opinion
sally hodgkinson
even editors get the blues
The state prosecutor wandered in during a
break in the Ron Billingslea trial, gravitated to the
small pack of journalists and launched into a
tirade on the criminal justice system that pays his
salary.
Criminals get too many breaks — in the court
room and out, he said.
“People aren’t safe in the streets or in their
homes anymore. The law is supposed to protect
people. When it doesn’t, that's when people take
the law into their own hands.”
Law-abiding citizens are angry at the “soft”
treatment lawbreakers get and scared of the
growing crime rate, he added.
“Where are they safe? In here?” he asked, his
hand sweeping past the empty jury box and the
court reporter staring into space, waiting for the
trial to resume.
"The jury doesn’t hear the truth. They only
hear selected little bits that people tell them.”
He told of the time a jury foreman slammed a
defendant up against the bricks of the courtroom
and told him, “We knew you were guilty, but we
didn’t want to punish you. If we ever catch you
again
"That foreman took an oath!” the prosecutor
said. “He’s as guilty as the defendant.”
The journalists nodded, used to the camar
aderie that develops when covering a beat. The
Register-Guard’s investigative reporter Jerry Uhr
hammer wore his perpetual smile.
“Well that’s our justice system,” Uhrhammer
said. “It’s what we have to work with.”
During a recent speech to the state chapter of
the National Organization of Women, U S. Judge
Helen Frye said criminals are the product of
childhood abuse. They are victims turned vic
timizes. One of the answers is better state
regulation of home life, she said.
If you want to change the crime rate, begin at
home, Frye suggested.
Gov. Vic Atiyeh says the state prison is as comfy
as his son’s dorm room. The citizens of the state
balk at building more prisons to relieve over
crowding, and scream when the parole board
releases a prisoner who commits another crime.
The solution is to punish the criminals, not
coddle them, some say.
And the criminals seethe with bitterness and
anger at the justice meted them.
A convict in the state pen writes, “The people
in here are, for the most part, angry because they
got caught. This prison is the con’s ‘institution of
higher learning.’ They learn to become better at
the criminal activity that got them here.”
The justice of the criminal justice system. Lots
of opinions. Few answers.
yg/s
Details missing
In your article April 14, about two
“revolutionary internationalists,” you
could have mentioned that city police
attempted to enter the Guchans’ home
illegally before returning to haul them off
to jail, and that only the key chain lock
stopped them.
Also, Mr. Guchan himself called us
from the jailhouse to inform us that the
bail has been set at $5,000 apiece, cash.
The immigration and Naturalization Ser
vice would confirm this fact.
You mentioned that Ismet "allegedly
attacked police" during the yellow rib
bon-burning incident, when two of his
friends in the Revolutionary Communist
Youth Brigade were arrested. As most
witnesses could state, he did no such
thing. He was only revealing his feelings
and stating the facts inherent in what
happened.
Thank you.
Nancy Whitley
475 East 15th Street
Write your Rep.
About 200 people took the bus ride to
Salem Monday, to talk to their represen
tatives. I was kind of surprised that out of
the thousands of people here, so few
were able to fit the trip into their
schedules. As long as we got most of the
classes we want and have enough mon
ey for some beer, it's easy to ignore
what's going on on the outside. But just
wait. Unless we start acting we aren’t
going to get those classes, and just now
there aren’t a lot of jobs out there.
Higher education is an important tool
in solving our problems. Oregon was
built on the sweat of its loggers and
millworkers, but now that’s not enough.
We have to broaden our economic base
and that means educating or re-educat
ing people into socially beneficial oc
cupations. If we let the Legislature cut
education too much, they’ll just be wast
ing the money they do appropriate.
If you are concerned about what you’ll
be doing in the next couple years or
about the future of Oregon, you should
write the state representative and sena
tor from your hometown, and write the
members of the revenue and appropria
tions committees. Don't put off till tom
morrow what you better do today. Those
people need our input.
Marlin Lenk
Senior, history
‘Walk a mile...’
This letter is written in response to an
opinion printed in the Register-Guard on
April 8, by Mr. David Peters, stating how
minorities always file discrimination suits
when they do not achieve a desired goal.
While I recognize Mr. Peter’s First
Amendmment right to freedom of ex
pression, I am sincerely offended by his
inferences, his misreporting of the basis
of Ms. Sweet’s suit, and his error as to the
number of suits brought by minority
students at the U of O Law School.
First of all, Ms. Sweet’s suit was not
instituted because she was academically
suspended, but because a non-minority
male with comparable academic stand
ing was readmitted while she was not.
Secondly, other than Ms. Sweet, no other
minority student has ever brought legal
action against any professor or adminis
trator at the law school.
Mr. Peters, a white male, states that no
discrimination exists at the law school.
Perhaps Mr. Peters should have the op
portunity to step into the shoes of a
minority individual and see if he could
still make that remark. I only wish that Mr.
Peters could know what it feels like to
have to fight for the same opportunities
non-minorities have received as a matter
of due course. Equality, in its limited
form, was not a gift to the minorities but a
hard fought battle.
Mr. Peters’ sweeping generalizations
and inaccuracies simply do not support
his inferences that minorities are litiga
tion-oriented individuals that yell dis
crimination every time they do not
achieve a desired goal.
Brenda Lee Brainard
President
Minority Law
Student Association
Greatest country
A letter in the April 13 Emerald, in
which Cathi Beavers condemns James
Miller for daring to speak out against the
vociferous liberal element which per
vades this campus, bears responding to.
Beavers berates Miller for speaking in
favor of the high standard of living which
we Americans enjoy. She assumes that
Mr Miller has never worked for a living
because he states that Americans are
well off. Well, Cathi Beavers, the last 14
years I've spent working in plywood and
lumber mills: pulling greenchain, push
ing 50-foot logs around a pond, wrestling
%-inch by 10-foot sheets of plywood and
various other enjoyable jobs. Even
before that, while still in high school, I
spent much of my time working in res
taurants, pear orchards and lumber
yards.
As you can see, I come from a working
class background and I still believe that
"we live better than people anywhere in
the world .to use your quotes. One
thing I have found is that the people who
believe in our American free enterprise
system the most are those who have had
to work and save the hardest to get
anything. On the other hand, I’ve noticed
that those who are the quickest to con
demn our captialistic society are those
who have had everything handed to
them, either from their families or from
the Democratic “free lunch" system. In
short, the Dave Isenberg types who don't
know what it's like to have to work for a
living and would rather try and bring our
American system down to their level
rather than work to see that it stays the
greatest country in the world.
Jerry L. Peyton
Senior, finance
I.W.A. Local 2750 member
Quit complaining
Most of us are aware of the financial
problems of this University; we gripe
about it with our friends, bitch about it
over a cup of coffee and mumble and
swear every time we pay tuition and fees.
We wondered why nobody would do
anything to lower the sky-rocketing costs
of higher education.
Well, we got what we wanted, only
now, instead of supporting the people
that are wanting to help us, we are
I
bitching, grumbling, and complaining
not just about the soaring costs, but
about the administration as well.
Can’t we quit complaining and do
something constructive, like think of an
alternative proposal rather than letting
them drastically increase the cost of the
education we want?
Congress will listen to our sugges
tions; it is the complaints they are tired of.
Quit complaining and think of some
thing!
Jami Lee Larsen
Junior, journalism/telecommunications
letters policy
The Emerald will accept and
try to print all letters containing
fair comment on ideas and
topics of interest to the Univer
sity community. Letters must be
typewritten and no longer than
250 words.
Letters must be signed, the
author's field of study or faculty
status noted and must include
address and phone number
for verification.
Friday, April 17, 1981