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Police Heads, Radical Youths Joust

Police Heads, Radical Youths Joust image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
December
Year
1969
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Although ít was not billed I that way, it was Ann Arbor Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny and Sheriff Douglas J. Harvey [ versus local radical youths in a program held last night at the St. Thomas School gymnasium. The program, sponsored by the St. Thomas Social Action Committee, had been scheduled to include brief talks by Krasny andHarvey on local law enforcement problems followed by a question-and-answer period. But the evening was placed on a rather hostile footing before the program ever got started when a dozen Ann Arbor radical youths passed out to persons entering the gymnasium copies of a local underground newspaper which contained language objectionable to many and a feature article which calis Sheriff Harvey a rapist. The sheriff called the paper "garbage" in answer to one question and when a girl seated in the "radical-youth section" used a four-letter word in a question to Krasny and asked the chief what was wrong in using it, emotions bubbled. "I wouldn't use that word but I guess you can use it if you want," Krasny told the girl. Before the question period, Chief Krasny presented a talk in which he pointed out that pólice everywhere are placed in the middle of the "headbuster" faction and the "kid glove" supporters. "One side wants pólice to play the tough role, to be headbusters when demonstrations occur and another segment wants us to give the kid glove treatment," Krasny said. "It's our job to tread a path between these two extremes." The veteran chief said he sees in Ann Arbor today a "total deterioration of respect for law" among many people. "Some feel the laws are not made for them. They cali it civil disobedience but it's flaunting the law," Krasny said. He said the lack of support for pólice and law can be traced to permissiveness by parents and in schools. Krasny also said there is "decay in the church system ... a destruc - tive f orce . . ."He struck out at clerics who "counsel young men on how to dodge the draft". Sheriff Harvey in his brief talk told of the formation of the Washtenaw County Vice Squad which is composed of officers from all major pólice agencies in the county. He said this squad has as a major project the control of narcotics traffic in the area. The sheriff said narcotics use and sale has now reached into the county high schools and junior high schools. Referring to the underground newspaper which had been distributed, Harvey said "garbage like this should be eliminated . . . it should not be permitted to reach the schools as it has been doing ..." During Krasny's and Harvey's talks, hecklers could be heardandseveral times remarks by the chief or the sherifl were greeted with bursts oflaughter. John McBride, moderator of the program, at one point warned the radical youths that the program could be ended "quickly" and would be M the heckling continu ed. In the questión-and-answer ■ period which followed, Krasny and Harvey were queried about the hirins: and firing of former Ann Arbor Patrolman Wade Wagner, the cutting of the. County Jail prisoners hair, the use of dogs in crowd control, narcotics in high schools, "murder information" provided by the White Panthers and last June's trouble on S. University Ave. On the Wagner question Chief Krasny said while he did not wish to discuss personalities it should be pointed out that Wagner resigned and was not f i r e d and that Eaymond Chauncey, of the Human Relations Commission, whom Wagner struck "should have been fired." Harvey said his department hired Wagner because he was a "good, well-trained officer" and declined to discuss the situation fuvther. When asked about the cutting of a jail prisoner's hair when the prisoner was bailed out in four hours, Sheriff Harvey said he was uninformed on the case but that prisoners normally receive haircuts for sanitation reasons. Looking around at the radical-youth sections Harvey cracked: "Some of you'could use haircuts." One questioner asked Harvey if he was a ware of a law against the use of dogs in crowd control. The sheriff said he knew of no such law and that his department dogs were trained for crowd control. "We never put a dog on a person but if you're foolish enough to get close enough to one of the dogs maybe you d e s e r v e the consequences," Harvey saici. On the question of narcotics in high schools, Chief Krasny said his dcpartment received many rumors about such drug traffic but few facts to support the reports. He said his I ment made 200 narcotics arrests last year, 100 of which brought prcsecution. Krasny refuted one questioner's charge that the City Council and his department refused to investígate a tip on the string of coed murders provided by the White Panthers. "That information was investigated, people were talked to." the chief said. On the trouble on S. University Ave. Kraskny coldly told a questioner: "We didn't créate the problem on South U. Businessmen there have a right to conduct their business without fear of violence." As the crowds attending the program left the gymnasium, persons at the doors continued to pass out the underground newspaper which had a picture of Sheriff Harvey on the cover and printmg below it accused him of rape. During the program he pointed out untruths in the story and said his lawyers are preparing libel action against the paper.