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Show The Paper That Dares To Take A March 17, 1977 The Utah Independent Page 7 Stand The Mischief Of E.R.A. Woman cabby raped By STEVE JOHNSON Minneapolis Star Staff Writer woman cabdriver A was raped by a passenger about 4:30 a.m. today. It was the second such incident reported recently. Yellow Cab Co. officials blamed the incidents on a civil right complaint that forced companies to let women drive night shifts. The cabdriver, who works for Yellow Cab, gave police a billfold left behind by the man she said man was raped her. A arrested a few hours later. ld THE MAN directed her west on Plymouth Av. N. and told her to turn south on Morgan Av. N. When she told him it seemed they were going the wrong way, the man ordered her to pull the cab over, turn out the lights and shut off the engine, she said. He then tried to pull her into the back seat by grabbing her around the neck and choking her, she said. She fought him, but he climbed into the front seat, continued choking her, struck her several times and sprayed her with a chemical substance that made her eyes water, she told police. ERA MOVING IN REVERSE After threatening to kill her, he raped her, she said. People in the state of Washington do not instinctively deny opportunities to women, the best proof of this being the Nov. 2 election WHEN POLICE arrived, the woman showed them a billfold on the floor of the front seat. The billfold contained a semi-nud- e photo of the man she identified as the one who raped her. of Dix Lee Ray as governor. Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, the former chairwoman the old Atomic Energy Commission, Is not overly Impressed by being the second woman ever elected a governor without succeeding a husband. (Tve been a woman for nearly 12 years,' she says. "I really don't think about of "This is the second of such incidents" involving the rape of a woman cabdriver, Bill Goodnough, of Yellow Cab Co., it too much. Despite her healthy, attitude, Dr. to is forced think about the Ray being of the consequences Equal Rights Amendwhich her state adopted in 1972. ment Passage of ERA caused Washington to void a protective labor law enacted for women and children in 1913. The old law restricted enforced overtime work, put limits on lifting of weights by women, provided for rest periods, etc. ERA proponents blithely said they would simply have a new law passed guaranteeing to men the same safeguards once enjoyed by women. But that hasn't happened. ERA backers have taken to wrangling among themselves. Those at the national vice-preside- nt said. He blamed both incidents on a complaint filed by a woman cabdriver with the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department. The complaint forced cab companies to let women drive night shifts. "I have a notion to call the civil rights people and Thanks a lot,' " he said. said his company 20 women drivers. about employs Five or six of them drive nights, he said. "We've always felt that in their best interests they shouldn't be driving nights because there is just a different element out at night," he said. Goodnough Minneapolis Star, non-sexi- st level want to push on for final ratification of the amendment, saying that protective labor legislation denies job opportunities to women. Many working women see it differently, saying ERA in Washington has failed. "As far as I'm concerned, we're facing a whole new period. It's not the old sweatshop but the new, modern sweatshop," says Cindy Gipple, coordinator for a group calling Itself the Coalition for Protective Labor Legislation. Some women have complained of being forced to work overtime by employers who found it cheaper to pay time and a half than to hire additional help. Others have protested that they no longer get lunch periods because their work is "intermittent" in nature. Reports from Washington would indicate that heaven is a better protector of the working girl than is ERA. Thirty-eigstates must approve the Equal before 1979 if it is to Amendment Rights become part of the U.S. Constitution. Of the 34 states that have ratified ERA, two ht Nebraska and Tennessee have rescinded their legislative approval. Missouri and Illinois remain pivotal states In the struggle over ERA adoption. The Washington experience could help cool the ardor of some proponents and cement the opposition of those who already know It is a bad deal. ERA Is the reverse gear way to a setback, not to opportunity for either sex. $t. Cnuis (frlobr-Rrmorr- al Mon. Nov. 22, 1 976 Wards Tied to Rapes at Co-e- d PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, August 9, 1976 Psychiatric Unit By MIKE McKEATING woman patient at Buffalo Psychiatric Center collapsed and died within a few weeks after being raped by a male patient on her ward, The Buffalo Evening News has learned. A Females May Pay Heavier Insurance that By DAVID HERN BOSTON (AP) Female drivers under age 25 demonstrably safer on the road may have to pay heavily in automobile insurance premiums for adoption of Massachusetts' Equal Rights Amendment. No estimate was immediately available but it is believed that millions of dollars are at stake. Insurance Commissioner James M. Stone said Thursday there is considerable debate among lawyers on the Implication of the ERA. "My own lawyers are split on it, he said. One point of view is that because the under-2- 5 female driver has a