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Show 3 Wilkinson cuts Nixon, 'most repressive' laws stifle civil rights by REX NUTTING Chronicle Staff "We have never had an adminis-H adminis-H tration as repressive as the Nixon administration. And we now have up co-ordinate repression. All three id, branches of government, executive, legislative and judicial, are in agreement about repression. If we ft don't do something about this very quickly and very strongly, we are going to have a police state," said i Frank Wilkinson, Executive Direc-( Direc-( tor of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, II Tuesday. Mr. Wilkinson's topic was the Nixon Court, but he included at- f tacks against the House Internal Security Committee and the "Nix-on-Agnew-Mitchell-Kleindienst ad- t ministration." An organized crime bill was used lf:' by Mr. Wilkinson to show the ex- :' tent of repressive legislation in Ks America. This bill allows the gov- ' ernment to give the judge any ad- 1 ditional information about the de-mi: de-mi: fendant, without his knowledge, to decide if an additional 25 years 1 should be added to his sentence. ' The effect of this bill is minimal I on organized crime, but would T likely affect civil disobedience ac- tions. 1 "We have taken long first steps towards a police state," explained Mr. Wilkinson. He quoted William : Shirer, a noted historian of Nazi Germany, "We might be the first people to go fascist by the democratic demo-cratic vote!" "Is it possible that good old-fashioned police work could have got these convictions without taking away our constitutional guarantees? Mr. Wilkinison went on to attack William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee ap-pointee to the Supreme Court, "Rehnquist said, 'The President is above the law. He doesn't have to get a court order to tap." The administration ad-ministration admits to at least 500,000 tapped conversations without with-out a court order. None led to convictions. con-victions. Mr. Wilkinson also commented that "the Army has been engaged in a lot of surveillance of civilian life. They have dossiers on over 20 million people." But when Sen. Adlai Stevensonlll and others sued the Army to stop the surveillance, "This administration went to the Supreme Court and urged the Court to put an end to the trail. The Army surveillance trial could not be conducted. con-ducted. The attack turned to the Court more directly when Wilkinson charged "Nixon has been nominating nominat-ing out and out racists." He singled sin-gled out Justice Rehnquist. But Justice Blackmun was also attacked attack-ed because he sold some stock he had in the Ford Motor Company so he could cast a tie-breaking vote on a decision involving Ford. "We're supposed to respect that kind of mentality." "Chief Justice Burger had an aide tell Speaker of the House Carl Albert that he wanted the Consum-mer Consum-mer Protection Bill of 1972 killed. The Supreme Court has now upheld up-held loyalty oaths again. These first oaths are applied against orderlies in a Massachusetts General Hospital. Hospi-tal. "Exactly like we went through in the McCarthy period. This is very serious encrochment." According to Mr. Wilkinson, the , i current hysteria about crime began -y in the 1968 campaign when Nixon and Agnew demanded a tough t- court. In the four years of the Nix-- on administration, "We have all these repressive laws on the books. Now Kleindienst is touring the Southwest telling us that Nixon has solved the problem of crime; that we're over the hill. It is a lie." "According to the latest FBI crime report, every category is up I since the Johnson administration. I For example, murder is up 29 J percent, rape is up 33 percent, robbery rob-bery is up 43 percent. These are 't the ,acts-" "Some will say, 'So crime is up, o: that just means we need these laws ., more' but these laws are just not .,, working," said Mr. Wilkinson. "In " the first two years of wiretapping, '"' 61,400 persons were 'officially' tap-; tap-; Ped. This is 10 times the number 0 the FBI claims is engaged in or-ree or-ree -' 9ariized crime. Over 622,292 con-versations con-versations were 'officially' tapped. ; -But the net results? Just 151 con-pj,,' con-pj,,' victions in two years. |