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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1971)
r Victims of the law A Nebraska auto accident victim now is less likely to get all his medical bills paid then a similiar victim in Florida. And a Massachusetts motorist has a better chance of having his insurance rates lowered 1 5 per cent than a Nebraska driver. The differences result from the fact that Florida and Massachusetts have adopted seme form of "no-fault" auto insurance. Under no-fault, the insurance companies pay for their own client's injuries and lost wages regardless of who is at fault. There are many variations of no-fault, but usually there is a restriction on the right to sue. The theory behind no-fault is that it will produce fewer claims and court cases (which are expensive and time consuming) as well as reduce premiums. In Massachusetts, the first state to adopt no-fault, the theory is working. Opponents of no-fault, mainly trial lawyers with vested interests in the present system, argue that no-fault plans reduce costs only by reducing benefits. They also argue that restricting the right to sue abridges the rights of individuals. While no-fault might not be perfect, it seems to be better than Nebraska's present insurance system. However, many Nebraska officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new type of insurance. They reason the state does not face the auto insurance crisis that exists in other parts of the country and it would be wise to see how no-fault fares in other states. This type of attitude toward innovation is all too typical for Nebraska. A wait-and see approach does not seem in the best interests of the state when no-fault offers a hope for lower insurance costs and better service. Senator Herbert Duis of Gothenburg has proposed an alternative to no-fault: a dual system of insurance which would provide one policy for the car and another for the person. It appears that the Duis plan doesn't differ greatly from the current system. Hopefully, the Duis plan or some other scheme will not divert the Legislature from confronting the no-fault issue. State Insurance Director Sam Van Pelt said recently that some form of no-fault plan will be introduced for the 1972 Legislature. If Nebraska and other states do not adopt some form of no-fault soon, Congress might do it for them Many Nebraska motorists are eager for a chance in the current auto insurance system and the Legislature should seriously consider adopting a no-fault system for Nebraska. Gary Seacrest i Meals bring communication UN L's Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity has just finished its second annual "Feed the Fuzz" program. Rich Sophir, the fraternity's president, came up with the idea of improving relations with local law enforcement officers last spring, and set up a highly successful three-day pilot program then. This year Sophir and the Sammies expanded the program. For two weeks two members of the Lincoln Police Department visited the fraternity house for each noon and evening meal. Thanks to the program the Sammies now know a little bit more about being a Lincoln policeman than most members of the University community. And a sizeable part of the Lincoln Police Department now knows a little bit more about being a UNL student. Because of Sigma Alpha Mu's initiative, relations between police and students in Lincoln may become considerably less strained. Sophir is excited about the success of the "Feed the Fuzz" program He has since arranged a dinner at the house for Warden Charles Wolff of the state penal complex and two convicted convicts. He is planning a program to get Sammies and members of the Lincoln Fire Department together at mealtime. Sigma Alpha Mu's community relations programs set that house refreshingly apart from the standard set by most f risbee-f linging UNL fraternities. Steve Strasser PAGE 4 NAT I CRIME HATE ONAL rj4A r"," ''lrH'r v rfoug voegler UNL politics AS U N ' s Time-Out Conference on human sexuality has provided the material for quite a number of conflicts so far: students Regents, Regents-Regents, outstate-University, and Terry Carpenter-University. Some of the debate has centered on the content of the conference itself. It can be argued that the conference could have dealt more with heterosexual ity, which is quite common on this campus apparently, but the organizers stated that the conference was not intended to present the whole gamut of sexual behavior. However, at the conference, they did take the trouble to symbolically wash their hands of the affair with a resolution and requested a study to find out which administrators gave their approval to the conference. This indicates that from now on, speakers and conferences may be scrutinized with great care so they do not present anything "offensive" and embarrassing to the Regents or the state. Cancelling conferences and speakers while still in the planning stages could be a great danger to the exchange of ideas, since very few would know about these moves. The conference has caused former State Senator Clifton Batchelder to announce his candidacy for the Board of Regents in 1972. With