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Show Che Salt LakeTribune Page A10 PINIO TUESDAY, DECEMBER1, 1998 OUR VIEW The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Position Using the Chair With Care County governments in Utah may not have hadthe same dreadful experi- ence with restraint chairs as the state has, but they shouldstill heed the sorry lesson of the Michael Valent case. Counties must ensure that such devices are used only as a last resort and only understrict supervision. Accordingto a recent report in The Tribune, four of thestate's five most populous counties use restraint chairs to control prisoners, even though the state has imposed a moratorium on their use in the wake of the death of Valenta year anda half ago. Valent, a mentally ill inmateat the state prison, died after being strappedin a restraint chair for 16 hours So, are county law enforcementofficials more cautious in the use of such restraining devices than Utah State Prison officials evidently were? Do prisoners? Obviously, the Valent way was wrong. Greater care, perhaps in the form of a separate mental-health facility, must be ensured. Also, the counties must deal with booking lawbreakers, which means dealing with them atan excitabletime. So they may have moreneedforutilizing temporary restraint techniques. In Weber County, for example, the re- straint chair is kept in the booking area andis used during that process. But even at that, Weber County findsitself in a legal skirmish over nse of the chair. A woman who has been charged with assault on an officer for her resistance to being placed in the chair is claiming “justifiable self-defense” in her case. That raises the question: Does a person who knowsthe effect the chair had on Valent have a rightto resist being placedin it? Pendingthe judge's answerto that they face circumstances warranting useof this dangeroustoolthatstate officials do not? If the state has abandoned the chair, shouldn’t other Utah law enforcemententities do the same? Thesituations are somewhat differ- straining out-of-control prisoners and the threat they can posetoofficials, but ent. For one thing, the state's misuse of the high visibility of the Valent case the chair in the Valent case underscored a deeper question, one that is notso applicable to the counties: How shouldthe state deal with mentally ill question, the surest way for counties to be safe from legal challengesis to use the chair sparingly, if at all. Nobody Tony Blair, the Laborite British prime minister who exemplifies a new, voting rights. Some 550 appointed life peers, like former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, would retain their today is largely powerless. It has been so for some time now,butitstill has enough authority to delay things. For example, it can delay nonfinancial legislation up to a year. Depending on what is being delayed, especially if its position resonates with big segmentsof the public, those tactics can be downright pernicious to a government's schemes. This idea seemingly is lurking behind Blair's proposals. Just recently, Tory-led members of the Houseof Lordsdefied Blair's plans for elections to the European Parliament forthe fifth time. Especially perturbing about this is the fact that the seats. Atleast for now. Whatwould comenextis less clear. Perhaps the Lords would continue as an appointed body, working in conjunction with the elected and more Blair's plan calls for “closed lists” of candidates that would limit voters to powerful House of Commons. choosing parties, not candidates Or it could becomea fully or partly elected body like the U.S. Senate. Hereditary peerstend to be conser- vative and many are aligned with the Conservative or Tory party rather than with Labor. This political and ideological fact doubtless plays a role in the Blair government's discoverythat the upper house badlyneeds reforming. The hoary upper house of Parlia- ment — it dates to the Middle Ages — Lords’ position is the populist one. It apparently was enoughtoinfuriate the prime minister. In a recent newspaper essay, Blair wrote of the European Parliamentelections vote: “ they [the Lords] loved it. Wallowedin it. Becametruly excited.” The words betray a less than reformist motive. For a new kind of middle-way liberal, they reveal a real close-minded animus toward anyone or anything that stands ii opposition. ANOTHER VIEW ity had hungits hopes for an impeachment mandate ontestimony from Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. But his Having a Western Primary (Tribune, Nov. 16) isn’t going to solve the real problem we have in selecting a president. Granted, it might make the candidates pay more attention to Western problems and values, but the problem isn’t with getting the candidates’ attention, it’s the candidates themselves. Being old enough to remember World Wer II, I'm also old enough to remember when political conventions meant something. There was a time when delegates didn’t go to the conventiens pledged to the candidate that wonthestate primary. Our current system will not allow the convention delegates to draft someone who hasn't participated in the degrading, marathon, deal-making of the primary elections. The problem is that no able man or woman in his or her right mind will sub- ject themselves and their family to six months of travel, speeches, compromises and back-room deals just to have the opportunityto run for president. Instead of good men running for president, we get the shopworn, Washington insiders. Instead of men with