup began In 1980 as aone-night
campout for law ofllcers near Ducktovt'n. TeM.
The gathering. to "promote fellowship Within and out
side of law enforcement," was organized by Raymond
Rightmyer. who was the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco and
Firearms agent in charge of the Knoxville, Tenn., ofllce.
The gathering attracted 58 participants.
That June. the ATF Director's Report aMounced that
the Irst "Good O' Boy Roundup" had taken place and
suggested that people attend the folloWing year.
Over the years, nearly 1,400 people, most of them Slate
and local law ofllcers. attended. Of those, nearly 170
were federal law enforcement ofllcers. Many attended
more than once. Between 1980 and 1988, the gathe1'ing5
featured outdoor activities and heavy drinking.
Racist activities began In 1989.
In 1990, during one entry In a "Redneck of the Year"
contest, members of an unldentiled Kentucky police de
partment and a civilian perfonned a skit In which a man
;: in blackface portrayed aslave and simulated a sex act on
; a man dressed as a lOansman. During ~ sam~ roundup
a participant put up a sign With a racial epithet. Right
myer says he took the sign down, but it went up ap1n at
later events.
In reCent years. racist Items were sold. lDcIudlng U
censes to "hunt" black people and masks in the likeness
of Martin Luther King Jr. With a bullet bole in the face.
In 1995, a black ATF agent and a black police ofllcer
attended the event, h.ding to a confrontation With white
officers who tole: tt'lem to leave.
By Gary Fields
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�U .J. 11 T()o!Qy
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Voices: Shlllid English _ iIas....~,~ USA;S .dnc.aIIPIII!III?
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whe1her S1ates can make english their official language. Twenty-three
states have enacted official-english laws. Supporters say governments can regulatethalr employees'. speech while on
duty. CritIcs say Engllsh-only laws violate the Constitution's First Amendment. USA TODAY asked for readers' views.
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Richard Sturgeon, 33 .
Environ. oonsultant .
Los Alamos, N.M.
Inna Hunter Brown, 57' Jared Banner, 16
State representative
Hi~h school soph.
LittteRock, Ark.
Ene, Pa.
While I do believe
states should be able to'
have English as their
first language, it might
be important to learn a
different language to be
able to communicate
better with the people
in your geographic
English should be our i No, I don't think it
I don't know if it
Yes, it should be
official language, and
should be made official. should be made official, offidallan~age, but
states should have the
People mOving from
but it seems English is . there could be another
right to the language of other countries have as the norm. The only way language that may ~e
much right to speak .. to excel in America is
their choice. But, edu
late to the ethnic inter
cationally, we lirrilt our- : their native languages
by adapting. But people est of a ~on: In our.
selves when we require ' as Americans. Just bewho know more than
Polish neighborhood,
proficiency in only one . cause there are. more
one language will be
our schools dedicatec:t
language. I certainly en English-speaking reSi··
able to establish alli·
an hour to teach us Pol
courage the require
dents here doesn't
ances with a broader
ish. It was niCe to
mean it should be the
ment of a second lan
.selection of people.'
about our hiStory and
guage for grnduation. ! official language.
culture back!th~n. ','..
area.
Vanessa Rodriguez
22, oollege senior
College Station, Texas.
learn
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�. mE WALL STREET JOURNAL TUESDAY. MA:RCH 26. 1996 .
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Justices to Decide Case:Involving .j.:',
Offic'iallJse of English Language, '::
. By PAUL M. BARRE'l'i , n o t i o n that public employees have a
Sla/fRepor,erofTIlEWALLSTREETJOURNAL, to .use a particuIar . . language arid
right
that
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court. . residents have a right to be served In a'
taking a tentative step Into the Controversy· .tongue other than English. (ArizonaI'is lor'
over language and Immigration, agreed to Official English vs. Arizona)
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·decide whether states may require civil . ',..,_
* *. *
servants to uSe. English In carryingo~t . ,
,their duties..
.., . .'
The case concerns an invalidated
"English only'" amendment to Arizon~'s:, "
state constitution. It
.
could) get side-. LEGAL BEAT .'
tracked, however. I'"V}=~;';==FI
on procedural is
sues having to. do
with .whether the
dispute has been lit
igated by the proper
sort of parties. One
·of the procedural
questions
is
whether private backers of the measure
can seek its reinstatement after the state
of Arizona itself dropped outof the case:
Th!! justices are expected to hear oral
arguments in the fall, with a decision likely
in 1997. ."
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. Buffeted by fear of cultural fragmenta·
tion and, in some areas, alarm over immi·
gration, nearly half the states,and some
cities have enacted legislation declaring
English as their ~fficiallanguage, accord·
ing to Arizona,ns for Official English, the
group pressing to revive' the Arizona
amendment. Arizona voters approved a
, ballot initiative in 1988 that went further
, than most other states. In addition to the
symbolic gesture of labeling English as the
official language, the Arizona amendment
bars' public employees from' using other
languages for official dutieS, with only a
few exceptions. The exceptions include
teaching English or foreign languages and
police communication with suspects or
victims.
