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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1994)
EDITORIAL Nike makes move into the courtroom After Nike took a significant financial loss this past year, and after Jordan deflated the air in the Air Jordans, it looks like Nike has done a little repositioning from sports courts to the courtroom. Boa vert on-bn sod Nike Inc. pledged 525,000 to de fray any legal cost that may arise if the U.S. Olympic Team dec ides to drop Tonya Harding. Harding, a key figure in the Nancy Ker rigan assault case, was still on the list of athletes that the IJ.S. Olympic Commit tee certified and sent to the l.illoharnmer Olympic (Jrgnnizing Committee ear ly this week However, the I i.S. Committee has made it With Nike acting as a key sponsor for Harding, it could make for quite a spectacu lar courtroom event. The possi bilities are endless. < lour thiit it is allowed to inaku substitutions until I-nli 2 1 With Nike acting as a key sponsor for Harding, it could make lor quite a spectacular courtroom event. i ho pus sihilitios aro ondloss Harding's lawyer nun have to turn in his brief i use for a N’iko duffel bag. A conservativolv striped tie could be conservativolv swooshed instead. And as tor those tassolled loafers, thev could be replai ed w itli a nice pair of air-somethings. As for the courtroom itself, it could he lavishly decorated with Nike banners and pictures of the company's latest apparel. However, Phil knight, c hairman and chief exec utive offic er of Nike Inc.. say s there? was no underlying motive whatsoever for the e ontribution - just the spirit of com petition and the desire for justice to be served. "Nike does not sponsor Tonva 1 larding Wo have noth ing to gain from her appearance in l.illehammer. In our opinion site has no endorsement value to us. now or iti the future " said knight, a former University student. “What I do know is that the- United States Olympic Com mittee may trv to c ircumvent the finest system in the? world and rush to judgment before that system has a chance to work. That would be wrong." Nike does seem to be sincere in its efforts to support a situation that is potentially devastating to Harding Although the U S. Olympic Committee presumes to main tain a higher degree of responsibility than the legal sys tem. it would he a tragedy for Harding to ho pulled from the team it she is found not guilty after the games are over. Harding has earned an Olympic berth, and so be it. It pulled from the team and a lawsuit were to arise, certainly it would not be difficult for Harding to maintain her defense. The* pric o tag of the case, if it ever goes to court, would be high, but so would the rewarded punitive dam ages that Harding would be entitled to if she is found innocent. Harding's legal fees would easily consume a healthy chunk of that, making Nike's S25.000 look like poc ket change. But thanks anyway. Nike. Oregon Daily Emerald po bouim cugcmc 0*100**7403 Tho rVtVtVi OcBi’y ( v.tKi iS ^Pii' £|fK| I uOSdtly &r*d ihfld Sa!» Mrnoay through f •^s.iy j the *emx'* f.ng ine »ummei by th«? Oregon Da , EmtfakJ Or toon t ugan*. Or agon t>» J* ManagmyEditor Editorial Editor Graphic * Editor f reelanca Editor Editor-in-Chief t««* tW**g , A > Sport* Editor i.vj T*v Editorial Editor .Je*f * a-, r, Photo Editor . • »V <• Supplement* Editor Night Editor Het**1* .» M« Associate Editors f J*.» ' h t *’«• ' • ' . *•' (?0/yirtH/fUty S*vf %<etr N'^V t Ji. ■>' -Vx* x'il-'*.’ News Staff M.>- j> ii.* • W a < * .*•• l\»v* ■- *• » ;» <m ’ i’uw Meg Dex ;••' ..... . *.* ■'.* ■■ times y.m Le«g i«vng. Ma'-ws M<*-.vhJ TrtstaNoe i \atoet*< fW v:i«' i He Heevf~» lia gn*r»m# Mcfxaef Stundfcr Scott Simonson. Stepfw*e Stsaon. Susanna Swt*'S«*' M<Nl^e Tr>omp«x> Agmar Kwv*m T»!pp Amy Van Tuyt DiV «* Wes! General Manager Judy Rein Advertising Director: Mark Wane- Production Manager M -me Ross Advsrtlslng: Sutw Dutta. Nicole Her/mark, Teresa isaDeMe. Je« Ma'-on. Jeremy Mason, lyfccnare M efte, van V O'Bryan II RadVMt Trull Kersey Wo»e Angie VS veen Classified Becky Merchant. Manager Victor Mejia. Srm Tre Teck Distribution: Andy Harvey. John long. Graham Simpson Business: Kathy Carbone. Supervisor Judy Connolly Production: Dee McCofcfe Production CoortSnafor Shewna Ahem G'»g Desmond. Tara Gauitney. Brad Joss Stacy Mitchell. Jenmler Roland Natl Thangwirt. Clayton -fee Newsroom .. J4B-3S11 Display Advsrtlslng —.3A6-J712 Business Offlcs.J4B-B512 Classllled Advsrtlslng- )W 43D \9BO‘s COUVOO^'?NJr S*U>'tM*Suijv^0 N\>iV^6 ==; :E==- " rrtjR POOfi£R WjtJTm Ulii! Lagging Indicator «i w jav. ** l t r i vo£> ©mi ~ki fc***u> ur«/i Vl (SOT To rtLL OOl) MCS that STf*UAl6 >S HO lOVCKC TAiHhjAJABit OPINION Hidden truth: crime is down M\RI( V Mu \M> If you watch the evening news these <iavs, you’d think there's a war going on right outside of your living room l.ook out of your window and vou'd exjiei t to see gang memliers shooting at each other as they drive by. drug dealers selling their deadly dos es to young kids on the street