editorial mim pg
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In memoriam. . .
A friend and companion of the UNL academic
community passed away late Thursday afternoon.
The Anti-War Demonstration died after collapsing
suddenly around 2 p.m. It faltered initially. Then it
wandered painfully toward its final resting place-the
Terminal Building, at Tenth and Zero Streets in
Lincoln.
Those close to the deceased (approximately 100)
were heard to offer many opposing comments
regarding the event.
Relatives of the deceased were saddened, but the
work of the Peace Movement, the Revolution and the
End . the Vietnam War Organization will proceed
without interruption. The deceased's political rivals
were seen celebrating the death by planning counter
services. They include the Young Americans for
Freedom and the Committee for the Re-election of
the President.
The Demonstration reached the peak of its career
several years ago in several cities around the nation as
a symbolic protest against American foreign policy.
After that time it was only slightly successful in
attaining its goal-world peace.
Although outmoded in many ways, the
Demonstration hung on. It fought for recognition as
an impetus for social change.
As the seventies began, another method of
initiating social change became more popular than the
Demonstration. First cousii. to the deceased, the
Political Campaign, struggled and emerged the victor
in the contest for effectiveness in changing the
American Way.
In retrospect and respect one may ask if the death
of the Anti-War Demonstration will have any effect
on society at all. It probably will.
In death the Demonstration gives way to the
potential of the Political Campaign. The possibilities
for change in society are as limitless as the candidates
the Campaign supports.
Instead of mourning the death of the
Demonstration, citizens should encourage the power
of the Political Campaign in the months to come.
After all, the Demonstration would have wanted it
that way.
Barry Pilger
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Note: I am not feeling wacky or
satirical. The following column is written
with the most serious intentions in mind.
It is a proposal not generally accepted
around the country. I hope someday it
will be.
It has become vogue in America,
within the last four or five years, to speak
of the police in derogatory terms. "Pig" is
a word that has become almost
synonymous with "police," particularly
in the rhetoric of the most oppressed
groups. And I agree that the derogatory
connotations are well-implied in most
cases.
The situation, however, has grown to
such proportions that it is no longer the
single policeman who is the pig. The
entire structure of law enforcement in the
United States is at fault. I think there are ,
a few individual policemen who are
outright bastards. But for the most part I
think they're just guys doing their job,
and it's a tough one.
Much of the problem lies in the
dehumanization of the American
policeman. He no longer is the cop on the
corner. He no longer is a person who
knows everyone's first name. He no
longer is someone who jokes with the
townspeople and tousles kids' hair. The
American policeman, instead, has become
an impersonal individual in a uniform
that keeps him apart from the populace.
And most of as are content to wallow
in our own misery, shout "pig" and
sympathize with the people who get their
guts blown out in ghetto raids. W;
should, instead, be making positive
suggestions to right a very wrong
situation.
The animosity most of us feel toward
policemen could be e.ased considerably if
an effort were made to make the
policeman more like the people he is
policing. Some, very minor things, it
seems to me, are involved in easing the
pressures betwee the community and its
police. Those things can start with
redefining the police role, which, it
seems, has become distorted through
time.-
Ideally, a policeman should be the
individual who a community chooses to
protect their interests. The community
should hire police to enforce a number of
rules which that community has
predetermined are for the public good.
Through time, however, the policeman
has begun to assert more and more
pressure on the public-he has, in fact,
controlled the public. Originally it was
the other way around.
And because so few people have the
experience of acting as a rule-enforcing
person, they don't understand that the
policeman is doing a job. So the police
get pushier, the people get more abusive,
the police push harder and we end up
with the terrible situation of American
life today.
So we should redefine the police role
so that he is again a friend rather than an
enemy.
Pressure would be considerably eased
if the members of the police department
were simply allowed to look a little more
like the people they "protect." The
newspapers periodically have stories of
policemen losing their jobs or being
reprimanded because of hair or sideburns
that are too long for force regulations.
That prevents an officer, in many cases,
from becoming more like the people he
patrols.
And police uniforms are an equally
absurd and unnecessary source of
friction. You can not likely mistake a
policeman for someone else in
society-not many people dress that way.
So, get them out of conspicuous
uniforms and into something of a less
military nature. A lower-key uniform
with, perhaps, a small badge and
name-plate would suffice. Let them grow
their hair if they want to. I don't think it
can hurt much, if any.
And pull some of them off
motorcycles and out of patrol cars. Let
them become the cop on the corner
again. That's one thing that was better
about the "Good Old Days." Let the
police become part of the community
again instead of keeping them at an
antagonistic, chilling distance.
The situation in Lincoln is eased a
little bit by a program that has been
conducted in local junior high schools
this year. Officer Rollie Weisser has
presented programs to the kids, and .
generally allowed the kids to get to know .
him. The program js a good one. It should
be carried into the larger community and
some mutual respect might be the result.
But for the most part the situation
across the country is one that can only
end badly. If we can change the situation
so the police are allowed to act like
brothers-and I think many of them
would welcome the chance I think
they'd be treated like brothers. Not like
pigs.
The authorities, if they're concerned,
should try something to eliminate the
antagonism that exists between the police
and the people. Maybe the neighborhood
police idea would work. I hope things
can't get much worse. I hope there's still
time for things to get better.
PAGE 4
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1972