proven ability in the real world, we get career politicians. Is there anyone out there whoreally believes Bill Clinton would be president today if the Republicans had drafted Colin Powell during their last conven- tion? For that matter, is there anyone who doesn’t think Scott Matheson would have been a better candidate and a better president than George McGovern? If we have to have presidential primaries, why not limit campaigns to two weeksprior to the election? In fact, why notlimit all campaignsto the two weeks canfind all they need to knowabout a Defining Perjury to batter President Clinton, the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on perjury for this week. Two weeks ago, the committee’s GOP major- Letters from The Tribune’s readers How Notto Select a President before the election? Anyone who cares From The Miami Herald Desperateto find a cudgel with which THE PUBLIC FORUM addsan extra burden to the use of restraint chairs in Utah. Countyofficials should utilize them onlyin extremecircumstancesandonly with greatcare. Booting the Lords if somewhat ephemerally defined “middle way,” apparently will brook no opposition. Atleast this appearsto be the sentimentdrivinghisyetstill unclear plans to “reform” the House of Lords. The government proposes that hereditary peers — the 759 lords,ladies, earls, marquesses, countesses, baronesses and viscounts — shouldlose their "GRANDMA IS WASHING MERRILLs MOUTH OUT INIT SOAP. should minimize the difficulty of re- candidate in two weeks. GEORGE HAWKINS. Bountiful Qo lines to recommend at leastonearticle of impeachment, and perhapsthree,to the House. Even if the House impeaches Clinton, which seemsless and lesslikely, there aren't enough votes in the Senate to convict him. To some lawmakers, the idea that the Aid as Evangelism Perhaps we should be grateful to the LDS Church for its recent charitable donations and distributions to the fine people of Honduras recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Mitch. Espe- Where to Write @ Whensubmittingletters to the Public Forum,pleaseinclude your full name,signature, address and daytime telephone numbers. Information other than your nameand thecity in which you live are keptconfidential. W Keepit short. Concise letters developing a single themeare morelikelyto be published Pleasetype and double space. M Letters are condensed and edited. ™ Because of the volume of mail received, notall submissions are published. 1 Mail to Public Forum,TheSalt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City Utah 84110 | Ourfax numberis (801) 237-2316. SS Boorish Treatment Recently, my 15-year-old son wastrying to obtain information and insight concerning the proposed flag burning amendment. It had beena topic in one of his classes, and hesincerely wanted to form his own opinion. He read informa- tion about the amendment, and discussed it with family members and friends. Hecalled Sen. Orrin Hatch’sof- fice to see if he could get the senator's perspective. He did not expect Sen. Hatch to answer the phoneand chat with him, but he did expect to speak to some- one whocould share the senator’s view on the amendment. An aide answered the phone, which wasnotsurprising, and my son explained what he was seeking. Thefirst thing out of the aide’s mouth was “Don’t you have access to the Internet?” Since my son had called a human for interpersonal contact. he was somewhat put off with the question. When hewas told that no, we didn’t have access to the Internet at that point, the aide hurriedly read through a coupleof pagesof data, going through them so fast that my son could not even understand at times. The entire phone calllasted less than five minutes. Whatever happened to people-to- people contact, and theelected officials’ connection to the “little person?’ Computers are great, but they obviously should not replace all human communication, We were, needless to say, not impressed with Sen. Hatch’s office staff and its response to this query for infor- steady the panel's badly listing partisan ship than did his steamy written report quarrythat they have chased for so long mayescapeis so repugnantthat they're cially heartwarming is how the church unwilling to let go. Among these are some who see censuringthe President as managed to persuade the U.S. Air Force to fly their hoard all the way to Hondu- hearingto illuminate furtherits position tion provides only for impeaching, not censuring, a president. Moreover, having the president stand in the well of the House to be rebuked would weaken the presidency and unduly shift the Consti- As announced, 80 percent of this stash will be distributed through the local LDS infrastructure to LDS families, with the mation. I'm sure that those office aides save the senatora lotof time andeffort, Mormon distribution. Currently, there ing people right off the phone. words contained no more ballast to Now the committee wants a public that perjury is a serious crime, worthyof the Constitution's “high crimes and misdemeanors” and sufficient to justify a committee vote to recommend that the full House impeach the president. The committee will cali on convicted perjurers, perjury experts, and others to bolster its view. The day-of-perjury will likely reinforce the Judiciary Committee's unfor- tunate imageas ideologically warped. Opting for perjury testimonyconfirms the obvious: The committee has no good options. It likely will vote along party anacceptable outcome. But the Constitu- tution’s intricately woven balance of powers. Censureis a clumsywayof