!
Pago 4
Daily Nebraskan
Thursday, April 11, 1935 J
1
Coisii, mt press,
a GO
mem' iiBiiseemee
fTT ho second New York Grand Jury made the right decision in
I charging Dcrnhard Goetz for attempted murder in shooting
four black teenagers in a subway train last December. The
first grand jury indicted him only for illegal possession of
handguns.
Goetz will go on trial for four counts of attempted murder, four
counts of assault, one count of reckless endangerment to other
passengers in the subway and one count cf criminal possession of
a weapon.
Whether Goetz is a murderer or a hero is not a decision for the
press, but a decision of the courts that's the way our justice
system is supposed to work.
The media and the public made Goetz a hero after the shooting
on the subway. The first grand jury made his first appearance a
farce it was more a test of public opinion than en unbiased
hearing.
Given the deluge of phone calls cf support, it was no wonder
that the grand jury justified what Goetz did, and that Manhattan
District Attorney Robert Morger.thau was lenient In pressing the
homicide indictment.
According to the Time magazine cover story, April 8, a Media
General-Associated Press poll shows that 47 percent cf Americans
approve of Geetz's actions, S3 percent say they do net know
enough details to form a judgment and 17 percent condemn Goetz'
shooting the youths.
The press was also largely responsible for propelling the 87-year-old
bespectacled engineer to celebrity status. The media
hyps that fallowed hinted support for Goeta's so-called sdl-dtkm,
Goetz said in a first-person newspaper story why ha did it: "I
was acting out of goddamn fear." The nation latched cn to his
word3 of "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
Now, the pendulum has swung the ether way.
Sightly so, a new grand jury was fanned to indict Goetz cn the
basis of "significantly new evidence," which consisted cf testim
ony by Goetz's victims: Trey Canty and te.es Bamseur, and
witness Victor Flores.
Unfortunately, it was the media and public opinion that made
the new grand jury necessary.
Rather than being a hero, Goetz is now a viliian.
Even more, the media has put the criminal justice system on
trial instead of Bernhard Goetz.
Bather than the social ramifications, we mast not forget that
Goetz did shoot four people and that he should be tried for it in
court, public opinion and media hype aside.
Although Goetz is new pictured as a villian, the media should
not affect his right to a fair trial.
The media has the right and the duty to report and
comment on news events, and people have the right to express
their opinions. But the courts must determine an accused per
son's innocence or guilt free of such public discussion. Thai is
what must happen in the Goetz case.
Everyone has the right to a fair trail, to be treated the same,
including Bernhard Goetz. And society, through its courts, has the
duty to try everyone accused of a crime, no matter how much
people like the accused, including Bernhard Goetz.
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Is 'civilized' murder oerhaps the greater crime?
. - A w
I J James A.
XSt Fassell
t w3 there, in the newspaper. Page
three. But I coald put the newspaper
down.
It was there, cn the television. But I
could turn the television eft
But t was there. And it was real.
Somebody had died a horrible death. ,
1 '
Hi-
Thst in itself i3 net so unusual. Not
'uiikss yea consider thst it was we who
killed him. And farthsraor, that it was
dl psifz&ly legsL if you think about it
that way, it is astonisMni astorilsh
ing, whst 7.-3 do in the n of justice.
Th e simpls fed is that w kill people,
ym add me. We csll it capital punish
ment, the deslh penalty, exectiticn. And
even-3 m ?g& intellectuaily ever its
legal and ethics! merits, more people
die.
The man on pae three was executed. '
Killed, redly by the "civilized" peo
ple. We blew out his pilot light, toe
snuffed out his life force and flicked him
&7.?y like an old cipr butt. Some cf us
aren't proud of thst.
I'm not very proud. I have to keep
reminding myself that a man was killed
todsy by officials of my government on
purpose. EX-E CU-TED.
It's such a clean word. Sounds more
like a computer command than the end '
cf a human life. We don't have trouble
saying it because it manages to scft
peddle the truth: Our government is in
the grisly business of legalised murder.
And all of our names are on the ledger.
