Cl'e JJortlanb (©bseruer
Page A4
A p ril 6, 2005
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Police Stun Guns
Should Be Banned
by J udge
G reg M athis
Since 1999 80 people have died and
others have been severely injured by po­
lice using electrical stun guns on unruly
suspects who need to be restrained. The
stun gun is the newest development in the
so-called nonlethal weapons used to sub­
due suspects. Previously, police used
pepper spray and batons. Currently, more than 7,000 law
enforcement agencies and police departments now issue the
weapon to its officers. The hand-held weapon is used like a
firearm. Officers aim at the suspect, pull the trigger and the
weapon delivers a 50,000-volt electric jolt to its target. The
electrical shot causes an uncontrollable contraction of the
victim’s muscles, immobilizing them from any further move­
ment. The problem is that the stun gun shocks can cause fatal
heart attacks. Studies in both Canada and the United States
have shown conclusively that they increase the risk o f cardiac
arrest, particularly in people with heart conditions. O f course we
know that police officers don’t ask your medical history when
they are trying to subdue and arrest you.
The most deadly incidents and injuries involving stun guns
occurred during the recent month of February. In Chicago, one
man died and a teenager was critically injured in one week, both
at the hands of police officers using stun guns. Both victims
went into cardiac arrest suffering heart attacks after the device
was used on them. It is not yet clear whether either had a history
of heart problems. That same month, a 54-year-old Indiana man
died after being shot with a stun gun by the police.
Clearly, stun guns are sometimes lethal weapons and should
therefore be banned from use when dealing with unarmed
suspects.
In the past two years, several law enforcem ent agencies
have banned the use o f stun guns. The Im m igration and
Customs Enforcement agency, a federal law enforcem ent
organization ended their use o f the weapon after one o f its
officers were injured during a stun gun training session.
Several months later, the Custom s and Border Protection
agency also banned the w eapons’ use because of safety
concerns. M eanwhile, the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) has called for a moratorium on the use of
stun guns. Additionally, the International A ssociation of
Chiefs of Police as well as several other law enforcem ent
groups have all called for more extensive research into the
safety of the police weapon. The Justice D epartm ent is also
studying the w eapon’s use. As law enforcem ent officials
study the dangers o f stun guns, more and more lives are at
risk o f death or injury. It should be enough that tw o studies
and several deaths have concluded that it may cause fatal
heart attacks.
As we mourn the loss of Johnnie Cochran our late and
great defender of justice, let us remember that although we
may know him best for representing celebrities, most o f his
great victories came in representing those who had been
victimized by police misconduct. If we want to honor his
legacy, let’s start where he left off, holding law enforcement
accountable to the people they are paid to protect.
Judge Greg M athis is Chairman o f the Rainbow PUSH-
Excel Board and a National Board M em ber o f the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference.
Reflections on Cochran: The People’s Champion
by T heodore M .
S haw
In a w ay , Jo h n n ie
Cochran, Jr., who died re­
cently at 67, was reminis­
cent o f M uhammad Ali.
Much in the way that Ali
became the people’s cham­
pion in the boxing ring,
Cochran held that title in
the courtroom. He was colorful, dy­
namic, and charismatic; he was a su­
preme strategist; his language was
memorable; he could walk with kings
and common people with equal com ­
fort; and, most o f all, as one of
America’s best trial lawyers he was
one o f the most feared opponents of
his time.
Important, too, was the fact that
Cochran's success, like that of Ali,
somehow made the African-Ameri­
can community feel stronger and more
powerful, and its life possibilities
broader and more attainable.
While many white Americans casti­
gated Johnnie Cochran for his suc­
cessful representation of O. J. Simpson
against murder charges because they
dentsuccess.org
objected to the introduction of
race as an issue, most black
Americans, regardless of the
issue of Simpson’s guilt or in­
nocence, understood that race
plays a part in our criminal
justice system every day, with
black people more often than
not on the short end of the
stick. Johnnie won that case against
seemingly insurmountable odds and
in the face of intense national hostility,
by dint of his legal acumen. More than
the “not guilty” verdict, African Ameri­
cans cheered Johnnie Cochran’s bril­
liant performance.
Among Cochran’s formidable le­
gal skills was his ability to strike to the
core of a case and connect with a
ju ry ’s emotional center. Although
his best-know n courtroom state­
ment— “If the glove doesn’t fit, you
must acquit” has become part of popu­
lar jargon, it crystallized the decision­
making process for the Simpson jury.
It also helped to make Cochran fa­
mous.
Cochran was not the first African-
American lawyer to become a
household name. That honor
went to his idol, Thurgood
M arshall, who founded the
NAACP Legal Defense and
/ don't think we have
been given our due, and
as long as racism
permeates this country,
we have a long way
to go. - Johnnie Cochran, Jr.
Educational Fund and became the
first African-American J ustice on the
U.S. Supreme Court.
C ochran’s name recognition went
evenfurther. Simply, he was the best-
known attorney, black or white, in the
world.
Although much of Cochran’s re­
nown rested on his representation of
celebrities like Simpson, Michael Jack-
son, and Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, he
was most proud of his work for the
poor as a civil rights lawyer. He was
inspired to become a lawyer by Brown
v. Board o f Education, the 1954 U.S.
