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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 1989)
• Custom Laser Typesetting • Floppy Disk Included Free • Ready in 24 Hours 'S 1229 “R" Street 475-2679 Good only at Lincoln locations. Expires August 31,1990. One coupon per customer. r Riot police club demonstrators I MOSCOW (AP) - Helmeted riot police wielding truncheons repeat edly charged and clubbed demonstra tors Monday night after a candlelight vigil outside KGB headquarters in memory of Stalin’s victims. Scores of protesters were knocked to the ground, beaten and dragged into po lice buses. About 40 people were detained, the official Tass news agency said, in what was the harshest crackdown on protesters in Moscow in more than 1 1/2 years. Tass said the protesters were “trying to create as much dis ruption as possible, to display anti Soviet posters and shout anti-Soviet slogans.” The clashes took place on some of . central Moscow’s busiest streets and 1“B were especially jarring because of the I' more permissive political climate instituted under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s wide-ranging reforms. About 1,000 Soviets converged on KGB headquarters at Dzerzhinsky Square after dusk to mark the unoffi cial “Day of the Political Prisoner” and mourn the millions who were wrongly imprisoned or killed under Josef Stalin. The hourlong protest, in which two rows of people holding flickering candles lined up on three sides of the building, proceeded peacefully. It had been organized by the Memorial Society, which seeks to commemo rate those who suffered unjustly un der Stalin, and the Democratic Un ion, a self-styled opposition to the Communist Party. At the end of the demonstration, a splinter group of about 500 people, mostly young men, marched off in the direction of Pushkin Square, a favorite rallying site for human rights activists. Chanting, “Shame on the KGB!” and “The KGB is the enemy of the people!” the group was confronted without warning by riot police two blocks from Pushkin Square as they passed out leaflets to homebound commuters. The whitc-helmeted police, armed with long black rubber truri cheons, formed a line, then waded into the protesters, clubbing at least four of their leaders to the ground, then dragging them into nearby buses for detention. The demonstrators retreated, then formed again and headed to Gorky Street, the main thoroughfare leading to Pushkin Square. The riot police and other uniformed officers sealed off the square and split the protesters into two groups. On Gorky Street, riot police again charged the demonstrators, taking about six into custody. As the protest ers were dragged to the buses, specta tors shouted: “Shame! Shame!” Another group of demonstrators, gathered on the southeast side of Pushkin Square, was also repeatedly charged by riot police, who ignored the dozens of television camera teams and foreign reporters who flocked there. It was the roughest treatment of an unsanctioned demonstration in Moscow since December 1987, when about 200 burly men in civilian clothes roughed up Jews who staged a protest demanding the right to emi grate on the eve of Gorbachev’s de parture for his Washington summit with Ronald Reagan. 4 arrested for flag burning WASHINGTON (AP) - Four people shouting “bum, baby, bum” set fire Monday to three American flags on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to force a court test on the constitutionality of a new law banning flag desecration. “We defy your law,” said spokes woman Nancy Kent. “We challenge you. Arrest us. Test your statute. Take it back to the Supreme Court and try once again to claim it is all consistent with your constitutional standards of free speech.” One of those arrested was Gregory “Joey” Johnson, whose 1984 arrest for burning a flag at the Republican National Convention in Dallas set in motion the court case that led to the new law. Another was Scott Tyler, 24, who stirred controversy in Chicago earlier this year by placing a flag on the floor as part of a student exhibit at the School of the Art Institute. Capitol police charged Johnson, 33, of Richmond, Ind., Tyler and two others with violating the Flag Protec tion Actof 1989, demonstrating with out a permit and disorderly conduct, said police spokesman Dan Nichols. The other two were identified as Shawn Eichner, 24, of New York City, and David Blalock, 39, of Johnstown, Pa. The demonstration came two days after members of a radical Vietnam veterans’ group in Seattle, Wash., burned a full-size American flag and 1,000 paper flags to protest the law. President George Bush, who fa vors a constitutional amendment to ' protect the flag, allowed the measure to become law without his signature. It went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Satur day. It provides punishment of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for anyone who “knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States.” The Supreme Court sparked the controversy earlier this year by de claring an existing law aimed at pro tecting the flag to be an unconstitu tional intrusion on free speech. Johnson had been convicted under that law. Flags were burned in several cities shortly after the new law went into effect. U.S. Attorney Mike McKay said in Seattle that the FBI is investi gating the flag burning there to deter mine if a criminal complaint is war ranted. Take on a leadership roll. i picture yourself as a Student Assistant! . -v . ■ ■ Federal ruling renews controversy over appropriateness of Halloween ny i ne associated rress Some parents are sure that Satan lurks be hind the cardboard black cats and witches that hang from classroom walls. Armed with a recent federal ruling strengthening legal re strictions on religion in the schools, they are demanding that Halloween be banned. Those who view the day as an excuse to dress up and drink up and give children a night to wheedle sweets may be surprised that some people believe it’s a religious holiday. When teachers dress up like witches, says Robert Guycr of Alachua County, Fla. ‘ ‘what happens to these little Christian kids like mine? How arc they going to feel when it’s dress-up day and they don’t dress up?” Guyer gathered the signatures of about 200 parents who think the holiday is a religious CC rwr ^ °- W,cca*a m°dcrn witchcraft cull ° .f1?,,n A,achua County left the deci sion on Halloween up to their local principals, tenden^18^" V5'7 Counly* *c superin tendent asked schools to avoid using Hallow een decurauons and to cancel school celcbra ripn,a!!?WCCn aPParenl,y sprang from an an S Kr?m°ny j!onorin8 ^e Celtic god of known as All NeMCVa> £ng,and il came to be ihl°rn dSjA fallows Eve, celebrated before the least day of All Hallows, now AH Saints’ Day. As is the case with the pagan Christmas , tree, few pay attention to its religious origins. But Guytr, a University of Florida law stu dent, cites an 1 Ith U.S. Circuit Court of Ap peals ruling in Atlanta earlier this year that found that prayers before high school football games violate the constitutional separation of church and stale. Netfraskan Editor Amy Edwards, 472-1766 General Manager Dan Shettll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Advertising Manager Jon Deehnke Sales Manager Kerry Jeffries Publications Board ft Chairman Pam Halo. 472-2966 Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301 Jt The Dally Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by H the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34.1400 FI it St., Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the jft academic year; weekly during summer sessions Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and f| comments to the Dally Nebraskan by phoning 472-1783 between 9am and 5 p.m. Monday through Frlday The ■ public, also has acoess to the Publications Board For ft information, contact Pam Hein, 472-2588 ti Subscription price is $45 for one year Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Ne I braskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St .LIncoln. Nfc 68588 0448 Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE I ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1969 DAILY NEBRASKA