The' Arizona amendment was chal·
lenged In 1988 bya state employee who
sometimes used Spanish while processing
medlcal·malpractice claims against the . ! .
, state. A federal judge struck down the r
I amendment. finding ,that it violated. the
"11.'
· free-speech-guarantee'oftheFlrSt Amend·
ment of the U.S: COnstitution. Arizona's'
former Gov. Rose Mofford. a critic of the
state measure. declined to appeal, but
Arizonans for Official English was permit- .
ted to intervene and filed an appeal;, A "/
federal appeals court based In San Fran· . ,
c
. isco last year agreed with the trial judge
that the amendment should ~. Struck., .
down.
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The appeals court reasoned that choice " ~;
of language is equivalent to speech itself . ,:.
and that the Arizona amendment infringed"
the rights of both residents .who don't'
speak English but need information and .~.'.
the civil servants wpo want to help them:":',;
· In its appeal to the Supreme Court.,; .
Arizonans for Official English attacked the., ,
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, For First Time, U.S. Court to Weigh C~aim
of Rights Abuses inForeign Land
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By TIM GOLDEN
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 1
When the soldiers finished with Jose
Siderman, having tortured him for
most of the first week after the .mlll
tary Seized power InArgentina in the "
spring of 1976, they dumped him m
the night by a firing range on the
outskirts of his hometown.
Mr. Siderman, a prosperous Jew
ish businessman who was then 65
'. 'years old, found a typewrluen note
stuffed into a pocket of hiS bloody
pants. It said lie would be killed if he
did not leave the small, northern
province where he had built his busi
nessesand raised his family.
Even after the Sidermans fled into
exile in California, however, their
nightmare did not end. Their proper
tIes were confiscated by the military
lJ.mta and diVvied up by the Govern·
·ment. The generals charged Mr. Si·
.:&rman with fraud and issued inter
"tional warrants for his arrest.
!While in Italy on vacation in 1981, Mr.
"'§Iderman suddenly found himself
thrown into a dank, crowded jail. and
; then held under house arrest for sev·
en months before Argentina'S re
Quest for. his extradition was denied.
"Do, you know the 'Inferno: of
'-Dante Alighieri?" asked Mr. Sider
. 'man now a frail man of 85 with a
!neat'white mustache and limpid blue
eyes. "That is what I lived.".
. But in their zealous pursUIt of Mr.
;Siderman, the men who ruled Argen
tina made the mistake of carrymg
their claims to the Los Angeles Coun
'ty Superior Court. And 15 years later,
·that legal indiscretIOn, has opened an
important breach in what has long
been a bulwark of immunity for for
eign regimes in American courts.
After an arduouS Jurisdictional
struggle and two trips to the United
States Supreme Court, Argentina is
to go on trial on Tuesday before a
'Federal judge in Los Angeles to an
swer for the treatment of Mr. Sider·
man and his family. The case, in
which the Sidermans are seeking in·
demnity for their losses and dam
ages for their suffering, will be the
first in which a foreign government
has been prosecuted in the United
States for human rights abuses com
mitted on its own soil.
.
"The courts have been struggling
for years to balance demands for
universal justice With ,the lime-hon
ored prerogatives of sovereign Im
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:munity," said Diane F. OrentJicher, a
. :professor of international raw at
'~meric~n University. In Washington.
Up until now, plamtlffs ha~e really
run up agamst the proverbial brlc~
wall. This case shows t!!at the barn
er IS nO!lmpenetrable. . ,
The tnalls the latest I~ a series of
~traordmary human nghts cases
from other countries to be consld
ered by. United States co~rts in re
cent years. But. all prevlou~ c~ses
I,nvolved~ccusallons agamst mdlvl~l1 als o~ cnmes commItted on Amencan s~ll ..." ...
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A retired Paraguayan police ·m·
~pector, a former Gua:emalande
fense minister and a mIlitary ruler of
Haiti, among others, have been found
guilty of torture and other abuses
and ordered to pay large. sumS in
civil damages. But in almost every
case, the courts have been powerless
. to enforce their judgments because.
the defendants either left the country
or declared themselves insolvent.. .
ShOUld the Sidermans wm, legal
experts say, their chances for reo
dress may'be far better. The Arg~ntine Government itself would be Ita·
tile, and there are precedent~ for the
kind of political pressure It w~uld
likely face: After judgments agamst
the Government of Chile and the
~state of former President Ferdi·
nand Marcos of the Philippines in
cases involving the 'murders of politi
cal opponents in the Untted States,
Qoth agreed to pay large settlements
to the families of the victims.
