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Show - The Salt Lake Tribune, Byproduct of Values i I Tuesday May 7, 19H5 A17 Despite Drop, Crime Rates Remain High (: By Gilbert Geis Special to the Los Angeles Times To the considerable delight of federal officials, crime rates continue on a downward path. Earlier in April, the Justice Departments Bureau of Justice Statistics reported a 4.5 percent nationwide decline in major crimes for 1984. Household burglaries and larcenies fell to the lowest level for the dozen years that the numbers have been collect- 9 it ed. These figures came on the heels of earlier statistics documenting even more encouraging patterns. In 1983, the Federal Bureau of Investigation noted that 12.1 million crimes had become known to the police, compared with 12.9 million in 1982. This represented a 7 percent decline, the largest drop in the 24 years that the agency has been collecting comparable figures. It also was the first time that the crime rate had gone down for two successive periods. The 1983 decline, besides, took place in all geographic regions of the country and held for cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Gilbert Geis is a professor of social ecol-og- y at the University of California, Irvine. The FBIs Uniform Crime Report, however, said that reported crime, despite an overall decrease for the year, rose 2 percent in the last quarter of 1984, in contrast with the same period in 1983, and that rapes and aggravated assaults rose at the fastest pace since 1980. Crime was thrust into the national political limelight for the first time in 1964 during the presidential campaign between Barry Goldwater and Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwa-te- r deplored what he characterized as an intolerably high level of crime, blaming what he called soft, mollycoddling attitudes of Democrats for this condition. But two difficulties plagued Republicans who came to occupy the k hue House during much of the next two decades. Particularly vexing was the fact that the crime rate con- tinued what appeared to be an inexorable rise. It also became increasingly obvious that there was not much that the president could do to affect these figures; crime largely fell under state, not federal jurisdiction. The party in power came to live uneasily with the dismal crime statistics. Republicans continued to advocate tough measures against crime, and found a useful diversionary tactic through support of crime victims. This last platform was immune to political challenge, except in terms of cost during times of fiscal constraint. Now, however, with the reported declines, federal officials stand on much friendlier ground. Reagan appointees have been quick to demand credit for the drop. William French Smith, attorney general when the most recent FBI figures were announced, proclaimed that the numbers are telling us we are turning back crime, not just holding out against it. Smith was intent upon pushing aside those who insisted that demographics accounted for the decrease. From 1972 to 1980, he maintained, crime had soared 40 percent, even though the percentage of persons in the population aged 14 to 24, the notably crime-pron- e group, had declined. He felt that, while no single factor could account for the decline, certainly the effort of massive federal the last four years has played a major role. Joining Smith were Steven Schlesinger and Jeffrey Sedgwick of the federal Bureau Les Payne Police Brutality No Scandal, Its Just an Official Policy From Newsday Any day now the City of New York will likely appoint a commission to prove that Mayor Edward I. Koch has a full head of hair. The grand metropolis, abetted by the local media, will accept as truth any lie no matter how ludicrous, so long as it bears the official stamp of some Gray Eminence, hired at public expense, to chair an ordained commission. Whenever the water gets up around his neck on a given issue, Gods Chosen Mayor, wise to the tides of the media, hands off a bucket to yet another commission. The latest to come our way, at our expense, was the Liman Commission. This panel was charged with determining whether Dr. Elliot M. Gross, the citys medical examiner, was guilty of misconduct in the handling of 12 controversial deaths. The propriety of the use of force by police was at issue in seven of those cases. While painfully noting that the administration of the medical examiners office, from top to bottom, was in shambles, the panel, not surprisingly, cleared Gross of any wrongdoing. However, the seven cases especially those of Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Stewart and Raymond Diaz pace about the City Hall ramparts like the ghost of Hamlets father. The circumstances detailed in the commission report and elsewhere again raise troubling question about the way New York City police confront blacks and Hispanics. d This deadly use of police force is a menace plaguing all of the state in these troubled times. In the past 18 months, five Bumpurs and Stewart in New York have died under City and three upstate questionable circumstances during confrontations with police. In nonlethal cases, police misuse of their authority and power along racial lines is far more widespread. Furthermore, charges of police brutality from the black community, no matter how well documented, most