far better driving record , this can still be considered in setting rates. However, Stone acknowledged if there is a this insurance burden, the beneficiaries will be the under-2-5 male drivers. Some now pay more redis-triction- of than three times the normal charge and far more than under-2- 5 females in every category. John OConnor, a spokesman for the automobile insurance industry, said the companies have not broken down into dollars the impact of under-2- 5 male and female drivers. He said an effort will be made to develop an estimate. OConnor said the companies are required to file rates for 1977 policies based on existing classifications determined by the state. These show substantial preference for young female drivers in relation to their male counterparts. Stone said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled differentials in charges are legal where they are justifiable statistically and under certain specific conditions. The commission said, however, he is not sure whether the ratification Tuesday of the ERA precludes these differentials. which he supported He also said that the ERA could have an impact in other lines of insurance, especially life insurance. He said that women, because they live longer, have been paying lower premiums. Stone said he thinks this problem will have to be settled by the courts. He said he expects to discuss it with representatives of the attorney generals office at future hearings. Automobile insurance laws are complicated by a wide variety of factors that are weighed in setting several premium rates within the 24 rating territories. e The critical situation is found in five of the driver classifications that deal with age, sex, marital status and driver training. In physical damage coverage, policies involving under-2- 5 males, cost up to 2.25 times the base charge while there would be no surcharge for under-2- 5 females. On liability coverage, the charge for under-2males can be 3.25 times the base whereas the top surdriver is 1.7 times the charge for a female under-2base. male-femal- 5 Sources at the Forest Ave. facility have told The Buffalo Eventhg News that the rape was only one of many that have resulted since the introduction wards by the hospital of co-e- d administration about two years ago over the objection of the medical staff. The rapist was caught in the act by a staff membec. who summoned help to stop the attack. But hospital administrators later tried to discourage the staff member who witnessed the rape from filing a report or discussing the incident with anyone. d i d "The administration intimito everything possible date the employe not to make any statement about what had occurred," a source close to the incident told The News. FOLLOWING THE rape the elderly patient was removed from the hospital by her family but died a few weeks later after collapsing at the home of a married daugher. The essential details of the incident were confirmed to The News by a member of the victim's family, who asked not to Li, identified and refused to discuss the matter further. The alleged rapiist had once been convicted of the murder of two women and had been sentenced to life imprisonment in Attica Correctional Facility. However, he wop a new trial In 1971, after the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court had erred ll ordering him to submit to examination by prosecution psychiatrists. IN 1973, he was found Innocent by reason of insanity at the second trial, and remanded to the custody of the Department of Mental Hygiene. All of the physicians and staff at the Psychiatric Center who are with The News have asked that their identities be withheld for fear of administrative reprisals. Bur virtually without exception, they blame the increases in rapes on a decision approximately two years ago by Dr. Stanley Platman, former regional director of the Department of Mental Hygiene, and Paul Cohen, former acting hospital director, to force male and female patients to live together in large, open co-e- d wards. "MANY OF US have written to the administration and talked to the administration over the past 18 months to protest this policy," one doctor said. "The rate of rapes has sub- stantially increased it's gone up at least Id say 100 per cent since the ward went coed," another doctor said. "In a general hospital, where patients dress properly and behave properly and know how to protect themselves. It's all right," he continuued. But in a mental hospital, by definition youre dealing with piople who have emotional or psychological problems which affect their judgment. "MANY OF these people are confused, and they do things without thinking of the consequences," another doctor said. "Naturally youre going to have an increase in the incidence of rapes. "Co-e- d wards are not (Ally unfair to the victims of' these crimes, theyre unfair to the perpetrators, because they subject them to a temptation they are not equipped to handle. "Once you have made the wards humanly impossible to provide the type of supervision necessary to keep the potential- rapist away from potential victims." co-e- d, it's - the .responsibility of the hospital to insure the safety of the patients, and I think they have failed by instituting these co-e- d wards, one psychiatrist said simply. "Its 5 jWNGFIEID. MASS DAILt NEWS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1976 BUFFALO, N.Y. EVENING NEWS, November 12, 1976 |