In court documents, the Sider mans
estimate the value of the properties
they owned in Argentina at the time
of the coup at $26.4 million. Yet to the
old man who has made his way so
stubbornly thrm,lgh the maze of legal
obstacles, the day in court Will Itself
be part of his vindication.
"You know what it is"" Mr. Sider·
man said, speaking in Spanish in an
interview near the apartment in San
ta Monica where he and hiS Wife
have lived almost since coming to
the United States. '" always had the
dream that I could make things
right, make them right for my fam
. Ily. 1 Will not have time now. But,!
want the world to know what they did
to an Argentine family."
·Mr. Siderman apologized for not
inviting a reporter to his home for
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the conversation; it would I:!e too
hard on his wife, Lea, he said. He
later agr~ed to have h:iS photd~raph
taken at the apartm~nt, buti Mrs.
Siderman remained behind closed
doors in another room!,
"I cannot speak of ~ese things in
front of her," Mr.' Sil1erman\ said,
telling of a day he returned to the
apartment to find his wife uncon
scious on the floor from an ov~rdose
of sedatives. "She told\ me to forget
thO th t I was too old. But I fought."
~or: than a decadeiafter ~e reo
turn of civilian rule in ~uenos ft-ires,
the Argentine Government has not
disputed that Mr. Sider:man w¥ tor
tured, driven from hi,s hom~ and
dispossessed. It has ch~llenged ,some
of his financial claims, assertmg that
his businesses were properly sold orr
to pay debts.
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More important, th\>Ugh, It, has
fought the case by foc,using o~ the
law that has long shielded foreIgn
governments in the Uni,ted Stat,es..
It has argued in brief~ that Amencan judges had overstepped Ithelr
jurisdiction in ruling thlat Argefl tma
had waived. its protection under the
Foreign Sovereign lmrpunitiesl Act,
in part, when it chased ¥r. Slderman
into the courts in Los Angeles. I
"Argentina did not implicitlYI con
sent to the competence 'of this court
to hear Jose Siderman's torture
claim," the Governmen~'s laWY,er in
the case, Bruno A. Ristau wrot~.
For months, the Argentine IGov
ernment rejected pleas to settl~. the
matter out of court. But on FJ;lday
night, the Solicitor Geperal o~ t~e
Treasury. Rodolfo A. Dlaz, the ~hlef
legal adviser to Mr. M~nem, sent a
statement to a reporter saying the
President had just authqrized hi,m to
"explore with lawyers of the SIder
mans, the possibility ofl reaching an
amicable settlement." I
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. A lawyer for the Sidermans~ Mi
chael L Bayzler. said o,-;er the "Yeek
end that he had received no such
offer and that IiIe int~rpretedl the
statement as an attempt to postpone
the trial, .
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"We are going ahead," Mr.
Bayzler said. "We will s~ow up in the
judge's courtroom on Tuesday "'1 0rn
ing."
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�Mr. Fischer concedes only that he
did not tell his bosses everything he
told the F.B.I., which was especially
interested in his former wife. by then
romanticaJly attached to a former
chief of Hungarian intelligence, his
suit says.
The C, I.A:s unhappiness came to- a
head on April 25, 1994. The agency
placed Mr. Fischer on administra
tive leave. susPended his security
clearances and ('rdered him to un
dergo - and pay for - seven medi
cal and psychological tests.
He remained suspended through
out 1994. and had to check in daily
with a C.I.A. liaison officer to report
his whereabouts. He contends that
the officer told him that the agency's
chief of covert operation~. Ted Price,
was especiaJly angry with him for
taJlting to the F.B.I. Mr. Price, in the
meantime, was offiCially reprimand
ed for his failures In the Ames case.
Finally. a compromise was
reached last year. Mr. Fischer could
return to work. but he could not
return to covert operations, nor work
at headquarters, nor have access to .
classified information, nor write·
about the Ames case. Instead, he has
a dry-as-dust assignment anaJyzing
old cases from the cold war.
Things have changed at the C.I.A.
A new Director of Cent raj Intelli
gence, John M. Deutch. dismissed
most of the old barons, including Mr.
Price. and vowed to change the way
the agency treated its people.
Mr. Fischer may have a chance to
discuss the matter with senior agen
cy officials in October. when he is to
receive a prize for a paper about cold
war tensions between the United
States and the Soviet Union, written
from his internal exile.
J
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�For Mr. Siderman, that would be
the beginning of the end of a journey
he began in 1941, when he-traveled to
Tucuman, Argentina's smallest and
poorest 'province, in search of inex
pensive wood for the flooring busi
ness thilt his father, a Ukrainian
immigrant, founded at the tum of the
century.
'
The family purchased 127,000
acres of undevelope-d land, and Mr.
Siderman moved to the provincial
capital of San Miguel de Tucuman.
He built a real estate and construc
tion business that was as visible as it
was successful, and felt he had
earned his place in the province. His
son, Carlos, 45, recalled se-eing the
family's position differently.
