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 Emerald The Oagon 0». T.tkn. Muaaar. Tnau Noel. Euan Shew. Enc* SaudWkcka Mw>on Sutor Bandy TNaban lAcrua Thompeon-Agmar. Amy Van Tuyt Todd Wtfkamt. Clayton Yu Oanarat Manage. Judy Had Production Man agar: Mcheie Boat Advartiaing Tom Laacn Sa'ea Manage. Shawn Barvan. Omca Manage. Jana l>d*. Ta.au laUaaa PhJ« Johnaon II. On Kano" Jaramy Muon Van V O'Bryan #. 0*an Oh. Bachaai Tnjt, An^e Wrvlhwm riaaaPtit- Baer. Merchant Managar Barry Logan Sharon Sacra Otatrtbution Brandon Andaraon. Hek Mannnmg. Graham Srmpaor Bualnau: Kathy Careone. Susamaev Ardy ConnoCy Production: injnd Wtvt* Production Cocvt*na*or Knal.no Granger. Du McCoCC Stacy MtchaK Janmtar Boland. Janmlar Smilh Nmroon.. BuMnMa Oftle* tx«pt«y AdvwmtoQ..MS-1711 Ciwintd Advertising .1« «M1 And finally, there was only ona person still working. —ft+l. f+tu l**H f Cfl J i*<* Bi/r nxjwi ms utu om.v HtOuc£ W *v«ajTIV£. — 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