Opinion Policing hate Gay officers unpopular, but necessary The police chief in San Jose, Calif., took what many may call a radical step last week, announcing a drive aimed at recruiting gay police officers. Chief Lou Cobarruviaz said he hoped having more gay police officers would encourage victims of anti-homosex ual hate crimes to report the attacks. Now, gay men and lesbians could be prevented from reporting the crimes because they may be afraid to approach the police, he said The drive merely expands on a minority recruitment program already in place in the San Jose Police Depart ment. Cobarruviaz himself helped start the minority recruitment project during the 1960s. Too often, gay men and lesbians are ignored in pro grams directed to help members of minority groups. But when it comes to hate crimes, gay men and lesbians rarely are ignored. Sadly, “gay-bashing" is common in America. Worse yet, it is accepted — and condoned — by tar too many Americans. Hate crimes against other minority groups receive a great deal more publicity and outrage than attacks against gay men and lesbians. But the pain caused by such attacks cannot be ignored, even by the most closed-minded people. II it succeeds, the San Jose Police Department's policy will help bring such crimes to light. And the path toward ending such hate crimes will begin when more gay men and lesbians are able to report the attacks. Police should do all they can to make victims of crime more comfortable. In some instances, that means provid ing an obviously sympathetic ear. Police departments without women officers to hear victims' stories of rape or without African-American officers to hear victims’ stories of racially motivated crimes would be unthinkable. The same should be true for hate crimes against gay men and lesbians. San Jose was not the first to begin such recruitment efforts. The San Francisco Police Department began recruiting homosexuals in the 1970s. Nevertheless, Chief Cobarruviaz’s “radical" move probably will not be popular. Until Americans realize that all hate crimes cause needless pain, gay men and lesbians will have to rely on themselves for defense. Playboy ad ‘weakens the will’ I am writing in reaction to the Playboy ad you published on page three of the March 3 edition. We arc not each in our own world — our own cubicle untouched or af fected by others. We may be as sepa rate as those walking through a re volving door. Yet, if someone docs not push, or in any way impedes its revolution, the others arc affected. Perhaps they may not gel through. Similarly, by publishing a sexu ally explicit advertisement, you im pcdcany or all aversion one may have to viewing pornographic material. Yes, we all may make a choice. We need to make a good choice, and you arc not helping. We have a God-given free will to make choices. This is good in and of itself. However, to view a full page ad of pornography weakens the will by posing to it natural, sexually inclined barriers that impede itsorigi nal decision — thus making u narucr or perhaps impossible to choose correctly. In fact, it may impede the will so much that every lime it comes in contact with such barriers it must choose the inclination. Therefore,our will is in fact not free anymore. All of humanity is falling under the weight of such sexual advertise ment. Beer commercials, car com mercials, jeans (1 won’t menuon Bugle Boy), pop and even breakfast cereal ads employ sex appeal in order to weaken the wills of the buyer. So please, print what is newsworthy, but quit making it so hard to choose what is right. Wrong is chosen easily enough as it is. Michael Lilly senior secondary math education DN shouldn t bend to pressure Inc Daily Nebraskan, in irom-page stories Monday and Tuesday, referred to a certain newsmaker as “UNL stu dent Andrew Scott Baldwin.” Accu rate? Absolutely. But Baldwin wasn't the subject of a 10-paragraph story on Monday and a 19-paragraph story on Tuesday because of his status as a garden variety “UNL student.’ His story is front-page fodder because — and only because — he is or was a Nebraska football player. Neither story refers to Baldwin — charged w ith assault in the beating of Gina Simanek — as a Nebraska football player. When pinning labels on people, journalists should pick the one from which the newsmaker derived his or her notoriety. If Tom Osborne, for t instance, were tu muR.e news iui iva sons not related to football, he still should be referred to in news columns as Nebraska’s football coach. He may well be a red headed churchgoer who can catch big fish and fly small planes — but that's not why he’s in the newspaper. Not all DN stories have affixed to Baldwin the over-inclusive nametag. The hope here is that the DN is not backing down and intentionally sac rificing good journalism in order to mollify those who berated the paper for its complete and commendable coverage of a sad incident. Steve Thomas second-year law student VQNi IQSflK VT ... \N£ W't \CS0nnj VMtfct TT S BEENi. / WfcSNTT YSZV \M. NEBRte