"Once I was sitting in a cafe, and
he was walking down the stre-et out
side and some'men sitting there said,
'Look at Siderman, that Jew;he'sgot
so much money.'My father ,didn't
hear that kind of thing, He was about
work."
Early in December, 1974, Mr. SI
derman's wealth drew attention
from a quarter he had never expect
ed. He was kidnappe-d by one of the
leftist guerrilla groups that had be
gun to plunge the Government of
Juan Domingo Per6n into turmoil.
He was released after 23 days when
The Argentine
junta's pursuit of a
victim has let him
seek redress.
lit! cigarettes and the screams of American courts, a Federal judge
other victims. Three of his ribs were awarded the Sidermans, who h'ad
broken and one of his testicles was be-en living mostly on savings, $2.7
crushed.
millIon in damages~ That judgment
The dictatorship's first adminis was vacated at the urging of tpe
U'ator in Tucuman, Gen. Antonio D0 State Department; however, whi,ch
mingo Bussi, became especially argued that the new civilian govern
well-known for his administrative ef ment should be allowed to make
I
ficiency, his brutality and his anti amends.
Semitism. The national commission
Mr. Siderman returned alone Ito
that investigated the military's Argentina to file his case. He arrived
abuses after the return of civilian in Tucuman as General Bussl was
rule said General Bussi had virtually beginning to make his way back into
wipe-d out ,the province,'s civilian government, this time by ele-ction.·
leadership, "disappearing" at least Mr. Siderman was unable to sup
387 people. His se-curity forces, the press the urge to confront· his tor·
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commission said, resembled nothing mentor.
so much as those of the Nazis.
"I was terribly afraid," he re
Within days of the Sidermans' called. "I just listened to what he
flight from Argentina to the United said: 'Oh, yes, Siderman. Your caSe
I
States, whe re one of their two daugh . is.in the courts.' ..
ters lived, the generals' regime is
"I die! not think to demand what
sued a warrant for Mr. Siderman's was mine," Mr. Siderman said sadly,
arrest, charging that he had fraudu "to tell him he had ruined my life.) I
lently obtained the Pl!Ssport he had listened, and I thanked him for see
,
.
be-en holding for 14 years. An Argen ing me."
tine judge placed the Sidermans'
. Thre-e years later, the Argentine
company in re-ceivership.
Government returned Mr. Sidei'·
After his arrest and release in man's company; most of its assets
Italy in 1981, he returned home to were either gone or under lien. In
find a new lawsuit filed by the Tucu 1989, the claims that Mr. Siderman
man government and forwarded to brought in the Argentine courts we~e
him through the Los Angeles County dismissed on the ground that the
courts. This time he was accused of statute of limitat.ions had expired.
fraudulently changing the de-ed to his
Last year, with the Tucuman econ
family's land Crom 127 acres to omy in a shambles, Antonio Domingo
127,000.
'
Bussi, a law-and-order candidate,
Ail of the charges were dropped was elected governor.
I
"The things that happened there
after the military gave up power in
disgrace in 1983. But by then, Mr. have no name," said Mr. Sidermari,
Siderman's cause had been joined by who took American' citizenship iit
Mr. Bayzler and lawyers for the 1984. "But somehow, people forget.'!'
American Civil Liberties Union of
Mr. Siderrilan shook his head 510v.;
Southern California.
Jy for a moment as he tried to fathom
In 1984, with Argentina refusing to it. But then he se-emed to remember.
even answer the family's claims in
, Yes, his case is in the courts.
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his family paid $1 million ransom.
Mr. Siderman had barely recov
ered when Mr. Per6n's calamitous
widow, Maria Estela, known as Isa-,
bel,was overthrown by the armed
forces on March 24, 1976. That night,
the Sidermans were awakened by
the hammering of a dozen soldiers at
their door.
.. Jew son oC a whore!" Mr. Sider
man remembers them screaming,
"Open the door!"
Mrs. Siderman escaped by break
ing a window and crawling over the
broken glass, Mr, Siderman was tak
en to a police command post. There.
he was tortured with electric shocks,
ltb
�milt Ntw iJork milnts
B!oader: Charges for an Investment
-. 'Adv;s;;;"Accused ofFraud
• , " By JOSEPH P. FRIED
, Federal prosecutors expanded
~fr 'charges yesterday against an
investment adviser from Brooklyn
Heights who they say financed a lav
Ish way of Ufe with millions of dollars
swindled mostly from relatives and
frrends.
At the same time, the ,lawyer for
the 'defendant, DenniS L. Helliwell,
told a judge in Federal District Court
, in:Srooklyn that talks had begun to
t~' to reach a plea agreement in the
case,' In which Mr. Helllwell Is
charged with bilking his victims
Including his wife's parents and
grandmother and his best friend
out of more than $4 million in a
scheme Involving a fake investment.
