The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 18, 1992, Image 1

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    ■-- h— -IP—I—1—I '
Nebraska
vs.
Washington
70/42
Partly sunny and breezy
today. Colder tonight.
Tomorrow, mostly sunny,
high in low 70's.
■m li ibi-iLi i-\n\ —Esmigia
Chambers, NU analyze Baldwin shooting
Senator planning to
study contradictions
in police statements
By Chuck Green .
Senior Reporter
Three weeks after the shooting of a Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln student by
Omaha police, Sen. Ernie Chambers of
Omaha remains unsatisfied with official re
ports of the incident.
Chambers said he would try to gather as
much information as possible from police and
witnesses about the shooting, which left An
drew Scott Baldwin paralyzed from the chest
down.
Baldwin, 23, a former Comhuskcr football
l
player, was shot Sept. 5 during a scuffle with
two Omaha police officers when he allegedly
tried to grab the holstered gun of one of the
officers.
Chambers said there were enough contra
dictions between witness reports and official
police reports to merit further .investigation,
possibly at the federal level. Chambers de
clined to specify what action he had in mind.
“I don’t want to say right now what I’m
planning, but I will say that I’m not going to rule
out any possibilities,” he said. “I’ll explore all
avenues to find what the best route will be to
take.”
Chambers said police accounts of the inci
dent had changed over the last three weeks and
contradictions existed among police and wit-^
nesses.
The contradictions, he said, include the fol
See CHAMBERS on 2
William Lauer/DN
Marilyn Quayle, wife of Vice President Dan Quayle, signs an autograph after
landing at Duncan Aviation Thursday. ’
Marilyn Quayle pursues
votes at area fund-raiser
By Susie Arth
Senior Reporter
Marilyn Quaylc urged Nebraskans
Thursday lo keep the “new breeze”
blowing across the world by re
electing George Bush as president.
Quaylc asked about 2(X) supporters dur
ing a campaign fund-raiser at the Cornhusker
Hotel lo think of the free states of the former
Soviet Union, the democratic countries
sprouting in Africa and the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
“We see a world that is forever changed,”
she said._ ~
These changes occurred, Quayle said,
because Bush knew the importance of main
taining a strong military to keep peace around
the globe.
With these changes, she said, come new
challenges that Bush and her husband, Vice
President Dan Quayle, arc prepared to meet.
The challenge of worldwide depression
is one that can be solved with innovative
ideas, she said.
The opening of new markets across the
world, Quayle said, creates jobs in the United
States and cases unemployment.
See QUAYLE on 2
NU not responsible
for Baldwin’s medical
costs, official says
By Chuck Green
■ Senior Reporter
rt is unlikely that the Nebraska athletic
department will pay medical and psychi
atric costs for Andrew Scott Baldwin, an
official said.
Gary Fouraker, assistant athletic director for
business affairs, said Nebraska’s athletic de
partment bore no responsibility for costs result
ing from the Sept. 5 shooting by an Omaha
police officer that left Baldwin paralyzed from
the chest down.
Fouraker said injuries to Nebraska athletes
were covered by insurance only if the injuries
occurred during competition, practice or condi
tionings or were otherwise related to the sport.
Because Baldwin’s injury was not related to
footbal 1, Fourakcr said, the athletic department’s
insurer, National Sports Underwriters, would
not cover the bill.
“I don’t sec us paying for anything else at
this point,” Fourakcr said. “We don’t feel we
have any responsibility for injuries Scott re
ceived in the shooting.” „ 4
Baldwin was shot by an Omaha police offi
cer when he allegedly tried to grab another
officer’s gun during a scuffle. Witnesses at the
scene said Baldwin, who was nude, was trying
to throw his body through a glass door.
Baldwin apparently was suffering his sec
ond psychotic episode in eight months when the
incident occurred.
See FOURAKER on 3
Bennett confident that
U.S. will win drug war
Drug use by young
is diminishing, says
former “drug czar”
By Jeremy Fitzpatrick
Staff Reporter
America is in a drug crisis, but not for the
first time, William Bennett said Thurs
day.
Bennett, who served as “drug czar” in
the Bush administration between 1989 and
1990, said the United States had endured an
other crisis with drug use in the late 1800s and
early 1900s.
“We cannot do this
lime what we did last
time,” he said. “...We
so successfully beat it,
we have forgotten it
ever happened.”
Bennett spoke be
fore about 1,250 people
at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts. His
lecture was sponsored
by the E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Is
William Bennett suc.s:
He said a drug war
was going on in the United Slates and in the
world. Somccvidcncc shows thatefforts against
illegal drug use arc succeeding in the United
Slates, he said.
Bennett said 23 million people used drugs
once a month in 1989. That number is down 40
percent, he said.
He said drug use among young people also
was declining — the single most important
factor in the drug war.
“If children arc getting the message, we are
prevailing,” he said. “And if you slop people at
the point of entry, you pretty much slow the
epidemic.”
One statistic that is not dropping, Bennett
said, is the number of people addicted to drugs.
“When people become addicted, a certain
percentage will not get off... for any reason,”
Students protest Bennett’s
stance on drugs. See story on 3.
he said.
Between 1 million and 1.5 million Ameri
cans arc addicted to drugs, Bennett said.
That number will be cut in half within 10
years, he said, because many of the addicts will
die.
Bennett spoke of the national drug strategy
that he helped develop when he served in the
Bush administration. The strategy still is widely
accepted, he said.
One of the principal elements of the strat
egy, he said, is interdiction,or the prevention of
drugs from entering the country.
“This is our country, and you can’t just stand
there and let people walk in with any poison
they want,” he said.
Bennett said the United States was too large
of a country to completely prevent the impor
tation of drugs. What he tried to do as drug c/.ar,
he said, was to raise the price of drug traffick
ing.
“We haven’t stopped (trafficking), but we
have made it more difficult,” Bennett said.
The United States also aimed its efforts at
negotiating with the countries where drugs
such as cocaine and heroin were produced,
Bennett said.
He said cocaine primarily was a product of
Bolivia, Peru and Colombia. Heroin, he said, is
imported from Laos, Burma and Thailand.
Negotiating with the countries produced
mixed results, he said.
“We did sec some efforts and some reduc
tion,” he said, “... and 1 think that’s an effort
we need to continue.”
Overall, Bennett said he was confident the
United States would win its war on drugs.
“1 think we will prevail in this effort,” he
said.
He isoptimistic, he said, because the Ameri
can people arc behind the drug war.
“The single most important thing was the
American people figuring out for themselves
that this was wrong,” he said.
bill would ban freshman parking
FromStatt Reports
I T NL freshmen may have to look clse
II where for parking spaces if AS UN sup
ports a bill banning first-year students
from parking on campus.
But AS UN President Andrew Sigerson said
he would be surprised if the Association of
Students of the University of Nebraska sup
ported the bill, which was written last year.
Sigerson said, however, that a ban on fresh
man parking would have a good chance of
being put into effect with
ASUN’s support.
Senators will discuss the
bill in two weeks, he said.
If AS UN supports the bill,
Sigerson said, the idea will
be presented to the Parking
Adv i sory Comm ittcc for con
If the bill passed, he said, the university
probably would obtain large parking lots off
campus for freshmen and provide a shuttle
service.