Batchelder a strong critic of the University since May, 1970's Cambodian protest, applying vociferous and vigorous ultn-rightist criticism, the Regents may feel pressure from out-state precipitating a move further to the right on their part. For the first time last week, the Regents violently diagreed in public, something which previously had been kept fairly well hidden behind closed conference room doors. It had been the policy of the Regents before the Time-Out controversy to hammer out solutions and compromises in private and then perfunctorily ratify them at public meetings. This gave them great leverage and strength when dealing with students and the legislature, by presenting a fairly cohesive, united and dignified front. The Regents have now opened themselves up to many pressures. Student groups, liberal and conservative, will try to seek the sympathy of individual Regents and play the various factions against each other. In budgetary and other matters, the Legislature will sense these divisions and resentments and this will give it greater force and strength in its dealings with the University. A new aspect to the conflict was added when two UNL students and Terry Carpenter sought injunctions against the use of student fees for the Time-Out Conference, the World in Revolution Conference and The Daily Nebraskan. Obviously, these people must be aware of recent court decisions concerning the use of student fees for speakers and publications, that forclose any serious hope of having the fees removed. So it would seem that other motives might guide their actions. All parties did get good publicity and after all, isn't one a candidate for the U. S. Senate? Generally the state doesn't care what happens here as long as it is not sensational and carried on quietly. Time-Out probably wouldn't have received more than third page coverage ordinarily. Note the little publicity it had before the pot was stirred. With some Regents and others painting pictures of perverted, abnormal, sick sexual review and follies, it is understandable that the state is concerned. It seems, unfortunately, that once again the University has become a pawn. 9 Telephones: editor: 472-2588, news: 472 2589, advertising: 472 2590. Second class postage rates paid at Lincoln, Nebraska. The Daily Nebraskan is a student publication, independent of the University of Nebraska's administration, faculty and student government. Address: The Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508. By Jacquin Sanders and Ruth Ross Newsweek Feature Service Power has come tardily to America's blacks. A few politicians, a few administrators, some business and professional men have been the first to stand out in their communities, and by and large the black public approves of them. But similar approval is still withheld from the most visible authority symbols of all-the ever-more-numerous, but still mistrusted, black police officer. For most black people, the armed, blue-uniformed men who roll through ghetto streets in police cars are the enemy -even when the faces peering from the patrol car windows are black. Black cops, in fact, get it from all sides. Distrusted by many in their own communities, they are, for the most part, not welcomed and not liked by their peers in the police and not promoted by their superiors. "The relationship between the black and white men of my squad was a workable one during an eight-hour tour lots of fun and kidding," says the recently retired commander of a New York City detective squad. "But once that tour is over, to the white cop, the blacks become niggers again." They also become , on duty as well as off, a powerless minority. Though the number of black police officers has increased notably in recent years, the new black cops are far THE DAILY NEBRASKAN down the line in authority on the force and their representation in metroplitan police departments nowhere approaches the percentage of blacks in the cities. Still, the trend toward more black officers seems irreversible. With blacks approaching lumerical dominance in more and more U.S. cities, the black policeman has become a necessity. He can go places no white cop can go, learn things no white cop can know, smooth out situations that a white officer might only aggravate. In some departments around the country, there are black officers who seem quite optimistic about their futures in the police. "It's not perfect but I have no complaints about my chances as a black man," says Lt. Billie Wedgeworth of the Los Angeles Police Department. But Wedgeworth, at 32, is one of the comers in the LAPD, the black officer at whom the white brass points with pride. He is also one of only 350 blacks in a department of 7,000. Elsewhere, there is less optimism. "There's still a feeling that this is a white man's job," says a 27-year-old Los Angeles police officer. And Troy Danderfield, a San Francisco cop, alls his stationhouse "a haven for the racist." On the other hand, black suspects will occasionally try to get special treatment from a black policeman. Usually they fail, but for the cop it can be a trying situation. "A black guy knows how to get to a black cop-he