In the months after Mr. HeJ\lwell's
arrest last February, the lawyer,
Jeffrey C. Hoffman, said that his
client denied the charges.
Because of the new Indictment
yesterday, Judge Eugene H. Nicker
son revoked the $250,000 bond on
which Mr. Helliwell had been free,
The 38-year-old defendant, who ap
peared shaken, was jailed.
~~These are very serious charges,
shocking charges," the judge said.
Later, in a written order, he said,
"'{be bail as it now stands does not
reasonably assure the appearance of
the defendant at future court pro
ceedings,"
~secut~r., Mark P" Ressler.
as an investment services officer. He
told them that the investment "was
risk·free and returned upwards of 20
percent interest" a year, Mr. Ressler
told the judge.
But there was no such accOunt, the
prosecutor said, and instead Mr.
Helliwell "spent huge sums of the
stolen money on a lavish life style"
that included renting a brownstone In
Brooklyn Heights. buying mink coats
and Chanel dresses for his wife.
Georgia, and paying for lavish par·
ties at fashionable places like Morti·
mer's restaurant a'1d the Lotos Club
in Manhattan, Officials at Marine
Midland have said that the bank had
been unaware of Mr. Helliwell's al
leged fraud.
had said that if Mr. Helliwell is con
victed on the expanded indictment,
which charges 46 counts of fraud and
money laundering, he is likely to face
more than seven years in prison, or
more than twice as much as he would
have faced under the earlier threecount fraud Indictment.
Mr. Helliwell is charged with false
ly telling those who gave him the
money that he would invest It on
their behalf in a special account he
had access to at the Marine Midland
J3ank, where he worked in the 1980's
" Mr. Ressler also told the judge
that Mrs. Helliwell has "been ad
vised that she is a target of the
investigation facing the ,same
charges."
Mr. Hoffman has said that Mrs.
Helliwell committed no crimes.
111
DATE:
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E?<I;:.GUT-IVEOFfICE OF:THE, PRESIDE,~T
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
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Mon'day ,
10, ,19'96;
June'
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:to give, small ,and small~disadvantaged' businesses ,more opportul1iti,es
"to ,compete, for \ Federal contracts I" particularlyprofess,ional, and' "
,technical ,services.
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J,compete',' in, tech~ic'al and' engineerin9,' services," Inf()rmation
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technology, sqf'twaredeNelopmen1:i :research and deve1c;>pment', ' r '
advisory,
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and: ass~stance servl.ces" a'nd, other, Servl.ce areas.. ' But t , to: r,ed,uce
lead, times and: !avoid delaysit,he Federal'Go:vernm,ent,'ofte.n ~:),uysl' /,
servi.cesunder, large '~task order' contracts", rather, than, individual ,
conti-ac:ts -~ limitihgparticipationby s;;in~ll ~nd, 'small~disadva~taged '
b(u~inesses.
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, ','The Admi'i-t'istratidn" i>lansto launch 'a pilot program to cut l the,
legal ,waiting "period be~we7n ~crlicii:ing' and: a~arding serv~ce:, t
' ~ontracts of up to $1 ml.lll.on that 'are, se~ aSl.de, for. smal~',
/ businesses. 'This, effort will makethes,e ..contracts more ,viable I,:thtts \
: 'reducing the heed ',t'or la:t;'ge·taskord~r contracts: , Participating' ""
"agencies, will',be ,able to,publish procu:r;emerit opportun~tl.es:on the,"
'".Internet and use shorter deadlines for, receiving offers. ,The I"
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, Administration,' also will creat.e "a •hartdbook for agencies' and small
bl.lsf~esses'on, the '. lat~s~streaIl1lining,techniqu,es. f9 r . mid-sized I'
" serVl:ce contracts;, s~ch' astpe use, of oral presentat~ons ,,,electron~c
,commerce;' a!ld simplif iedeval:uati.ontechrii'ques ;'rlle pilot, program,
, will'< hotaff~9tservices,boug,ht u l1 der, tlle" 8 (i3.)'PrO'gram.,-; "
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'.ag,encies ,:to, structure 'task-order coritracts~as multiple award ,I"
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businesses, the opportuJ:}ity 1;0 comp~te ~ for work : ori 'individual ',task
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�LEGAL TlMESe WEEK OF'NOYEMBER'1'4; 1994'
I
Shifting RightoR' Rights Policy
I
Lib~rals, Citing Bush Era, Hope lor Conciliation.
