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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1975)
friday, may 2, 1975 lincoln, nebraska vol. 98 no. 122 Council, mayoral candidates peg major issues Next week, voters in lincoln will decide mayoral, city council, school board and airport authority races. City elections are Tuesday and today the Daily Nebraskan presents the major platforms of candidates for mayor and city council. Candidates for mayor are Helen Boosalis and Sam Schwartzkopf. City council . candidates are Steve Cook, Robert Sikyta, Robert Jeambey, Richard Baker, Steve Tiwald, William Theirstein, Jim Carson and Mary Rogge. Helen Boosalis, 16-year City Council veteran, said the three important issues which will face Lincoln in the next several years include completion of the comprehensive plan, rehabilitation of Lincoln's older areas and openness and response to citizens in the mayor's office. Redevelop Efforts to rehabilitate and redevelop older areas in Lincoln should include downtown, she said. Boosalis has said she is running for mayor because "many people felt leadership has not been clearly exerted from that office in several years." She said she would like to see the city become more dnvolved in providing bus transportation between the two UNL campuses and to big industries in Lincoln, such as Goodyear. "Maybe down the line there ' is a better way between the campuses," she said. "The city should take the leadership in setting up a system of car pooling." Urbanize north Boosalis said it is important for Lincolnto urbanize toward the north, south and west before going east into the Stephens Creek area. She also mentioned that low-income and elderly housing in Lincoln are a "real problem," but that problems with housing for middle-income families also exist. Incumbent Mayor Sam Schwartzkopf, who finished second in the April primary elections to Boosalis, has been "encouraged" about the elections in the past two weeks as the campaign begins winding to its May 6 close. "I've talked to a lot of people in the last two weeks," Schwartzkopf said. "I'm encouraged by the feeling that I'm getting from people. Schwartzkopf views the questions surrounding the performance of the lincoln police department as the major issue in the campaign this year. "We really haven't got any primary issues, but the police department question seems to be the main one right now, although it may not have been brought out that well," Schwartzkopf said. According to Schwartzkopf, the issue involves Attorney Jim Bruckner's report on Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) arrest procedures of the lincoln Police Department and "the whole thing." 'Good police' "I think we have a very good police department," Schwartzkopf said. "There's no graft or corruption; we have a low crime rate and, although it's increased recently, it started from a low level." "I think we should continue having the type of law enforcement we have." Attorney General Levi: aive aun control ne A system of gun control which actually will deter crime is one of the Justice Department's major considerations, U.S. Atty. Gen. Edward H. Levi said Thursday. Levi was in Lincoln to receive an honorary Juris Doctor degree during the dedication ceremonies of the new Law College Building on East Campus. At a news conference before the dedication, Levi said that "in about two weeks we are going to have to make up our minds whether we have a viable system" of gun control. He and his staff have been talking with states attorneys, people in the justice system and other people both for and against gun control to find an effective form, he said. "We are trying to do a bit of social engineering," he said. "I don't know, we may fail. We shouldn't be afraid to fail." 'Blanketing' Levi said he hopes to find a form of gun t v -V f - i f "-v v i 1 . : ' i ' mT-r t I " : f x U.S. Atty. Gen. Edward Levi So long, adieu, auf wiedersehen This is the final issue of the Daily Nebrstksn for the 1974-75 school year. Publication will resume in the fall. Applications for staff positions, available in Nebraska Union 34, will be accepted until noon today. control for those areas of the country that have high crime rates and that need it, without "blanketing" those parts which have low crime rates and do not need it. The answer, he said, is in a combination of banning "Saturday evening specials" (inexpensive and easily-obtained small handguns) and of finding some way to make the flow of handguns into high crime areas illegal. The big question he said he asks when someone suggests a possible solution is: "Will this diminish the use of guns in violent crimes by 20 per cent? If it does, I think it is worth while." The problem of crime, he said is high on his list of priorities in the Department of Justice. "My own assessment-which may be wrong-is that it is not so much a problem on the street, but that the prosecutorial level fails and the judicial level faUs,"he said. Recidivism rate He said he would like to find some way to let the prosecutorial level of government function better-to get more judges, better pay and more information on such things as the rate of recidivism. One thins he would like to do is to decrease judicial discretion, he said, because many judges "do not take seriously that the point of the criminal justice system is to deter crime." This determent must be