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Show REPORT FROM WASHINGTON . . . BURTON AMAZED AT JERRY RUBIN THREAT TO DESTROY MORMONS By Rep. Laurence J. Burton I could hardly believe what I read recency in the Utah papers! Jerry Rubin, Yippie leader and one of the "Chicago 7," told the Utah press corps that he intended to bring his Yippie organization and the B'ack Panthers to Salt Lake City to be headquartered there to "integrate the Mormon Church or destroy it," to use Rubin's words. Of course, what he said is absurd! But Jerry Rubin is protected by. the first article of the Bill of Rights. Now there is no one who holds our Constitution more sacred than I. Freedom of speech, guaranteed in the First Amendment, is a right to be cherished dearly; but when free speech is no longer responsible speech and is used as license to disrupt, it must be restrained. In the same manner, freedom of assembly must be restrained when huge, emotional crowds could force entry into buildings build-ings and inflict serious property prop-erty damage, or even take over governments. We don't want to dilute any of our freedoms, but "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and unless people recognize that freedom can co-exist only with a responsible re-sponsible citizenry can we continue con-tinue to be one of the truly free societies left in the world. But let's get back to Jerry Rubin! Mr. Rubin is one of those who, in the trial of the "Chicago 7," found himself charged in contempt of court for licentious use of speech foul and obscene language and deliberate and flagrant disruption disrup-tion of the courtroom. Rubin, four of his fellow defendants, and the defendants' two lawyers, law-yers, were given continuously-imposed continuously-imposed contempt sentences for Judge Hoffman's list of 160 seperate counts of contempt of court, sentences totaling 15 years and 25 days. Mr. Rubin was also one of the five defendants de-fendants found by the jury to have individually crossed state lines to foment violence in the Chicago streets. The much more important charge of a group conspiracy to cross state lines to incite riots during the 1988 Democratic National Convention Conven-tion was thrown out by the jury. Perhaps we should take a closer look at what happened in Chicago during the 4 months of the trial of this group charged under what is known as the "Rap Brown law," (which makes it a crime simply to cross a state line with riotous intent. The law was passed to prevent the sort of "outside agitation" of which SNCC leader H. Rap Brown was accused after the Cambridge, Cam-bridge, Md., riots of 1967. Originally Orig-inally this trial involved the "Chicago 8" but defendant Bobby Seale was split off from the group by Judge Hoffman because of the outrages he committed in the courtroom, sentenced to four years for contempt of court, and ordered to have a separate trial. We all remember the shocking shock-ing violence which took place at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, a new experience for us in America. Across the country, opinions were divided as to who should bear the primary burden of responsibility, the police or the demonstrators. As the trial began, we could well anticipate an-ticipate an emotion - packed proceeding. We were not disappointed. dis-appointed. The trial became what many have called a "circus." The defendants de-fendants came into Judge Julius Hoffman's courtroom convinced that a court representing repre-senting a system which they professed to despise could not treat them fairly and they therefore owed it no respect. They mocked the entire judicial judi-cial proceeding. Judge Hoffman Hoff-man was called many names, ranging from unflattering to obscene. Although the judge warned over and over again that outbursts such as those staged by the defendants would not be tolerated, the abuse continued. con-tinued. Finally, on Sunday, Feb. 15, the defendants and their lawyers were cited for contempt and jailed. The stiff-est stiff-est sentence, four years and 13 days, was given to William M. Kunstler, chief defense attorney. attor-ney. The defendants were jailed immediately. Bond was refused. Judge Hoffman ruled, "From the evidence in this case, from their conduct in this trial, I conclude that these are dangerous dan-gerous men to be at large." Many constitutional questions ques-tions are involved in these I cases, but many of us believe we have come to a point where ' the rights of society at large that is ,the common good outweigh other considerations. The last chapter of the Chicago Chi-cago trial has not been written, writ-ten, nor will it be for some time to come. Rennie Davis, one of the "Chicago 7," shouted to the , judge as he left the courtroom for jail, "Our jury will be in the streets tonight." And in the streets of Chicago, Washington, Wash-ington, and other cites across the nation, demonstrators did clash with police. So we are left to ponder, when does freedom of speech become freedom to create anarchy an-archy and thus become treason? Increasingly we must ask ourselves, our-selves, where shall we draw the line between the right to institute legitimate reform of the so-called "establishment," and the freedom to speak and assemble which, if improperly used, could incite revolutionary takeover of our institutions. These are the difficult questions ques-tions that will require cool heads and prudent answers in the months to come. |