I'm not proud at all. A man wss killed
today a bad man, the people say. But
a man who used to cry and feel and
breathe another of God's children
is dead. The blood is on our hands this
time, the shame is in cur souls. Surely
this 13 not my America, the most rival
led country in the world. -
EsgrettaMy, it is. America, with all its
glories, the land of the free and the
home of the brave, is also the home cf
the gsssed, electrocuted, hangsd, shot
and lethally injected. God have mercy on
cur souls. We know all too well what we
do, and we do it anyway.
Damn the eternal arrogance! We allow
ourselves to render the ultimate judg
ment on a human life and then ssive our
conscience by calling it justice. It is not
justice. It is grim and ghastly: It is a sin
against every law of God and m:n.
Nothing cheapens our humanity like the
death penalty.
We have no more right as a society to
end a human life than the criminal. We
should aim to punish him, not copy him.
But what about the victim, you cry, I
cry, toa But the stark facts are that he
lies beyond our pity. We cannot jump
start one man's heart with another. By
killing his assassin, we accomplish
nothing in a constructive sense, except
to perpetuate the chain of violence,
When someone kills, in a large part, it
is we who have failed; failed to fit an
imperfect cog into an imperfect wheel.
We do not rid ourselves of that failure by
killing aM burying our mistake; we only
compound it with shame and dishonor.
I could launch into a detailed polemic
against capitd punishment, but frankly I
grow t ired of tha arguments. They just
depress me. Anymore, I am simply sad- '
dened that killing another human being
under any circumstances is not
recognised as brutal and barbarous
behavior.
I am saddened. We are not a civilized
society when we can stand idle and
indifferent while hur.r-t beings are
being scrapped as useless: humans like
ourselves, with Gsd-fi?sn arms and legi
and teeth aad fcrcsEts and ml corpus
cles mi brain gngSia md tissue and
sinew and nmzh uA flesh. It was not a
crsstica mesri to ta so csfsJiedy dis
posed o whether Isgs! er illegally.
When the deed is doss, the reasons
hardly matter. Ths unmitigated blas
phemy cf such an act should make us all
weep tears cf s&sr.e.-
And in the er.d, it h its, the civilized
folk, who should fssr eternal damnation
more than the ki'lsr v. ha we now kill.
More than likely, his wss a passionate
mistake, a hcnible moment spurred by
jealousy, blinding rsg cr bcth.
We have no such excuss. We are sup
posedly humane, isf slllgent and moral.
And yet we kill with the detached effi
ciency of a hired extcrrainstor.
. No matter how often we try to prove it
to the csr.tnry, we are net gods. We are
mortal men and women, with conscien
ces and souls. And es such, we should
seek to find every moral reason to pre
serve life rather than every convenient
reason to end It.
12c? Cor smjs myilis
fabricated by people
tvho Jear sexuality 9
homosexuality being viewed as deviant is
pecaase. the vast majority of people are
heterosexual Unless vou want t?
' IVUVMUV
lis authar ef the i:it cpirion, "TAL
Crr.5-) cr;:r.ir;3 C:y tui:r.t Mcr.ih,"
r. it 3 r 1 f:t XL clrcrhcairiica
lie zi in tit srtivi3.
II f. ;r, slr.w ilii h o c;;d:n, seme
cf i '3 r '.I:rj t:3 rrt n t:- If yea
dzv.zr.t that's what it means.
People fabricate mytlj about homo
sexuality because they fear for their own
sexuality, I suspect. I do not take myths as
gospel, but part of my psychs wants to
, tTy TU9 welcomes brief
7 " ; . , j reaaers and
interests A Mb
Lett erj j
believe these myths tsetse I, too, fear for j
my own sexusMty. Bat fhst is normal is
normal, ai.d m usisents or rationalities j
can change that. TMs Is why so few people (
can dsal rst!orI?y v.lth homosexuality, f
Jr.v Russell
-.3 fWAM."-
Jry Russell
Iresnmaa
history
C-.::r.:t r:'.::v t3 tl.3 D:'y Kdtzsr
ksa, 04 r::L:; Iz IVlc?, Id R St, Lm-
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