under a much more limiting, "or what we sometimes call mandatory," rule, he said. Later, at a Law College-Law Day banquet sponsored by the College of Law and the lincoln Bar Association, Levi said that because courts phrase their judgments in terms of reasoned application of principle, what courts say too often has been mistaken for the single voice of the law. Go to the courts In the last few years, he said, the practice has been to go to the courts when legislators and officials of the executive branch fail to live up to their responsibility. "The appointment of legislatures, the operation of public schools, even the conduct of the war in Vietnam have all been brought up to courts by those who would have the judges state the single rule of law," he said. Sometimes, Levi said, judges have wisely refused to comment, but sometimes they have not. "In any case," he said, "the appeal to the judges as the only spokesmen of justice results fiom a failure to recognize the more subtle nature of the rule of law in this nation." Schwartzkopf said he backs the Centrum downtown redevelopment program. "We need it as a catalyst to redevelop downtown," according to Schwartzkopf. "My administration began the program and I'd like to see it to completion." The incumbent also said he supports building the .West Bypass, a project to ease the traffic congestion around the State Fairgrounds area which recently was approved by the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners. Continued on p. 7 Davis urges audience to fight oppression By John Kalkowski Omaha Political activist Angela Davis Thursday urged an audience of more than 1,000 people to join in fighting sexism and racial oppression. Davis, in Omaha at the invitation of the International Women's Year Consortium, asked that all revolutionary organizations, despite their many differences, unite around issues affecting "all of us." Davis visited Omaha to raise money for the legal fund of Edward Poindexter and David Rice, who were charged with the 1970 murder of Omaha policeman Larry Minard. After her speech at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, she began forming a committee to work in "the struggle for the lives of our brothers, Poindexter and Rice." r "These two brothers were sincerely committed to freeing all black people," she said. Again Davis appealed for involvement in their case, "because they struggled for you." District Court Judge Warren Urbom has ordered Rice released from the state penitentiary because of an illegal search of his home and clothing. However, the verdict on Poindexter still stands. According to Davis, justice has not been done in the case. "If the rights of Poindexter and Rice can be violated, tomorrow your rights might be, too." She said there is no question that the two men were the victims of "hysteria" against blacks. Concerning Rice's release on a technicality, she said "constitutional rights are not a technicality." She added that due process of law does not mean anything in cases concerning black people. The oppression of Poindexter and Rice and "all minorities stems from United States imperialism," she said. Davis is a member of the American Communist Party. The "noise" about her speaking in Omaha as a Communist "could have been directed to brothers and sisters who need it," she said. For instance, she said, Americans must never forget "the tragedy of the Vietnamese people by the barbaric war machine of thcU.S." Davis, on tour for the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, called the Communist takeover of South Vietnam "a victory." "People all over the world are celebrating the final, unequivocal defeat of the U.S. in Vietnam," she said. She said the Vietnam War was a racist war and would have been inconceivable if the Vietnamese had not been "people of color." Referring to International Women's Year, Davis said women played a critical role in the Vietnam War. Prior to their "liberation" by the Viet Cong, she said, half of the 250,000 political prisoners under the Thieu regime were women. Women in the United States also are severely persecuted, she said. Of 2.5 million hired domestic workers, 20 per cent are black women, Davis said. She added that their average annual income is $1 ,000, far below what she called the government poverty level. Davis called for "all people, wherever they may be, to get into the streets" in protest. She said there is no power unless there is a mass movement of the people. No changes in the struggle against "the enemy" can be made Accused by a member of the press of advocating violence, she replied that whenever violence arises, it comes from the hands of "our enemies." She said the "enemies" are large American-based international corporations, which she said are trying to regain "what they lost in Viet Nam-a source of profits-by turning against people in America and around the world. Memorial Day move alters summer school Because of the Memorial Day holiday UNL will be closed May 26 and will open May 30. Prescssion and eight week summer school classes also will be postponed. The holiday date, which had been set for May 30, was changed to May 26 by the Legislature. Prescssion and eight-week session schedules will be adjusted to accommodate the change, said William Scsow, associate director of UNL summer sessions. A makeup day, which had been scheduled for May 24, will be May 31.