By The
Associated Press
Edited by Sarah Scalet
Men return home with spirit of march
WASHINGTON — Black men
energized by the huge rally in the
nation’s capital began spreading the
spirit Tuesday, making plans to clean
up inner-city neighborhoods back
home, register voters and simply help
each other survive.
As Washington got back to nor
mal, meanwhile, both black and white
members of Congress urged President
Cl inton to create a commission to study
America’s racial divisions.
After Monday’s long day, many
men traveled all night, tired but in
spired by the brotherhood they felt on
the national Mall. Others who only
saw the event on TV said they too
were uplifted.
“I hope it reverberates around the
country in energizing people right
where they are,” Joseph E. Lowery,
president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, told ABC
TV.
James Bolden Jr. caught some of
the event on television from his home
in Topeka, Kan. The speeches were
inspiring, Bolden said. But he hopes
the talk leads to action on issues such
as job discrimination.
“The march is general,” he said.
“We need to break it down and make
it more specific to the problems at
hand.”
Several members of Congress sent
Clinton a letter urging him to appoint
a commission on race relations “to
issue a report on the progress and
failures that our nation has made on
race since 1968.”
That was the year the Kerner Com
mission, appointed by President
Johnson, issued its famous study that
concluded “our nation is moving to
ward two societies, one black, one
white — separate and unequal.”
The letter was signed by Charles
Sehumer, D-N.Y., John Lewis, D-Ga.,
Jim Leach, R-Iowa, Bill McCollum,
R-Fla., Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District
of Columbia’s delegate.
Benjamin Chavis Jr., co-organizer
of the event, said plans were being
made for a black leadership summit
within the next 30 days, and that it
would reach out to churches and orga
nizations that didn’t endorse the Mil
lion Man March.
“The march was to mobili ze people
for action,” said Louis Farrakhan, the
leader of the Nation of Islam.
Even some black leaders and schol
ars who avoided the event because of
Farrakhan ’ s in flammatory statements
praised the event Tuesday, while con
tinuing to condemn past remarks by
Farrakhan that offended Jews, Catho
lics, Asians and others.
Several said they hoped the event
would help whites better understand
blacks and get people talking about
racial divisions. They cited Clinton’s
speech, made in Texas as black men
gathered in Washington, which called
on Americans to heal racial differ
ences.
“To see 400,000 black men disci
plined, non-violent, nobody drunk,
nobody making a disturbance, full of
positive feelings and spirituality, I
think that’s a wonderful antidote to
the rancid stuffHhat white Americans
see on the 11 o’clock news,” said
historian Roger Wilkins of George
Mason University.
Leaders allege undercount
WASHINGTON — The “Mil
lion Man March” lived up to its
name, leaders insisted Tuesday,
accusing the U.S. Park Service of a
racist undcrcount and threateninga
lawsuit.
“They falsely said to the world
that 400,000 black men came when
they well know there were more
than a million,” said Louis
Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of
Islam.
“There never was a demonstra
tion or gathering in the city of Wash
ington to equal what happened yes
terday,” he said at a news confer
ence. “For what reason would any
one fail to give us credit but rac
ism?”
The U.S. Park Service an
nounced hours after the daylong
event that about 400,000 people
had attended. That would make it
the fourth-largest demonstration
ever, some 200,000 short of the
anti-Vietnam War march in 1969.
“We don’t think we are racist;
we think we acted in a professional
way,” said Maj. Robert Hines,
spokesman for the park service,
which estimates crowds for major
Washington events.
“We know they are unhappy with
the count as have been a lot of other
organizations in the past,” he said.
The Rev. Benjamin Chavis, co
organizer of the event, said, “What
the U.S. Park Service reported in
terms of400,000 persons owes not
only us, but America some expla
nation.” March offices had received
“thousands of calls from persons
who wonder if they attended the
same event,” he said.
News ,
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Falsely accused black man sues police
BOSTON — Revisiting a painful episode in Boston’s racial history,
a black man falsely fingered as a suspect in the slaying of a pregnant
white woman is suing the police, accusing them of violating his civil
rights.
Police pressured teen-agers to identify William Bennett as the man
who killed Carol DiMaiti Stuart, Bennett’s lawyer Steven Rappaport
told a federal jury Tuesday. Stuart was shot in October 1989.
“What this case focuses on is (police) attempts and agreements
amongst themselves ... to pin the rap on William Bennett,” Rappaport
said. “In fact, they did coerce certain witnesses.”
Bennett, 45, is seeking unspecified damages.
Chris Muse, a lawyer for the five officers being sued, countered that
there was plenty of reason to suspect Bennett, a career criminal,
including testimony from two teen-agers who said they heard Bennett’s
nephew brag about his uncle’s role in the crime.
Florida woman challenges Wal-Mart
TAMPA, Fla. — Virginia Berger says she was looking lor the best
buy on over-the-counter medications when a Wal-Mart clerk told her to
put away her pen and paper.
Jotting down prices, she was told, is against store policy.
“I was so angry and embarrassed. I thought they were going to throw
me out,” Berger said Tuesday.
She sent two letters of complaint to corporate headquarters in
Bentonville, Ark., but hasn’t received a response.
A company spokeswoman—contradicting an earlier statement from
a company spokesman—said the whole thing was a misunderstanding.
“That was a mistake that shouldn’t have happened,” spokeswoman Jane
Bockholt said. “All customers have the right and are invited to write
down prices.”
Weekend car accident
claims UNL student’s life
By Ted Taylor
Staff Reporter
A 22-year-old University of Nc
braska-Lineoln junior died this week
end after losing control of his truck on
Interstate 29, near Dakota Dunes, S.D.