corner, and prostitutes offering their services under the dim light of street lamps Hut Patterson Street doesn’t look like that And the rest of laigeue looks fairly |*-acefui. too VVh\ even Portland, despite .ill the news stories about violent i runes and social unrest, seems to he .1 reasonably quiet place Hut the television reports tell us there’s a crime wave out there, and politicians are push ing stru ter punishments for the criminals, most n-< ently through the federal "three-strikes and you re-out" hill So where’s all the crime' As Westerners, we re tempted to sa\ in the Hast As Oregoni ans, we’d like to say ill (Califor nia Hut the truth is There is no i rime wave As a matter of fai t. the i rime rate in the U.S has i (insistently gone down sun e the early 1 OHO.s !( you don’t believe this, it ma\ be because the media has told \ou otherwise over and over again I he crime wave in the United States has become one of those established truths that nobody dares to challenge Vet, the statistic s tell us that fewer crimes are committed today than in a decade. Consid er this: The homicide rate reached its peak in 1980 Hast year The New York. Times reported that fewer people had lieen killed in the United States than the year Indore. And this may surprise you: The likelihood that your home will be burglarized today is only half of what it w as 20 yours ago. la 1991, the f S Bureau of Juste <• .Nlatisti< s c.minted t4 t million i rimes, compared to 412 million 10 years earlier. That figure is the third lowest in the Inst two dec ados So \\h\ is the until of the i rime wave continuous!) lining perpetuated? Like so much else in life, it conies down to two things mono) and power. for the television networks and tlnur affiii.iti*, crime pays Ratings experts have found out that more viewers are likely to watch a storv about a violent crime than a storv about a bud getary crisis or problems in the GATT negotiations f lashing polo e lights, chalk outlines and people being i ar ried out on streti hers are more visually exciting than talking beads Nobody wants to watch a group of experts dis< uss serious and complicated problems that have no apparent solutions Nobody, that is except the sig iiilu ant part ol the population that • to the bafflement ol the network executives - stays up until midnight to watch Ted koppel's \’ightliiw Furthermore, i rime stories are easy to tell Fhev re usually sim ple. with .1 clear conflict between a violator and a victim Compared to the Metiendez murders and the Hobbit! case, the Whitewater story, although nun h more signifii ant. is so complicated and entangled that none ol the networks gives it the attention it deserves file sound bites would he too long, and the storv wouldn't tit into the stan dard two-minute format that most network newscasts have adopted. That's why CBS is cashing in on "infotumment programs such as /fescue ‘ill 1 hat’s why Fox's \mrnta s Must Wanltid is one of the network’s highest-rat ed shows And that's why NBC is running a series called "America the Violent" on its evening newscast these davs. But there's another group of people who stands to gain from playing on people's fear of crime and violence. In fact, they're so eager to talk about crime that they often forget about other, equally important issues. They are, of course, the politicians. There is no crime wave. As a matter of fact, the crime rate in the U.S. has consistently gone down since the early 1980s. While promoting his crime bill, President (Minton lest year said that an epidemic of \ iolent crime is "siphoning away our humani ty Hollowing up in his State of the Union speech last week, he said that the light against crime would tx> one of his top priorities in the year to come In the opposition's response. Hob Dole rehashed the old Kepuhlu an message of stricter law enforcement and more severe punishments Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that crime isn't a prob lem Hut politii ians would like to turn it into even more of a problem than it is They know that the "tough-on-crime" image is going to help them win votes. History has proven that many times, most recently in the gubernatorial elections on the Hast Coast No wonder then, unit you hear so mam politicians talk about the blind violence that is threat ening us and the way they’re going to save us from it Crime is a grave problem in tins nation, and there’s no doubt that the crime rate in some areas, particularly in inner cities, has increased in the past few soars Moreover, it’s true that crime in some areas has become much more vicious and violent, hurting arbitrarily and even killing children. Crime shouldn’t be trivial ized. But there's no reason for us to become hysterical either. So the next time you see a report about the crime wave on television, remember that they may just tie trying to sell you washing deter gents and potato chips. And the next time you hoar Bill Clinton talk about the rising violence in this country, he may just be try ing to buy your vote.