saving face — but at an unacceptablecost to the Constitution and to precedent Clinton already has suffered serious public “censure” to his integrity and to his piacein history. If Congress lacks the votes to impeach him, it should just drop its inquiry and reject unworthy alternatives such as censure. TheSaltLakeTribune UTAH’S INDEPENDENTVOICE SINCE 1871 PAST PUBLISHERS John F. Fitzpatrick (1924-1960) John W. Gallivan (1960-1983) Jerry O'Brien (1983-1994) PUBLISHER Dominic Welch EDITOR JamesE. Shelledy KEARNS-TRIBUNE CORPORATION,143 S. MAIN ST. SALT LAKE CITY, 84111 ras. remaining 20 percentavailable for nonare approximately 5.7 million peoplein Honduras, of whom only about 60,000 are LDS; which leaves 20 percent of their charity for about 5.6 million people and 80 percent for their own 60,000 em- bracing Mormonism What is even more surprising is that the Air Force isn't billing the LDS Churchfortheir participation in whatis essentially little more than a massive LDSmissionary activity, rather than humanitarian perse. The up side, at least in Salt Lake City, is that this action will quite probably bring newadherents, or converts, into Mormonism — at least for the duration of the emergency. Why should the American taxpayer subsidize Mormon evangelism with U.S Air Force manpower and equipment, particularly to serve orassist only about 1 percent of the target population impacted by the disaster? Oh,well, another Happy Day in Zion. Gifts are always more meaningful when you can get someone else to pay for them. PETER WELLS Salt LakeCity and I guess that they save themselves a lot of time andeffort too, by just directI don’t suppose that Sen. Hatch will waste a lot of time worrying about one 15-year-old. But I was really disappointed that thefirst time my sontried to ac- cess oneofhis senators, he was met with such hurried indifference. DOROTHY PENDLETON Salt Lake City a Impose Teen Curfew I agree completely with your editorial “Teen Violence Must Stop” (Tribune, Nov. 11). However, I have a question: What is any teen-ager doing out at 2 a.m.? We need to implement and enforce a 10 p.m. curfew for all teen-agers. With the help of parents, schools, churches and law enforcement, we can getrid of the gangs and gunsand stop the violence. Repeat offenders should be fined and jailed, along with their parents if necessary. We can set an examplefor the rest of the country and save manylives. JOHN DUNLAP Salt Lake City Drugged Drivers Recently the Draper City Council vet- ed 4-1 against allowing a liquorlicense for the South Mountain Golf Course. This vote shows the mentality that the elected officials have in this state when the word alcoholis mentioned. If the council or the Draperresidents against“gassed golfers” had done some checking of the data, they would have found that the state experienced in excess of 300 total fatalities in fiseal year 1997 andoutof thattotal, 75 were alco- hol/drug related. The final breakdown was 52 alcoholrelated and 23 were prescripticn/illegal drug related. These numbers tell me that the state leads the nation in prescription drug abuse and the total numbers certainly verify our problem. For some reason, a lot of the do-gooderorganizations in this state seem to think it is OK to pop a couple of Valium or Prozac and then drive vehicles. This problem is whythe siate has hadto train about 130 police officers to remove those drivers impaired on prescription drugs. Youare just as impaired on tranquilizer drugs as you are onalco- hol. Incidentally, only 20 percent of our 1997 fatalities were alcohol/drugrelated. It used to be in excess of 50/60 percent. So with the above data, I have come to the conclusion that an organization called Draperresidents against drugged driving should be organized. I am much more concerned at the young mother with up to 6 to 8 unrestrained kidsin her van with an ear phone hanging outof her headthan a possible gassed driver coming off the golf course. RICHARD K. HOWARD Draper Oo Charitable Giving Thank youfor the interesting and in- formative article (Tribune, Nov. 21) describing the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Your readers maybeinterested to knowthat contributions to this very worthy cause can be madebypayroll deduction through the Community Shares of Utah (CS/U) campaign. The Interfaith Hospitality Network is only oneof 25 charities that benefit from the Community Shares Campaign. In ad- dition to selected human service chari- ties, like the Interfaith Hospitality Net- work, Community Shares is the only organization in Utah that provides the opportunity for nonprofits that support the arts, the environmentand animal-related causes to raise money through workplacegiving. JAMES A. BURNS President of the CS/U Board Qo Loyalty Spurned I too have been “pondering” what Karl Malone said recently overthe radio. 1am not a hugefan of basketball, but I do understand the loyalty that fans give their team. I have noticed that Malone has done nothing but disgrace the Jazz. Malone, think about what and who you were when you came to Utah. Think aboutall those bad times when you shot bad, or made lousy passes or during the play-offseries last year when your shooting was an embarrassment, and how the fans stood beside you. Now you badmouth everyone, including the fans. As forthestrike, I hope it continues so players like Malone will get a taste of reality. Larry Miller, kick Malone to the curb and get some more John Stocktons and other players who wantto play and not be overpaid crybabies. TOM MANSELL Escalante _ POOR¢ |