Funeral services were held Tues
day for Matthew Swanson, an occupa
tional therapy major, in his hometown
of Sioux Falls, S.D.
Swanson was on his way home Fri
day night for a weekend of hunting and
camping when the accident occurred,
said Roger Swanson, his father.
A South Dakota state trooper found
Swanson’s truck in the northbound
lane of the interstate after it had appar
ently rolled and crossed the median.
He was taken to a nearby hospital,
where he died 45 minutes later.
Roger Swanson described his son
who worked at Lincoln’s Homesteac
Health Care and Rehabilitation Cen
ter, as adventurous and hard working
“He had so many interests,” Rogei
Swanson said. “Sky diving, motorcy
cling, hunting, camping. He lovec
danger and people.”
His father said nearly 600 people
attended the 1 p.m. funeral.
“He had many friends, but most o
his friends were involved with hi!
work,” he said.
“He was equally as comfortabk
with kids his age as with older people,’
his father said. “He related well wit!
people, period.”
A memorial fund will be set up ii
Sioux Falls in Swanson’s name.
Reno approves uniform policy
about deadly force, officials say
WASHINGTON — Spurred by
intense criticism of special shoot-on
sight rules used by the FBI in the
standoff with white separatist Randy
Weaver, Attorney General Janet Reno
has approved a new uniform policy
for federal agents’ use of deadly force,
administration officials said Tuesday.
Under the new policy, law enforce
ment agents may use deadly force only
when they have a “reasonable” belief
there is an imminent danger of death or
serious physical injury to the agents or
other people, said the officials, speak
ing on condition of anonymity.
The policy also spells out condi
tions under which agents may shoot in
circumstances involving fleeing fel
ons and escaping prisoners, they said.
Deputy Attorney General Jamie
Gorelick planned to announce the new
policy Wednesday during an appear
ance before a Senate subcommittee
that’has been looking into the deadly
1992 siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, the
officials said.
The new policy would apply to law
enforcement agencies under Justice
Department authority, such as the FBI,
the U.S. Marshals Service and the
Bureau of Prisons, and to the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,
which is part of the Treasury Depart
ment. It would replace the individual
agencies’ shooting policies, which
vary somewhat.
Treasury officials also have ap
proved the policy, the officials said.
The new policy is an attempt to
enlarge the decision-making process
by tapping the advice of a large num
ber of government lawyers and others,
said an administration official who
demanded anonymity.
The FBI has been sharply criti
cized in the Senate hearings for its use
at Ruby Ridge of special shooting
orders saying that snipers “could and
should” fire at any armqd adult male
spotted outside the^Weavers’
mountainside cabin. \
The customary FBI shooting rule,
by contrast, restricts the use of lethal
force to protecting oneg£[por others
from imminent harm, yi
An FBI sniper shot Weaver’s wife,
Vicki, as she stood behind the cabin
door, holding her infant daughter on
Aug. 22, 1992. A day earlier, the
Weavers’ 14-year-old son, Sam, and
Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan
died in a gunfight that occurred as
federal agents scouted Weaver’s prop
erty in anticipation ofarrestinghimon
a weapons charge.
Five top FBI officials were sus
pended this summer amid a federal
criminal investigation into the destruc
tion of some Ruby Ridge documents
at FBI headquarters.
One of the officials, then-Deputy
FBI Director Larry Potts, approved
the shoot-on-sight orders used at Ruby
Ridge, according to testimony last
month by Eugene Glenn, the FBI field
commander at the scene.
Potts disputed that in subsequent
testimony. He said the deviation from
normal shooting rules was made by
lower-level FBI officials at Ruby
Ridge, not at Washington headquar
ters, after he had approved an earlier
version that said “can” —j- but not
“should” — shoot on sight.
Subway bomb sets off fears in Paris
PARIS — Mocking the efforts of
desperate police, the bombers terror
izing France blew up another crowded
subway car Tuesday, turning it into a
mass of mangled steel and thrashing
injured. -
The bomb wounded 29 people,
blowing off the legs and feet of some
riders. Authorities described it as a
steel canister filled with explosives
and hex nuts—the trademark device
of Algerian insurgents who have
waged a terror campaign in the French
capital since midsummer.
Rush hour was nearing full swing
when when the blast shredded the
second car of the RER regional sub
way train at 7:05 a.m., just as it
passed the Orsay Museum in the
heart of Paris.
Silvcr-helmetcd firefighters carried
writhing victims on stretchers out of
the Orsay Museum station, where com
muters described a darkened tunnel
filled with smoke and cries for help
from injured passengers.
Red-and-white police tape ringed
the entrance to the station next to the
art museum, and fire, police and res
cue vehicles filled the street. Helicop
ters airlifted out the most seriously
hurt.
The site of the attack seemed to
mock authorities’ efforts to halt the
terror campaign by Algerian extrem
ists, who have claimed responsibility
for seven other deadly bombings or
attempts. Islamic militants object to
France’s financial support ofthe mili
tary-installed government in Algeria,
a former colony.
The explosion occurred between
the St. Michel and the Orsay Museum
stations along the Seine River in cen
tral Paris and across from the Louvre
Museum. The subway line is a main
artery used by commuters living in
middle-class suburbs south and west
of the French capital.
“We’re all a little bit traumatized
right now. It’s happened too many
times,” said Anne Guescoux, who fear
ful ly took the same subway line to her
suburban home late Tuesday.
“There’s a psychosis now among
the population. No one knows what to
do.”
NetJraskan
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