often fall on deaf ears in City Hall. In the fall of 1983, congressional hearings chaired by Rep. John Conyers, cited 98 cases of alleged citizen abuse. Koch boycotted one session of the hearings as a circus" and a a political rally" of his enemies. Instructed, by Koch, to review the 98 cases against it, the New York City Police Department concluded that none was proven brutality." After circulating the report, Koch blasted Conyers broader charge of systematic racial abuse as "totally untrue," and an attempt by the congressman to besmirch our name . . after hearing only one side. Recent charges of police brutality, this time in the 106th Precinct, have again directed attention to Kochs police force. The men who have come forward in the escalating 106th Precinct brutality case have all been black or Hispanic. To date, five cops, including the precincts "integrity officer," have been indicted for assault and misconduct in the torture scandal. Ali of the The violence is not arbitrary or even personal. True, a precinct sadist may have been selected for the more gruesome aspect of the interrogation, but this was merely fitting the right man to the job. The specific purpose to this police brutality appears to have been the promotion of safe streets for white New Yorkers. Charged with keeping blacks in their place, the police set to terrorizing and intimidating black males walking the streets. This was one of the underlying objectives of the 106ths Street Narcotics Apprehension Program. And since such patrolling serves the larger purpose of the dominant New York City society, the cops who dish out this terror with the possible exception of the five caught under the klieg lights, who left telltale scars are not likely to be punished, but promoted. cops are white. The case broke recently when Mark Davidson, arrested on a minor drug possession charge, claimed that two of the cops tortured him with a stun gun. Several other victims, their burn marks visible, have since come forward. In recent times, police had mastered the art of either leaving no bruises or holding suspects until the bruises healed. The 106th $ M 1 h V x . inquisitors apparently are still working the bugs out of the stun gun as their conversation-opener of choice. More amazing than the police leaving telltale scars is the publics mock surprise that their "finest have taken to torturing black suspects. Some suggest that the torturing was the work of a few officers with mean streaks. History shows, however, that precinct brutality of the 106th variety is not merely that of an individual bad actor. It is official racial terror, with a calculating logic, serving the purposes of fhe dominant society. Sedgwick emphasized, are effectively kept from committing further offenses at least against those on the other side of the walls. This continuing debate about crime figures and the proper explanation for them overlooks several fundamental points, however. For one thing, it remains decline arguable whether the three-yea- r represents the beginning of what will prove to be a continuing trend or whether it is nothand idiosyncrating mote than a short-teric fluctuation. For another, the discussion slides attention away from the most uncomfortable fact of all: Whether it is going down or rising, the crime rate in the United States continues to be one of the highest in the world, and in the face of an imprisonment rate believed to be greater than that of all major countries except South Africa and the Soviet Union. Crime has not truly gone down much in the United States; there is just a little less recently. And, of course, none of the official statistics tally white-colla- r offenses, though losses from these in terms of dollars far surpass deprivations from street crimes. Crime is essentially a byproduct of our values and our social, political and economic system. It will be reduced significantly dramatically, not superficially only by altering the rules of the game we play by and' the things we believe in. Undoubtedly, most of us dont think this is worth doing. We enjoy the good, and we tolerate the bad, though we may get a bit graceless about the latter, and climb aboard Band-Ai- d bandwagons, demanding death penalties and tougher sentences for crime. It is not truly the age structure that drives crime rates it is what it means to be a certain age. Criminals hurt and deprive other people because they fail to feel empathy for them. They do not adequately comprehend and sympathize with what it means to be maimed, to be raped, to have a dwelling place invaded and plundered, to be terrified in a mugging. They lack compassion and kindness. That they have not developed such feelings tells us that we have failed to make sensitive people out of them, that we have been unable to persuade them that there is a g better life to be had by living in a manner. Street criminals may often be angry and threatening, but they were not born that way, and had they been born elsewhere they might well have taken other paths. What is our nations glory its freedom, its ingenuis its competitiveness ity, its what creates its shame as well. Crime is certainly caused by those who commit it, and they must take responsibility for what they do. But it also is a problem for all of us. We must replace cynicism about crime with a sense of deep moral outrage, that we find