tion' rights;, welfare and immigration. re
forms some see as intrusive and.puilitive,
and aggressi"e oversight of the adminis
Over the lasr two years; liberal 'civil
tration:s Civilcrighis policies,
rights ,and civil-liberties,activists have
"Tlie':Republican sweep suggests that
been somewhat disappointed in their abil
ity to influence the Clinton administration·, the party willtake an aggressive post~re/'
says Wade Henderson, director of;the
and Congress,
Washington office of the NAACP: "This
But'in the wake of last week's Re
will likely be a watershed election. "
publican congressi~i,lal sweep, the first
.Moreo~er, not only are Demilcratsnow
in the minority in both houses, but also a
number of key lawmakers on these issues
will be gone altogether. Among them;
Rep. Don Edwards, of California, who is.,·
,.retiring;i House judiCiary Committee:,'
Chairman Jack 'Brooks of Texas and 'Dan' '
Glickman of Kansas, defeated in the gen
eral electi~n; and Rep. Mike SynarofOk
lahoma, who lost in a primary election:
While the Republicans have,been stress~
ing their fiscal and economic agen "
da-including tax cuts; a line-item veto, '
and a balanced-budget amendment-some
liberal ad~ocates fear that the conservative
social anil legal agenda lurks just below
the surface.
"While ,the social issues that top. the,
right's a'genda have not yet become.
[prospecti.ve House Speaker Newt] Ging" ,
rich's political priorities," the constitu-,
tional-rights group, People for. the Ameri
can, Way ,states in apost-~Iection. (J!)sition
paper, "~e has"signaled, that, he ,is';now;
prepared to push the religious right's agen:
da on sch901 prayer and welfare reform, to
_..name.a few,examples." ' . -,
.•
Consen-atives, meanwhile: emboldened
, by the G9P's smashing victory, say that
they see a chance for Republicans to take
the offensive in advancing their own brand
ofcivil rights.
"We h;lVe to refocus our efforts," says
Clint Bolick, vice president of the Institute
for Justice, Ii conservative-libertarian ad
half of Clinton's term may look like the
vocacy group, "We've been looking to
good old days.
Congress ionly to prevent horrible things.
The conservatives who will lead the
Now there's an opportunity to advance an
l04th Congress in January are committed
agenda."
to push for a constitutional amendment to
permit prayer in public schools, elimina
Bolick says he,is looking to his con
tion of minority set-asides and other,af
servative' allies in Congress to push a
comrlrp.lhp.'lSj,VP' law to prohibit racial
firmative-action remedies, curbs on abor
On ithe Senate side, everyone's
on Sen, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah),
become chairman of the Judiciary
mittee, and to a;lesser extent on Sen,
Brown (R-Colo.), now the
.
publican on the Constitution
committee of thill panel.
HatCh, though
worked closely Iwith Del:l1()(;ratic
like Edward Kennedy of MassalCfiUSe(llS
and Joseph.Bidl:n Jr. ·of Delaware.
als.and moderates have dealt with him
find him amenable to compromise.
Fuhhermore, it is generally
that Hatch!s Rriorities will be j
nominatiOlis "and crime rather than
ening civil-rights protections.
"The Senate: is used to going
forth"" says'Elliot Mincberg, legal
tor of People ifo'rthe American
"Wh\lt Q~ a}~j~rity, today canibe
nonty ,tpmorrow, so I don't
fights,"
In .the House, speculation
Rep, i Henry' H'yde (R-III.) as
chairman of the judiciary panel,
officials caution that C01TIIl11iwle
meni&;-and ev~n decisions on
committees wili exist-won't be in
BY JONATHAN GRONER
."
..,
CHARLES BRAGG . .. Art Show
1111
Hmld c%re«/ eU'ltillg "Out of Court Selllemell1" 1 - &liliol! of }()()
Itt)
ARf
GEORGETOWN
3301 M Street, NW
WashinglOn. DC 2(}()()7
(202) 9654630
Now Ihru Nov. 27
P&C Art 'is proud to present one of Ihe mosl comprehensive .
coileClions oforiginal works by CHARLES BRAGG.
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS, GR1PHlCS AND SCULPTURES
UtTEST BOOK PUBUCA nON "ASYLUM EARTH"
BY BRAGG (Will be (lvai/llble)
I I
Wade ,'Henderson: Election' could
be a "watershed" (or civil 'rights.
preferences 'in fed~ral programs. Bolick
would replace preferences with 'a "pro
gram of empowerment" for ,minorities,
including efforts to expand, school' choice
and promote home ownership in low
income housing.
Of course, it's a long distance from
proposing an agenda and putting it into
effect: It remains to be seen how aggres
sively Republican leaders will advocate
issues sure to be divisive and con
troversial-and how much support they
will muster.
"The key issue is whether the Re
publican Party will continue the,bipartisan
tradition on civil rights or whe'ther. it,will
try eto play partisan politics," says David
Saperstein, the general counserof the lib
eral Synagogue Council of America.
"'Don't forget that al the height of the
Reagan-Bush era we had a major coalition
that passed the Americans with Dis
abilities Act, the Civil Rights Act of· 1991 ,
and many other bills," Saperstein adds.
