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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1995)
EDITORIAL Punishments must be constitutional Innovations in probation art) becoming commonplace in the U.S. legal system. But sometimes those innova tions seem outlandish and then we end up with a pro bation violation. Take the case of Lisa Ann Kephart. In 1992 Kephart narrowly avoided prison for criminal mistreatment. The charge stems from Kophart's failure, in the eyes of the court, to protect her children from the horrendous beatings she suffered at the hands of her for mer husband. Kephart was put on probation, One of the conditions of her probation was that she avoid abusive relationships and obtain counseling to understand and counteract her psychological dependence on abusive men. Kephart. however, did not keep her promise. She served 90 days in jail in 1992 when she fled with an allegedly abusive man and lied to her probation officer And last Friday Kephart admitted during questioning by a judge, her latest companion had knocked her teeth out. The judge in the Kephart case sentenced the woman to six months in prison for her violation. t hough the Kephart i ase is very interesting, it is only part of a bigger picture We would like to applaud the judge in the Kephart case for trying to come up with a solution that he or she thought would benefit Kephart and her children. We understand the reasoning behind this action. But we question the effectiveness and constitutionality of mea sures such as this one. How can parole officers realistically regulate the behavior of parolees like Kephart? What arc they going to do. move in with the parolee? Is punishing the parolee after the fact going to have the desired effect? But more than that, wo are < oncernod with tho con stitutionality of punishments like this one. We under stand Kophart’s children were at risk and that is why the judge in the case felt compelled to bar her from abusive relationships. But this kind of punishment does not rec oncile with the growing concern this country has for the lack of personal responsibility its citizens are showing. In tho past few years, personal responsibility has been tho topic of many books, including infamous defense attor ney Alan Dershowitz’s "Abus*” Excuse" and Charles Sykes’ "A Nation of Victims". Around the country people are fed up with criminals who try to blame their actions on alcohol and drug abuse or other people. They want crim inals to take responsibility for themselves. How can one take responsibility for one's seif if someone else is con trolling one's behavior? It is a direct contradiction. There needs to bo a balance. We think innovative ideas are very important in a jus tice system that has not been seriously restructured in more than 200 years, but not at the expense of individ ual constitutional rights. Oregon Daily »Q OO* fu&fM O^tOONfc-*. 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Oayton y«« Newvoom Bufctrv#** Offk« >46-5511 >46-5512 D«*p**y Adv*ti+nQ 3463 M2 Atfwtiwftg ..... 346 4343 |P School LuncK N ews %>n*ld Reagajr Ketchup is a vegetable MeWt Gingrich: Block grants are a vegetable ITS A BftLMH tmn 4ip a A \JtUTA&ll' ■ OPINION Parking tickets actually help students Pail Van Sk Kit 1 Everybody's whining about the parking situation on cam pus Disgruntled students employ such phrases as "l never can find a parking space," or 'll costs so much to park on cam pus," or even, “Those ticket peo ple are out to get me!" A little logic will tell you that none of these is a reasonable complaint. Further analysis might tell you that legitimate motivations exist for the lack of parking space or the profusion of the University Office of Pub lic Safety ticket officers. It never seems to have occurred to anyone the Univer sity doesn’t ai tualiy want you to park on campus. Besides the environmental and political problems associated with dri ving. which we all know about — the carbon-monoxide, the traffic congestion, the support of fast.ist oil-producing (.artels — there are also economic con cerns Every person who drives his or her car onto campus costs the University money in road repair and parking enforcement l‘m sure the school would much rather spend that money on our educations or even on increased security for non-driving stu dents Instead. OPS is forced to spend horrendous amounts of money trying to make sure no one person monopolizes any parking space, sometimes two, and tries to keep non-students from using the lots you helped pay for when you got your per mit Therefore, it seems obvious why the school isn’t rushing out to pave more parking lots, or paint more spaces or buy Kugene city motors off campus. It would appear OPS doesn't want you to park on campus They don't want to spend your money on parking anymore than you want them to Nevertheless, nobody seems to he getting the hint. So when 1 see a student get a parking ticket, do they take it quietly, reveling in the satisfac tion the campus security is actu ally trying to save you money and keep the campus green' Hardly Many an OPS fluores cent-vested meter-maid/man has l>een tormented by the ungrate ful student who just didn't feel like paying the meter that day. Parking officers, students just like you and me. are suddenly agents of Satan and "bitches", or better. “You asshole!" as if the officer is the reason the student drove to campus or didn't bring enough quarters. A friend of mine who works as a parking-officer on campus compared tier experiences to her previous job at a video store Often, customers would come in to find they had a late fee on their account because they didn't return the movie on time. Instead of paying the fee and atoning for their own sin — nobody but themselves was responsible — they would com plain She's been called names and yelled at. but only because she was doing her job and trying to deter that person from return ing another movie overdue. It is exactly the same for park ing on campus. Aside from the reasons 1 stated already, OPS parking offic ers are doing better than a video store They are rais ing money for the school. Think about it — If the average officer issues even 50 $5 tic kets a day, 170 days a vear (the approxi mate number of days we arte ac tually in school), ho or she could earn over $42,500 for the school! That's just one officer. So maybe the meter people are out to get you. Because OPS wants to make money from the school and because of the short age of parking available on cam pus. they want to make sure every person who deserves it receives a ticket. They are attempting to deter you from parking on campus, where there obviously isn’t enough room for everybody. So I try to think about the parking problem as a good thing. It helps save the earth, it saves tioth the city and the University a lot of money and it teac hes you a lesson about sharing. Considering the efforts the school is making in trying to save the environment and make you a better person through denying us parking for every individual. I hereby grant you some advice next time you get a parking ticket and see the responsible OPS officer nearby: Instead of screaming about excessive enforcement or misal location of police effort, tell them “Thank you." Paul Van Sickle is a columnist for the Emerald
