The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 263, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1997 Page: 4 of 38
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Baytown Sun and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Sterling Municipal Library.
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MISTAKE.
m-tak-e
ese peace treaty conference in San Francisco.
In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the
National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering
Central High School in Little Rock.
In 1957, Ford Motor Co. began selling its ill-fated Edsel
line.
In. 1972, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won a record seventh
Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter relay at the Munich
Summer Olympics.
Today’s Birthdays: ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey
is 79. Actor-comedian Howard Morris is 78. Cooking expert
Craig Claiborne is 77. Actress Mitzi Gaynor is 66. Actress
r Jennifer Salt is 53. Actress Judith Ivey is 46. Actor-comedi-
an Damon Wayans is 37. Actress Ione Skye is 26. Hip-hop
singer JeLana LaFleur (Quad City DJ’s) is 24.
— The Associated Press
Today in histoiy
Today is Thursday, Sept. 4, the 247th day of 1997. There
are 118 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 4,1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish
settlers.
On this date: /
In 1888, George Eastman received a patent for his roll-
film camera and registered his trademark: “Kodak.”
In 1894, some 12,000 tailors in New York City went on
strike to protest the existence of sweatshops.
In 1917, the American expeditionary force in France suf-
fered its first fatalities in World War I.
In 1948, Queen Wilhelmina abdicated the Dutch throne for
health reasons.
In 1951, in the first live coast-toicoast television broad-
cast, President Truman addressed the nation from the Japan-
Page 4-A ❖ Thursday, September 4,1997
PAT ON THE BACK
...to Barbers Hill High School graduate Jerry Wallace Huntley. He was
recently awarded the Mr. and Mrs. T.J. Gilbraith Memorial Scholarship by
the Texas Interscholastic League Foundation.
FEEDBACK: To comment on this page, call the Newsroom, (281) 422-8302.
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The Baytown Sun is published Monday through Friday and Sunday at
1301 Memorial Drive in Baytown.
Gaiy Dobbs David Eldridge
Editor and Publisher Managing Editor
Abuse in America is a shame
On Aug. 9, in the bathroom of the 70th
precinct in Brooklyn, a police officer
allegedly jammed the handle of a toilet
plunger into the rectum of a prisoner—
Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant—
rupturing his bladder tearing his colon and
piercing his intestines. The cop,'according
to Louima, said the purpose of the proce-
dure was to teach “niggers to respect
police officers.”
Since Louima had already been brutally
beaten—with a police radio, among other
things—on the way to the station house,
he felt that point had already been suffi-
ciently made. But there was more. The
handle of the plunger was then forcibly
pushed into his mouth, breaking several
teeth. Louima remembers the cop saying,
“This is Giuliani time, not David Dinkins
time.”
David Dinkins, the first black mayor of
New York, was known to be concerned
about excessive force by police. His suc-
cessor, Rudolph Giuliani, believes in
aggressive proactive policing, and indeed
the crime rate has gone down under his
regime.
E.R Shipp, a columnist for the New
York Daily News and a Pulitzer Prize win-
ner for commentary, was not surprised to
hear of the reported comparison between
Dinkins and Giuliani. “I know black peo-
ple,” she wrote, “who have heard such
remarks.” The implication, she adds, is that
“with the defeat of the city’s first black
mayor the cops have been unleashed...
and Giuliani, the crime buster, will back
them all the way.”
Giuliani indignantly denies that his
intensive drive against crime has given
Public information
must remain public
The newspapers of Texas, took an unusual step this summer. For the first
time, we sued the state of Texas and a number of cities, including Galve-
ston. We sought an injunction to prevent enforcement of Section 13 of SB
1069, passed during the 75th session of the Texas Legislature.
That law would severely limit access by the media—and by all Texans — to
' official reports of motor vehicle accidents.
Up to now, those records generally have been open for unrestricted public inspec-
tion. It is a part of every police reporter’s routine to scan the records daily. However,
even in a city as small as Galve-
ston, we don’t attempt to report
every fender bender.
Instead, our reporters look for
stories of broader public signifi-
cance. To name a few examples
that occurred in Galveston County. -—A -—'— ~ ,----
A county law officer wrecks his car after spending the evening drinking in a
topless bar. The county charges the officer later, only after publicity, with driving .
under the influence. ---
Three people die in separate accidents on a dangerous curve on FM 1764.
Because of press coverage, the state and county perform needed work on shoulders
of the road to make it safer and prevent such accidents.
A tnick carrying diesel fuel runs off the road and spills fuel directly into Galve-
ston Bay. The accident demonstrates that traffic accidents are not just a matter of
road safety—they can affect the environment in a number of important ways.
If SB 1069 becomes law, it’s likely readers in Galveston County and the rest of
Texas will not see such stories in the future.
State Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, introduced the original bill (HB 399).
He said it will prevent unwanted commercial contact with accident victims by chi-
ropractors, plaintiff’s lawyers, and many similarly “bad” people.
It is significant to note the bill also had the support of the politically powerful
Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which typically represents the defense side in
lawsuits.
They are the other side of the legal coin from plaintiffs’ attorneys who often rep-
resent victims in lawsuits stemming from auto accidents.
Indeed, at a hearing in Austin last week, attorney Richard Hile, past president of
the trial lawyers group, was right there at the defendant’s table at the right hand of
attorneys representing the office Texas Attorney General Dan Morales. Though not
an employee of the Morales’ office, Hile played a key policy-making role, suggest-
ing the 60-day temporary injunction the parties agreed to that day.
That gave newspapers what we wanted, at least temporarily, and it gave the state
more time to prepare its case (or, one hopes, to decide to abandon it),
Yes, it’s true. Richly financed lobbyists do influence public policy in Texas, often
at the expense of all die rest of us. Make no mistake about it—that is what is hap-
pening in the case of SB 1069. .
Many editors, including me, disagree with arbitrary restrictions on free speech,
even commercial speech Ity chiropractors and plaintiff’s lawyers. However, if the
state must impose such restrictions, there are ways to do it without trampling key
provisions of the Texas and United States constitutions. ■ - .
For example, the same Legislature that passed SB 1069 also strengthened the
state’s barratry statutes that restrict such commercial contact with accident victims.
The mystery here is why Atty. Gen. Morales is willing to put the force of his
office, and his good name, behind such a measure.
More than 500 newspapers across Texas are lined up to oppose the new law.
Newspapers generally don’t contribute to political campaigns, as trial lawyers do,
but we play a role in shaping what Texans think about government and those who
govern. We do that by working hard to tell the truth.
The truth is SB 1069 is very bad law. The truth is those who support it are more
interested in their own financial interests than in the rights of accident victims.
Dolph Tillotson is editor and publisher of The Galveston County Daily News. He
also serves as co-chairman of the legislative advisory committeefor members of
the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association.
Dolph Tillotson
Thought for today
“I am one of the people who love the why of things.”
— Catherine the Great, Russian czarina (1729-1796).
■ 'C .. ' ' - ■ ■■ - ' . ■ - ■ . ' ■ ‘ -- ■- .
HENTOFF
police the idea that they have special privi-
leges in administering force. But Zachary
Carter, United States Attorney for the East-
ern District, has reacted with interest to the
charge that the cop sodomizing Louima
had said confidently, “This is Giuliani
time.”
Carter, who has begun an investigation
as to whether police brutality extends well
beyond the 70th precinct said that the
alleged comment by the cop” is a concern
that is worthy of investigation.” The United
States Attorney is also intrigued by the
apparent expectation of the alleged perpe-
trator and some of his colleagues that “they
could get away with if’ while their supervi-
sors looked the other way.
The police commissioner, Howard Safir,
claims that what happened at the 70th
precinct is an isolated incident. He also
says that the sodomizing of Mr. Louima
“was not a case of police brutality. It was a
criminal act.” There’s a difference?
In exploring the culture of police brutali-
ty in New York, Zachary Carter might look
into the mayor’s repeated declaration that
when there are brutality complaints against
the police—even terminal excessive force
—he gives the initial benefit of the doubt
to the cop. AlTof us, theoretically, have the
presumption of innocence. But to assure
officially armed men and women that' they
have an added assumption of guiltlessness
is dangerous, especially to civilians in cer-
tain neighborhoods. (Eighty percent of
New York complaints against the police
are filed by non-whites.)'
Still, what happened to Abner Louima
would not have so startled Giuliani and the
police commissioner if they had paid atten-
tion a year ago to a 72-page Amnesty
International report on police brutality in
New York It detailed police assaults on
suspects death in custody and unjustified
shootings by officers.
At the time, Giuliani and his police com-
missioner scoffed at the report. Safir is
now taking another look at it.
Giuliani has formed a feel-good task
force that will get every single police offi-
cer in the city to interact with community
members and critics of the department so
that they can, says the mayor, “try to
understand each other.”
But Amnesty Internationals insists that
an invincibly independent board of inquiry
is needed to look into police excesses —
and that board should lead to a “permanent
independent oversight body,” with the
power to conduct its own investigations.
The mayor’s “sensitivity training”
approach is his strategy to prevent the exis-
tence of a strong, independent accountabil-
ity board beyond his control. And so,
despite what happened to Abner Louima in
the 70th precinct, nothing much will
change. ' -
Hentoff is syndicated nationally by the
Newspaper Enterprise Association.
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 263, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 4, 1997, newspaper, September 4, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176493/m1/4/?q=wichita+falls: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.