law breaking indecent and unacceptable. Merely escalating punitive responses will not be as effective as emphasizing wrongfulness. We should castigate the of-- i fense but still value the offender as a human being. The difficulty, of course, is that as a nation we do not truly possess these kinds of views and beliefs that would inhibit crime. On a national level, the president conveys a personal sense of honesty and trustworthiness, but he displays little sensitivity to the difficulties of those who disproportionately commit crimes. e, Minor fluctuations of crime rates, however absorbing the search for explanations may be, will not alter the fact that as a country we have an extraordinary amount of crime. And that fact will only change appreciably when we no longer view crime as an individual phenomenon, but as a consequence of our shared belief. race-relate- . of Justice Statistics, who stressed the role in reducing crime lo the increasing use of imprisonment to punish offenders In I960, they noted, 18 percent of arrests had resulted in imprisonment, but that figure had fallen to 6 2 percent by 1970 Now it was up above 8 percent Persons in prison, Schlesinger and we have it! They look better as allies than penitents. The Public Forum Tribune Readers Opinions Church Has Letter new car. I woke up in a hospital not knowing where I was nor what I had done. In your page l story of Monday, April headlined Smith Letter Seems to Have Disappeared From View, staff writer Dawn Tracy correctly quoted my statement to her that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints doesnt have a letter purportedly written in 1825 by Joseph Smith to Josiah Stowel (or Stoal) either in the church archives or in the First Presidencys vault. My statement, however, was in error, for which I apologize and for which I alone am responsible. Some months ago I was asked the same question by another inquirer and made a thorough check before responding. Dawn Tracy called me twice as she prepared her article and I responded without checking again. When my published statement came to his attention, President Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency of the church, informed me of my error. The purported letter was indeed acquired by the church. For the present it is stored in the First Presidency archives and perhaps some day may be the subject of the kind of critical study recently given to the purported letter of Martin Harris to W.W. Phelps. JERRY CAHILL Director, Public Affairs Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y Saints I never remembered stepping into my car, let alone driving it. I was fortunate. k I paid for it with a heavy fine and a course on DUI, not to mention double insurance costs for five years. I dont feel that was a stiff penalty. I thank the Lord every day that I did not kill B-- 29, DUI Laws Too Stiff? In response to Diane Talbots letter in the April 28 Forum on DUI laws, I have a firsthand experience I would like to relate. In October 1977, 1 got into my car after drinking a large quantity of alcohol. I ended up down a cliff, totalling my brand- 200-fo- Michael Kilian Are They All Turning Into Bad Sports? Chicago Tribune Service Whatever it is that is the United States Football League has announced that it is going to shift its season to the fall. The leagues Tampa Bay Bandits, however, have announced theyre going to continue playing in the spring. Worse, theyve announced theyre going to form an entirely new spring football league. WASHINGTON - In other words, the football season is now going to last the entire year, competing with the baseball season, which Im told will now extend to Thanksgiving, and the basketball season, which lasts 10 years. I am against this, for a very elementary reason. I am a man. I believe in manly pursuits. Therefore I follow womens athletics. e seaAnd I'm afraid that this USFL son shift, though it may otherwise otherwise have all the consequence of a U.N. resolution, is going to cut into my action. full-tim- I have friends who consider themselves macho because they are overweight, swill the puny American version of beer, sport Green Bay Packers beanies and, every autumnal Sunday, sit transfixed in front of their television sets watching football. And what are they watching? A bunch of g men in silly, costumes throwing themselves on each other, or, when not hugging, running to the end of the field, slamming the football onto the ground and pertight-fittin- roe whines and swears. I can hear the same sounds at the zoo. Me, I like Chris Evert Lloyds unclad Pat Bradlegs. I like Pam Shrivers leys elbows and Amy Alcotts knees. I can spend an entire afternoon observing Zola Budds fleet bare feet (when Mary Deckers spikes arent in them) and happily stay up till 3 am. watching the U.S. Olympic womens volleyball team. Even in the days whe.i Gale Sayers could scamper a hundred yards like the Invisible Man and Dick Butkus was chewing off ears, football never worked such magic on me. Neither had Jan Stephensons hip alignment or I dont mean this as a declaration of Alan Alda, Ed Asner wimpdom. I ran the mile in track in high school and played quarterback in Army football while with the 82nd Airborne Division. If turned down for manager of my colleges womens field hockey team, it wasnt for lack of prowess. But my philosophy is simply this: As