On issues like civil rights, which are not
featured in the Republicans'Contract
With America" much depends on the in
clinations of the key committee and sub
committee chairmen, who can. send legis
lation forward 10 the floor or bottle it up,
And many liberals, perhaps in a bid to
put their predicament in the best possible
. light, say they are hopeful that legislators
in key positions, especially in the Senate,
will be relatively conciliatory.
Says Joseph.Sellers; director of the
eqmil employment opportunity project of
the WaShington Lawyers Committee on
Civil Rights and Urban' Affairs: ''I'd be
very surprised if the Republican leadership
sees this [victory I as a reason to retreat on
civil rights."
Laura Murphy Lee, director of the
Wa~hington office of the American Civil
Liberties Union, says the ACLU expects
significant ideological change in the
House, but not as much in the Senate.
---"~
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:PHOTbcOpy
i
PRESERVATION
�•LEGAL TIMES • WEEK OF NOVEMBER' 14,;1994
,I
quirements on welfare recipients, abolish
ing some of the crime-prevention pro
volve employment discrimination are
grams of the crime bill passed this year,
overseen by the labor committees of both
and toughening immigration enforcement.
houses. Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum
They may very well succeed, Hen
(R-Kan.) is slated to chair the Senate La
derson says, unless the Democrats "move
bor and Human Resources Committee,
aggressively to redefine the debate."
while Rep. Bill Goodling (R·Pa.) is rank
From the other side of the spectrum,
ing Republican on House Education and
Jeffrey Zuckerman, a conservative who
Labor. Both are considered moderates.
was chief of staff at the Equal Employ
ment Opportunity Commission in the
' .Two Fronts
19808, says ihat major changes in the na
Whoever iilin'charge, lilieral activists
tion's basic civil-rights laws are highly
will have to'fight on twofronts;'TlieYJl!iust
unlikely.
continue:to forge,alliances forc'the'"cjyil
"I don't see any affirmative legisla!ive
rights bills they still ,want topass-;among
steps as in the cards," says Zuckerman.
them a bill banning,employment discnm·
now a partner at the D.C. office of New
York's Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Cole &
ination'on the basis ,of sexuahorientation
and a,measure to give religious adhe'rents
Mosie. "After all, Orrin Hatch had six
new rights in the private workplace: ,; ..
years as chair of the Senate Labor Com
A(the.sametime, they must fend'off
mittee. and he didn't push in that direc
such conservative social-agenda measures
tion. He's just not that kind of guy."
as a constitutional amendment permitting
Zuckerman says that the major impact
school prayer or a proposal to stril! ,the
.' of the new Republican majority may be
courts of authority over cases regarding'
,; not 'in legislation ,but in holding oversight
school prayer.
hearings'ti> sprutinize'the policies of Clin
The NAACP's Henderson says that he'!
• '.. ton:scivil-rights enforcers.
expects the Republicans to push hard on ',' Laura Murphy 'Lee: The'House
"You will have nasty oversight hearthree issues: imposing tough work rewill change more than the Senate.
ings for Deval Patrick, particularly on
CML RIGHTS FROM PAGE 10
!
I
Hot hard will
. t~~ I<;tO~ push
idlVI~lve lssuesj
:AndI how mucH
.
support will
theiY muster?
I
1
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votlOg-ng ts Issues, " says Zk erman,
uc
; ·h·"
referring to the Justice Department's as
sistant attorney general for civil rights.
Conservative activist Bolick agrebs that
oversight may be the area where t~e Re
publicans have the most immediate i1mpact
on Ci vii rightsl
"Civil-rights policy is being im
plemented'by1ideological zealots," 1;30lick
'declares. '" hope the Republicans lise the
hearing power to exert a moderatibg in
fluence on Clinton's apPOintees.'.'
0
I
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:,
;
Available Exclusively from The Professional Education Group,
Ttme Honored CI~s~ics<by
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Colorndo,
Florida, Indiana, Missouri, MootlUla, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North
Carolina, North o.tro... Ohlo, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Wosbington and West Virginia.
Bruce Baird
Bruce Bair~, formerly deputy geperal
counsel of the .Defense Department's De
fense: Logistics: Agency, has become Igen_
eral counsel ofjthe agency. Baird oversees
the DLA's legal work and manag~s its
worldwide staff of 260 attorneys.
!
,I
:
Charlie Barber
Ch!rrlie Barber has launched Charlie M,
Barber & Ass6ciates, a D.C. consulting
firm specializing in government contrilcts.
Barber, an attorney, is a business Con
sultant at the n~w firm. Formerly, sheiwas
a federal contracts counsel at Electronic
Dala ~ystems (EDS) in Herndon. Va.
I
+Robert slhmidt and Pedro E. Ponce
I ...
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....
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PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION
I
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,PHOTOCOPY
PRESERVATION:
�EEOC News Clips
for
Nov. 21, 1995
!
,
..
,
~
.
I
.