knows where your psyche is," says Albert de Blanc, Jr., president of a black police officers association in Los Angeles. "He knows how to set you off emotionally. He isn't as sure where the white cop's panic button is." "There's this feeling that because we're in the same race I owe him something," says Sgt. Samuel Dacus of the Los Angeles Police Department. "Well, I don't. I'm not going to turn my head when a black man robs someone. If that means I'm an Uncle Tom, so be it." Squad cars are now integrated all across the country, and this arrangement sometimes breaks down the racial barriers-and sometimes brings them out. Black cops in Cleveland charge that no white policeman is ever teamed with a black unless the white is agreeable. In Detroit, mixed patrols argue about where to eat-in "soul" restraurants or "white" ones, and often white and black cops will ride side by side for an eight-hour shift and barely speak to one another. Still, the demands and the dangers of the job can be great unifiers. Capt. James Francis Jr., of New York recalls the time he was. trapped on a roof with an armed robber some years ago: "My white partner put through the call that a policeman was in trouble. From way up there, I could see the cars coming from the east, the west, every which way. The lights were flashing, the sirens screaming. I thought, damn, this is some outfit I'm in." To the bulk of the black communities, though, black cops are as disliked and distrusted as whites. "We have the same problems as white policemen," says St. Louis's highest-ranking black officer, Maj. Thomas Brooks. "No matter how much they say, "Brother this' or 'Brother that,' we're pigs, just like the whites." As many blacks see it, the black officer is just doing The Man's work-helping to keep the lid on the simmering sense of injustice in the ghettoes. So the black cop is often denounced as a "traitor," a "Tom" and an enemy of the black people. This attitude takes a lot of getting used to and a forbearance that is often beyond the strength of most officers. There has long been a belief particularly cherished by white authorities-that the answer to the ghetto-dweller's animosity to the police is more and more black officers. In time, that may prove true enough, but it hasn't worked so far. Massive efforts to recruit black police, moreover, have been mounted in one major city after another and have invariably failed. Three years ago, for instance, Miami opened "Operation Badge," an intensive program to attract blacks into the city's police department. After a 15-month advertising campaign concentrated not only OCTOBER 8, 1971 in the city's ghetto but in black communities throughout the country, nine blacks were added. Why the failure? "All white faces, that's why," says Sgt. Robert Ingram, an outspoken black Miami cop who was named officer of the year by the department in 1970. "The black recruit comes in and everybody he sees in personnel, civil service, the Academy is white. He can't really believe it's all for real." There are, of course, other reasons why recruitment drives fail. For one thing, the tests are geared to those with white cultural background. For another, the kind of bright young black the police would like to land can often do better for himself in industry these days. Then, too, promotions can be hard for blacks to come by, not because of bigotry on top but because the enlightened attitudes of the high brass can be stymied down in the lower echelons of command. Many high-ranking white officers admit the difficulty blacks have in getting promoted. "To be a second grade detective, a black has to be twice as good as the white guy and this holds true all the way up the line," says a white New York captain. "What we have," sadly admits a Detroit officer, "are t.vo separate police departments one white and one black." THE DAILY NEBRASKAN UMHE-333 North 14th '0 , Breakfast Sunday i0:00a.m. Community Meeting Pro?! a 10:30 a.m An introduction to the life and style of UMHE, an in formal gathering in which we stimulate, support, and enjoy each other; dress casually. Methodist Student Chapel 640 No. 16th 9:30 Worship 10:30 11:30 J Jewelers Your Exclusive Keepsake Dealer In Lincoln Why Accept Less Than The Best - Always Choose Keepsake 1332 "O" St. 432-5126 ' When you know it's for keeps Happily, all your special moments together will be symbolized forever by your engagement and wedding rings. If the name, Keepsake, is in the ring and on the tag, you are assured of fine quality and lasting satisfaction. The engagement diamond is perfect, of superb color, and precise cut. Your Keepsake Jeweler has a selection of many lovely styles. He's in the yellow pages under "Jewelers." TCe ep s guk:e REGISTERED DIAMOND RINGS m w ' J y Ri from $100 to 1 1 0.000 Trjd Mrk Re A H, Ponfl Co HOW TO PLAN YOUR ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDING Send new 20 po. brsl. cf, "P.j--'-a Yojr E-iajacT-t a"d Wea'a'ig" pluj full co or fo! ier j-d 4 rg. Briac t Boot gift cWer a I ':r o"'v 25(. F-7 1 Njme Add'eis- C'ty .Co.. vcEtci rc niiLinun (imcc inv on cvtinicc u v 1 PAGE 5 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1971 FRIDAY,