S uprem e C o u rt v ic to ry led by
Thurgood Marshall that ended offi­
cially sanctioned segregation in pub­
lic schools.
One of C ochran's early cases was
a high-profile suit in which he repre­
sented the widow of a black motorist
who was killed during a police stop.
He lost, but he was determined to
continue civil rights work. He said
his happiest moment as a lawyer was
getting the murder and kidnapping
charges against Black Panther leader
Elmer (Geronimo) Pratt overturned in
1997 because of prosecutors’ mis­
conduct. Initially, he had lost the
case in 1972, but remained dedicated
to gaining Pratt’s freedom. Later, he
helped Abner Louima, a Haitian immi­
grant who was brutalized by New
York City policemen, gain an $8.7
million settlement.
Over the course of his career, de­
spite the glitter of celebrity trials, much
of Cochran’s work was spent helping
average people with everyday prob­
lemslike accident claims, job discrimi­
nation, and police abuses. His own
words make it easy to believe that he
saw himself primarily as a defender of
civil rights.
“I love being an African American
in this country,” he said. “I don’t
think we have been given our due, and
as long as racism permeates this coun­
try, we have a long way to go. B utit’s
exciting to think about the future, where
we should be. And I want to have a
hand in pushing us along that road.”
Theodore M. Shaw is director-
counsel and president o f the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund.
Social Security and Black Folks: Don’t Be Fooled
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I
f
M arian W right E delman
President Bush has chosen
to try to fix the Social Security
“crisis” - by allowing Ameri­
cans to invest some o f their
benefits in private accounts.
The president has even claimed
this change would be especially
good for Black workers. The
argument goes like this: On av­
erage, Blacks - especially men - still
have shorter life expectancies than
W hites, which means we d o n 't
collect Social Security for as many
years. So if we received some of our
benefits early to put into private
accounts, we might be able to get
more use from them.
Is it true that Blacks don’t ben­
efit equally from the current Social
Security system? Are private ac­
counts agood idea for Black Ameri­
cans, or most Americans? Is Social
Security facing a crisis? Many ex­
perts agree the answer to these
questions is no.
As Princeton scholar and New
York Tertes columnist Paul Krugman
explains it, when President Bush
claims ‘“ African-American males
die sooner than other males do,
which means the system is inher­
ently unfair to a certain group of
people’... [his remarks | perpetuate
a crude misunderstanding about
what life expectancy means. It’s
true that the current life expectancy
for black males at birth is only 68.8
years- but that doesn’t mean that a
black man who has worked all his
life can expect to die after collecting
only a few years’ worth of Social
Security benefits. Blacks' low life
expectancy is largely due to high
death rates in childhood and young
adulthood. Afri­
c a n - A m e r ic a n
men who make it
to age 65 can ex­
pect to live, and
collect benefits,
for an additional
14.6 years - not
that far short of
the 16.6-year fig­
ure for white men.”
Sadly, that m isunderstanding
comes about partly because Black
males are so much more likely to die
young. The tragedy is not that they
are more likely todie before they’ve
had a long time to receive Social
Security benefits, but that they are
much more likely to die before
they’ve even had a chance to work.
This misunderstanding - or de­
liberate confusion - obscures an­
other key fact: Social Security isn’t
just a protection against poverty in
old age. O f course, its support for
older Americans has been one of
the greatest success stories in our
n ation’s social policy. Poverty
a m o n g o ld e r A m e ric a n s has
dropped from about 50 percent in
the 1930s to around 10 percent to­
day. The program currently lifts 13
million seniors out of poverty.
But Social Security also protects
millions of workers and their fami­
lies in case of untimely death or
disability. After all. it's a social in­
surance program - not an invest­
ment - and some of the things it
insures against are being disabled,
having a disabled child or dying
while your family is still young.
Approximately one-third of w ork­
ers today are disabled at some point
in their working lives, so no one
should take these current protec­
tions for granted. And all o f these
circumstances land more heavily
on Black families.
A child may receive a monthly
check if misfortune strikes. In 2004,
three million children under 18 were
direct beneficiaries because they
were dependents of a deceased,
disabled, or aged worker. Another
one million children were direct re­
cipients o f Supplemental Security
Income because of their own dis­
abilities. A child also may be an
indirect beneficiary when a member
of the household receives a Social
Security check that frees up family
income for use on the child’s be­
half; the most common case is a
grandparent living in the child’s
parent’s home. One in every six
Black children lives with someone
who received a Social Security or
Supplemental Security check.
Social Security has always been
designed to provide the greatest
help to low er-w age individuals.
This, too, is more likely to benefit
Black w orkers, who still earn less
on average than W hite workers.
Studies show that under the cur­
rent system , there is alm ost no
difference by race in the benefits
per dollar of Social Security taxes
paid. The idea that the current
system is unfair to Blacks is sim ­
ply untrue— and when the presi­
dent and others frame the debate
this way, it becom es a scare tac­
tic.
M arian W right E delm an is
president o f the C hildren's D e­
fe n se Fund and a w orking com ­
m ittee m em ber o f the Black C om ­
m unity C rusade fo r Children.