Compiled by
;
The Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs
I
.',
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'-:.-.
i
�(/ - ( -1
EEOC Vice Chairman Declares First Year a Success
By BARBA RA HIURA
Hokubei Mainichi
Paul Igasaki, the former Asian
. Law"Caucus executive director
who was appointed vice chairman
of the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission by
President Clinton in 1994, was
back in San Francisco for a num
ber of events last month.
One of them was an Oct. 24
press conference in which he in:
troduced the new district direc
tor of the EEOC's San Francisco
office. Susan McJ)uffie, and the
new regional attorney, William
Tamayo. a former colleague of
Igasaki's at ALC.
.
While at the EEOC district
office. Igasaki talked about his , Speaking at an EEOC press conference were (from left) Susa)
.
first year on the job. saying that McDuffie, Paul'Igasaki and William Tamayo.:
he was pleased about what he has
been able to accomplish in terms
"You'l1 see lots of Asian
EEOC and Asian Americans
of reorganizing the agency.
Americans in important positions
Over the past year, he said. "I
Progress for Asian Americans that are professional in nature."
. traveled all over the country. met
he said, "but there is a big leap in
was also on his agenda. This re
with employer groups. civil righ~s
the professional and management
sulted in the appointment of Ta
agencies. community groups and
, mayo, a Filipino American. as the
ranks. It is difficult to prove dis
. staff, and we put together a se-'
first Asian American regional at
crimination because it is based on
ries of recommendations which
, criteria such as'leadership ability
torney in EEOC history. '
·were adopted last spring that over
and communication ability."
Igasaki also noted that a Chi
hauled' the agency's approach.
He explained that such crite
nese American woman was ap- '
This has already resulted in a rna·
pointed at the senior staff level. ria are "SO soft it almost demands
jor reduction in the agency's back
"She..is the first (Asian woman) the application of stereotypes.
log of cases ...
director of a major department in Unfortunately in this society,
"Part of the recommendation
Asians Americans are burdened
the agency's history," he said.
was to develop priorities regard
with stereotypes, and while it
The impact of Igasaki's pres
/ing litigation issues to make our
ence has been seen not only in the gives us high marks for being pro
agency more effective. We devel
appointment of Asian Americans fessional and academically suc
oped new plans for both national
, , to leadership positions but also cessful, it doesn't. give us high
and local enforcement to be more
pursuing ci vil rigbts cases tbat marks for being leaders.
strategic given limited resources."
"Yet we know that it's very
impact Asian Americans in the
Igasaki said he was assigned
. clearly a stereotype. Asian Ameri
handle the reorganization because
workpiace. '
cans are capable ofleadership but
"the chairman wanted to give this
"We've held commission
are' unrecognized by companies,
task to someone who had both the
meetings to get at some of the is
and it hurts America not to put our
understanding of the law and who
sues affecting Asian Americans.
best forward."
also had some understanding of
such as language, national origin
the commun i ty to make the
issues and discrimination due to
agency more effective.",
the glass ceiling," he stated.
He cited the reorganization as
"For example. Asians who are
probably his single most impor
not given promotion opportuni
tant ac~omp1ishment of the year.
~ies because they are not speak
A'ccurding to Igasaki. while
ing clean enough English is dis
EEOC procMses hundreds of
crimination, and we're trying to
cases, most are resolved to the
make sure that our offices know
satisfaction of both employees
that that is a high priority."
and employers without going to
The glass ceiling -- an unof
court. "We appreciate settlement
ficial limit on how high minori
opportunities, but there are in
ties or women can rise in manage
stances where we will go to court
ment - is a more difficult area
'and seek litigation. Those cases
to get at, according to Igasaki,
will have an impact on the behav
because promotions to manage
ior of all employers and illustrate
ment positions are based on sub
tbat it will be costly if they vio
jective criteria.
late the law."
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�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Stephen Warnath - Civil Rights Series
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Domestic Policy Council
Stephen Warnath
Civil Rights Series
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1997
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36406" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/641686" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Description
An account of the resource
Stephen Warnath served as Senior Policy Analyst in the Domestic Policy Council. The Civil Rights Series includes material pertaining to the Civil Rights Working Group and topics such as affirmative action, English only, age discrimination, religious freedom, and voting rights. The records also include confirmation briefing materials for Department of Justice (DOJ) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) nominees. The records include briefing papers, correspondence, schedules, testimony, reports, clippings, articles, legislative referral memoranda, and memos. The majority of the memos are internal between the Domestic Policy Council staff and the staff of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and between the Domestic Policy Council staff and Congress.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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134 folders in 13 boxes
Text
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Paper
Dublin Core
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[Clippings - Civil Rights]
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Domestic Policy Council
Steven Warnath
Civil Rights Series
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 5
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/Warnath-DPC-Civil-Rights.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="http://catalog.archives.gov/id/641686" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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2/8/2012
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641686-clippings-civil-rights-a
641686