much as one admires athletic skill (and Mary Lou Retton can tumble into my bowl of Wheaties any day), isnt it more manly to want to watch girls demonstrate it instead of boys? I mean, God did not create two different sexes just to improve earned run averages. If the USFL now has its way, the televi- follow-throug- Twig- gy All other supposedly masculine sports are simply variations on this theme. Baseball is mostly men scratching themselves for entire afternoons. In wrestling, men grapple with each others sweaty fat. In tennis, which invariably seems to feature a half-nake- d game between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, we are compelled to observe their En- airy legs while Connors grunts and theyre not going to create new airtime by eliminating professional bowling (of which 15 minutes of compulsory viewing, I think, is a violation of the Geneva Convention), or auto racing, which manages to make cars speeding at 500 miles an hour look like theyre searching for a supermarket parking spaces. Boxing, which is manly in the way that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were manly, will not go, either, nor will public televisions professional shuffleboard. What will go, because of television executives whose idea of sex runs to Joan Collins, Victoria Principal and Tom Selleck, will be Pam Shriver's and Amy Alcotts knees. It's the same sort of logic that has Catherine Deneuve selling Chanel No. 5 and Joe Namath selling mens cologne. One year, I think, he was even selling pantyhose. I never bought any. The Way It Was forming silly dances worthy of the androgynous Michael Jackson. If not are going to turn over all the nation's weekend afternoons to midfield hugging and end zone prancing and dancing. Something will have to go as a consequence, because Saturday mornings are all taken up by Bugs Bunny reruns and Sunday mornings by Caspar Weinberger, George Will and Howard Baker reruns. As the networks are run by mental giants whose chief talent is having lunch, I know sion networks Here are briefs from The Salt Lake Tribune of 100, 50 and 25 years ago. May 7, 1885 The prospects for a declaration of wir between the Herald and the News are favorable. May 7, 1935 Officers for the coming year will be elected by the Utah section, Amerjaan Soci- - ety of Mechanical Engineers, at a dinner and business meeting at the Newhouse Hotel Thursday. May 7, 196C The Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake City will support its claim for water from Utah Lake in the face of intense opposition at a hearing May 13 in the Utah County courthouse k six-wee- anvbody. Yes, drunk drivers do have to go on living, but so do innocent people. Was it my right to step into that car? I hardly think so. M.L. MUNSON Cruel Educators Its time parents in this community wake up and listen to their children when they come home and complain of the treatment they receive at school from not only their teachers, but especially from counselors, vice principals and principals. This was brought to our attention abruptly by the Midvale M.ddle School. Our daugh- - Forum Rules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writers true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to the Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, Post Office Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT 84110. ter, who attends this school and carries a B average, was accused of sluffing her classes. I told the vice principal she had been home at my request. He would not listen to me, nor my husband when he telephoned him about his rude behavior. I do not want my daughter attending a school where they are treated like communists. At Midvale Middle School, children are punished for even the smallest act and are sent to the Detention Room" for a minimum of one hour to sit and stare at the walls. The next time your child talks to you about a cruel teacher or a vice principal who is too strict, stop and listen your tax dollars are paying his or her salary and you have a say about what goes on in the schools. It may be your last chance before your son or daughter decides to strike out on their own and become a member of one of the fastest growing societies we have today dropouts. MARK A. CRAIG KATHY S. CRAIG Give Us a Break object strongly to your April 16 editorithat "state tax rates havent changed much the past couple of years, indicating that taxpayers still havent fully compensated for their propensity to propagate." Not all If Utahs taxpayers have this some of great "propensity to propagate" us take into consideration the costs of raising children before we have so many we cant really afford. Its about time parents of the school-agchildren pay the bills for their education. As it is now with all their tax deductions (plus the big tax benefit if they are tithe payers), they do not contribute any to the taxes of the state. It all falls on those of us who have limited the size of our families so we could maybe afford a few extras, which we cant because were taxed so high to pay for everyone elses childrens education. Like with the beer and aleohol consum ers, and the cigarette smokers, the people with the problems should pay for them. So these people with the great "propensity to propogatc" should pay for their problems also. Give the rest of us a break! I al stating e j JAN CARSON |