EDITORIAL
Acquittal of shooter
disgraces everyone
The Sunday acquittal of Rodney Peaira, the home
owner who (hot and killed a IB-year-old Japanese stu
dent outside of his home in Louisiana, is a disgrace to
the trial jury, the state of Louisiana and the U.S. justice
systom.
Voshihiro Hattori was an exchange student in Baton
Rouge. La., looking for a Halloween party when he mis
takenly approached the Peairs’ residence. Dressed in a
John Travolta costume, he and his friend knocked on the
front door. Peairs’ wife answered, panicked when she
saw the strangers, slammed the door and told her hus
band to get his gun.
Hattori and his friend wandered to the Peairs’ carport,
confused. Peairs stood waiting and told Hattori to
"freeze." The student, who apparently didn't understand
English well, kopt walking. Peairs shot him.
There are several questions that were never adequate
ly answered at tho trial. The defense continually por
trayed Peairs as a man trying to defend his family. As the
defense lawyer said, Hattori violated a "social compact"
by approaching the Peairs’ house. But since when does
knocking on the door of a neighborhood home give a
person the right to shoot without asking questions?
Strangers approach homes every day. They’re called
salesmen. And Peairs should have expected visitors. It
was Halloween night, after all. « fact that clearly didn’t
escape him because he had decorations on his house.
The jury based much of its decision on the "shoot the
burglar” law in Louisiana, which gives citizens the right
to use deadly force to protect themselves from intruders
Louisiana should abolish this law immediately. If dead
ly force is ever used, it should only be in the case of
extreme self-defense, such as when a person is physi
cally threatened with a weapon. Hattori had nothing
more than a Travolta costume and some jewelry.
The fact that the jury actually used the law to acquit
Peairs is even more ludicrous. There is no justification
for shooting an individual who trespasses without mak
ing his intentions known. Peaks’ wife didn't ask Hat
tori what he wanted Even though scared, she could have
easily shouted through the door. She did not.
Many in the jury said they felt sympathetic for Peairs
and that they understood the need to protect ono’s fam
ily. But does that matter? He is guilty of poor judgment
and irrational thought and should face the consequences
of his actions. This may he the most unbelievable suc
cess of the "I-made-a-mistake" defense ever recorded.
The entire episode smacks of racism and ignorance.
Were the victim a white man. Peairs probably would
have boen convicted. For that matter. Peairs' wife prob
ably wouldn't have panicked and told her husband to
retrieve the gun. As one Japanese paper said, the "shoot
the burglar" law is a "manifestation of the discrimina
tion that exists in the community where burglary charges
are made predominantly against blacks."
Hattori. being Japanese, did not look like the typical
Ixmisiana boy-next-door. And in a society that routinely
assumes non-whites are troublemakers solely because of
their skin color. Hattori paid an ugly price.
Oregon Daily
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LETTERS
So don't go
I don't like going into the sci
ence buildings I don't like tak
ing classes thorn. It hurts bad
enough that other departments
have been sacrificed to the soft
architecture, cushy seats and
climate-controlled interiors of
these new machines But I can
deal with that
I tan even cope with pop
eyed pre-meds si rumbling for
that one grade But I can't stand
pompous TAs (you know who
you are) who deal w ith students
as if they have inferior mental
capacity.
That "don’t-you-wish-you
ware-me" attitude is hard to
take, and I have never seen so
much of it in mv life. Tell me. is
arrogance intrinsic to science?
Or are all of you people just
puffed up about how much
money your department can
spend on microscopes, spec
trometers. remodeled chemistry
labs and pork barrels like
Willamette Hall? The rest of this
school is bleeding How about a
little humility? It won't kill you.
Or science
Bret Yager
Pro Journalism
Go figure
[Emrrald Sports Editor) Dave
Charbonnoau is the man.
Josh Bsrg
Undeclared
Paul Fu!wi(ar
Accounting
See Curtis
This letter goes out to all stu
dents at the University. Today is
Blues Without the Booze. Wow.
sounds interesting. This is o day
for all to parly and have a good
time, that is if you can have a
good time without drinking. The
purpose of this day is to show
you that you can.
We. as students, are constant
Iv stereotyped and put down by
the community for being drunk
en misfits Well, we know that
this is not true Hines Without
the Booze will give us an oppor
tunity to show them otherwise.
The Curtis Salgado trio will
be playing. Hopefully the whole
campus will come out in sup
port of this event and for
responsible consumption
Chris Kantrowitz
Pre-Business
Givon not racist
Kt*( ends The Student Insur
gent ran an article* questioning
whether various professors on
campus are racists The article
suggests that students should
ask the professors If the paper
wanted information, a better
option would l>e to ask their stu
dents. We cannot speak for pro
fessors in other departments,
but we can comment on the
Insurgent's inclusion of Tom
Civon in its racist lineup
■ftte idea that Civon is a racist
is ludicrous. Givon is a profes
sor in one of the most ethnically
diverse departments on this
campus, linguistics. Hu has
studied languages all over the
world, living and working with
the native speakers. He has been
the tribal linguist for Ute lan
guage project for some years In
dealing with him as both stu
dents and graduate teaching fel
lows. we have observed no evi
dence of racism in either his
public or private behavior
Givon is a strong-minded
individual. We cannot believe
that he would be unwilling to
enter into any real debate How
ever. the tactic taken by the
Insurgent is not to debate, but to
defame by innuendo. Having
lost a round in promoting their
political views, their option was
to attack their opponents'
motives and characters. Let us
promote true diversity on this
campus, even to the encourage
ment of the expression of the
views of people who do not
agree with ours However, at an
institution of higher education,
the proper subject of debate is
the ideas that are espoused by
people, not the personalities.
Finally, as students, we
would not appreciate people
disturbing our classes to discuss
subjects that are not germane.
Use time outside of class. If you
attempt to rob us of our educa
tion to push your political agen
da. it only hurts your cause.
Bill Staley
Graduate, Linguistics
and 22 Co-Signers
Ditto
At a meeting of the University
Assembly, a new. young faculty
mem her stated publicly that fat
uity would lw* held "politically
at countable" for their votes on
the motion to establish two
course requirements for the Uni
versity's multicultural curricu
lum At the next assembly meet
ing. fat uity who appeared to
oppose the motion were jeered
and ridiculed by an apparent
claque in the rear of the room.
Since then, a special edition
of The Student Insurgent on a
full-page spread listed five fac
ulty members who opposed the
motion or only questioned the
procedure. As a result, by innu
endo they were accused of being
racist and further had listed not
only their office locations and
phone numbers, but also the
times and locations of their
classes
The only conceivable inter
pretation of including this latter
information seems to be an invi
tation to disrupt these classes Is
this how we are to be held
"politically accountable”?
Clearly, this is an outrageous
assault on the University’s fine
tradition of academic freedom. I
urge faculty to attend the next
assembly meeting )une 2 and
help assure that free discussion
of ideas at the University sur
vives
Aaron Novlck
Professor Emeritus
Institute of Molecular Biology