Letters to the Editors

Blacks have cause to be wary of police

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 7, 2000

Just as I was beginning to feel that columnist Bill Maxwell had regained his inborn knowledge of the black experience, he loosed a tirade of criticism against African-Americans. In his strong admonition to the black community on April 30 (Blacks could make streets safer simply by helping police), he is severely critical of its reluctance to "step forward" and cooperate with law enforcement. In his article, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Jesse Jackson are named as examples of prominent black men who should "get our communities under control."

With the same hand Maxwell uses to point out the supposed failure of influential black leaders to control black-on-black crime, he clearly writes: "From the beginning of modern law enforcement in the United States, many blacks -- who saw law enforcement as one of their oppressors -- generally have refused to cooperate with the police... " Surely, Maxwell has been black long enough to know that what he calls a "black wall of silence" is nothing more or less than the natural reaction from a people who are still being abused by an unjust justice system.

Maxwell knows, and knows well, that black leaders, along with ordinary black citizens, are systematically stopped, searched, detained and humiliated on the streets and highways throughout the United States without any "probable cause" except the whim of a police officer. It's called DWB (driving while black). How reasonable -- or unreasonable -- does it seem that law enforcement would expect cooperation from victims of a perceived hostile agency?

Wise African-American parents teach their offspring, from childhood, to be leery of police. Despite my own father's caution, at age 15, I was confronted by a police officer and falsely accused of a misdemeanor. When I denied the accusation, I was knocked to the ground by a blow from my accuser. Over the decades, very little change has taken place in the relationship between black America and law enforcement.

A recent study by the Community Relations Service, a U.S. Justice Department agency, reported an increase in cases of community disruption due to minority groups' justifiable belief that police have used deadly force or a severe degree of non-lethal force when it was unwarranted. CRS has given assurance that it is attempting to focus increased attention on the issue and will develop materials that will be useful to police and citizens looking for constructive alternatives to continued hostility and suspicion.

In the meantime, Bill Maxwell, law-abiding black citizens face the dilemma of protecting themselves from police abuse and criminal exploitation.
-- Perkins T. Shelton, St. Petersburg

We need civility, too

Re: Universities tout diversity, then muzzle free speech, by Robyn Blumner, April 30.

I agree totally with the disciplinary action taken by the University of California against the student whose graduate studies thesis referred to his teachers as fascists, degenerates and an utter sham, among other things.

Blumner's columns tell us, with numbing regularity, that the Constitution protects speech, however offensive, vile, anti-social or immoral. But does it also protect lying speech? Does this student, who considers himself a scientist, have the right to print lies as well as insults? Remember that Hitler used the right of free speech to inflame people's murderous passions, then withdrew it after he had enslaved them.

Let us temper freedom with civility -- and truth.
-- Joseph H. Francis, St. Petersburg

Anger is wasteful

Re: Universities tout diversity, then muzzle free speech, by Robyn E. Blumner.

In the wisdom of my years (93 of 'em), I have learned not to bang doors. They never open again, as Christopher Brown will find out. And perhaps he will regret banging the door on his thesis committee at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as related in Blumner's column.

Anger and frustration are not worth the time and energy expended. Life is more worthwhile and fun if I dump anger and go on to more worthwhile projects.
-- Maurine Miller Welch, Clearwater

From bad to worse

Whatever else it may or may not have done, this year's Republican-controlled Legislature certainly has one major accomplishment: No longer can last year's session be referred to as the worst in history.
-- Sydney K. Potter, Tampa

No call to celebrate

The media have made much of the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. There is fanfare and hoopla as we pay homage to our Communist conquerors. We ought to have had the opportunity to rejoice at the fall of Hanoi. But the disgrace of knuckling under to the Communist butchers doesn't call for celebration, rather, it calls for sorrow, shame and black armbands.

Let's go back to 1938 when I was attending college. I recall studying Nazism, fascism and communism. My history professor warned us that all three were oppressive regimes in which freedom was non-existent. Now move up to 1945. The Nazis were defeated. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower held back the American troops, permitting the Russians to subjugate and occupy East Germany and East Berlin. We, together with our French and British allies, were in a position to dictate peace terms. Since we failed to take the initiative, we were faced by the brutal oppression of the Communists in East Germany, leading to the torturous Berlin Wall -- also savagery in Hungary, the occupation of Cuba and many other abuses.

When Madame Chiang Kai-shek begged for help against the Chinese Communists, we turned a deaf ear. As a result, the legitimate Chinese Nationalist government fell and was forced to flee to Taiwan. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, conqueror of the repressive Japanese empire, was thwarted by President Harry Truman in his plan to destroy the North Korean Communists and take on the Chinese Communists. Fifty years after the North Korean invasion of South Korea, our troops are still keeping watch.

Failure to dislodge the Communists from Cuba, failure to occupy the whole of Iraq and failure to capture Saddam Hussein -- these are blots on our national pride and honor. The last conclusion of a war we can truly celebrate with pride and honor was World War II, when we were genuine conquerors.
-- L.L. Hermann, Palm Harbor

Don't pity Kent students

I cannot believe I am writing yet another letter to the editor in response to yet another reporter's sob story of the shootings at Kent State University. Why, 30 years after the shootings, are these students who nationally shamed a campus, destroyed public and private property and terrorized for days the citizens of both the university and city of Kent still being immortalized?

I ask David Halberstam (At war with ourselves, April 30): Were you there? Did you see firsthand the trashed campus, the rocks, bottles and human feces thrown at the National Guardsmen, the burned-out ROTC building, shattered glass and looted stores of quiet, pretty Kent, Ohio? I did; I was there! And it wasn't pretty!

I am offended that Halberstam believes members of the Guard joined to avoid the trip to Vietnam. The Guard is part of the military package of this country and many reservists served time in Vietnam and continue to serve worldwide in military skirmishes.

And don't tell me how these guardsmen were "poorly led, poorly commanded. . . and using live ammunition." Smacking knuckles with a ruler and coddling didn't work. Gen. Sylvester Del Corso was a fine, honored military leader and did what needed to be done.

Mr. Halberstam, the students got what they asked for, and after 30 years, I still strongly stand in support of that outcome.
-- Maureen K. Carnell, Redington Shores

Ineffective laws

Re: Senators worry about wrong guns, by Thomas Friedman, April 30.

Crazed teenagers do not buy illegal guns like candy bars. They buy illegal drugs like candy bars. Illegal guns are bought like pizzas. An order is phoned in and one is delivered to the door. The government has only been able to control legal drugs and legal guns. And it has overcontrolled these.

Friedman wants "hearings about why our our gun control laws haven't worked." They do not work for the same reason that the war on drugs does not work (except to make criminals into multimillionaires) and that the War on Poverty created more poor people.

His article is basically an anti-Republican slur.

Please do not assume that I am a Republican. I am a Libertarian. If you have an open mind and would like to learn the practical solutions to these problems, visit the Libertarian Web site (www.lp.org) for a real eye-opener.
-- Daniel Vogel, Tampa

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