The Carolinian [September 26, 1996]

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Girolinia The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Telephone- (910) 334-5752
F«- (910) 334-3518
Online-hup://c«rolini»n.uncj.edu/
Thursday
September 26,1996
Jets Going Nowhere
See the story page 8 •
*, Men's Soccer:
Zj* Spartan's defeat Davidson, page 8
Issue 9,
Volume 76
Report endorsed by
House Republicans
George Lardner Jr.
Tunes/Post News Service
WASHINGTON - Brushing aside
a hurried swarm of Democratic
protests, the House Government
Reform and Oversight
Committee's Republican majority
voted Tuesday night to approve an
interim report accusing the Clinton
White House of trying to politicize
the FBI and demonstrating a
"cavalier approach" toward sensi-tive
security matters.
The 205 -page report said further
investigation is needed before it
can be determined who was re-sponsible
for putting two political
operatives with "checkered pasts"
- Craig Livingstone and Anthony
Marceca - in charge of an office
that collected confidential FBI re-ports
on hundreds of Republicans
from the Reagan and Bush admin-istrations.
But the GOP majority
said it would aggressively pursue
the answers despite a lack of co-operation
from the White
House.
"Whether or not these events are
shown to be a blunder, the result
of colossal incompetence, or
whether they arc established to be
more serious or even criminal, the
casualness with which this White
House has approached many areas
of security and access provided a
climate for either of these trou-bling
alternatives," the report said.
Democrats assailed the report as
a "series of unfounded accusa-tions"
and made plain the inquiry
would go no farther if they regain
control of the House in Novem-ber.
Rep. Cardiss Collins, DM.,
the ranking minority member, said
the committee had "found abso-lutely
no evidence that anyone (at
the White House) was told to com-pile
an enemies list" and nothing
to refute the White House expla-nation
that the improper acquisi-tions
were a mistake based on an
outdated list.
Drafted without input from the
Democrats, the report "has no
credibility" and is "nothing more
See Security, Page 3
'X' Marks The Spot...
The 94.5 Rock the Vote registration drive was so successful that they are hack
again. Come out and Rock the Vote with UNCO and 94.5, The Rock Alterna-tive,
today at the Fountain from 11:30 to 1:00.
New V.P., freshman
delegates sworn in
Natalie Watson
Senior News Writer
The new Vice President and
freshman delegates were ap-pointed
and sworn in during the
weekly Student Government As-sociation
meeting on Tuesday
night.
James L. Howard was recog-nized
as the new Vice Presidents.
Kelly Benston, Dwain Cherry,
Kevin Doar, Misou Hood, Shelby
Scheib and Emily Dobbins were
introduced as freshman delegates.
Two more delegates are scheduled
to be appointed by Howard.
During the meeting, SGA Presi-dent
Brandon Mathis conducted a
brief workshop to orient members
of the assembly with Parliamen-tary
Procedure. The set of rules
for conduct of meetings allows for
decisions to be made without con-fusion
after opinions have been
voiced.
Mathis commented on the out-come
of his recent "safety walk".
Mathis, along with several Univer-sity
officials, recently walked
through campus at night in an ef-fort
to identify dangerous and un-safe
situations. The group deter-mined
that the campus is safe on
the whole. "We have a few lights
that are burnt out and need to be
replaced, and a few areas that are
not lighted at all, but that really
was it. The big areas were the un-lighted
path near Phillips-
See SGA, Page 3
Mexican Doctor Abducted
by U.S. Agents has right to sue
Henry VVeinstein
Tunes/Post News Service
A federal appeals court in San
Francisco Tuesday ruled that a
Mexican doctor who was kid-napped
by U.S. drug agents can
sue the U.S. government and the
law enforcement officers involved
in the abduction.
Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain
was spirited out of Mexico on
Weatier
Outlook
Thursday:
Partly Sunny
High in the upper 70's
Friday:
Partly Cloudy
High 70's to lower 80's
Low 50's to lower 60's
Source: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
April 2,1990, by men working for
the Drug Enforcement Adminis-tration.
He was turned over to
DEA agents in the United States,
who suspected him of participat-ing
in the 1985 murder of U.S.
drug agent Enrique Camarena.
The doctor, who was acquitted
of murder charges in 1992, alleged
in a lawsuit that he was tortured
by his abductors for several hours
in Mexico before being brought to
the United States. Once in the
United States, Alvarez claims that
DEA agents threatened him, de-nied
him food and medicine and
processed him under a false name
to frustrate efforts of his family
and the Mexican government to
locale him.
After his acquittal, Alvarez sued
the U.S. government four officials
of the DEA and the two Mexican
national kidnappers. A federal
judge in Los Angeles ruled that
much of the case could go for-ward,
but the government ap-pealed.
The DEA agents contended that
charges against them should be
dismissed on grounds that they
had qualified immunity. The 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals re-jected
that argument, saying that
"pretrial detainees have a clearly
established right to be free from
punishment," Circuit Judge Alfred
T. Goodwin wrote in the 3-0 deci-sion.
The 9th Circuit also rebuffed
claims of the two Mexican na-tional
DEA operatives that
Alvarez improperly invoked the
federal Torture Victim Protection
Act against them because it was
enacted in 1992, after the incident
The judges acknowledged that
in most instances there is a pre-sumption
against applying statutes
retroactively. However, Goodwin
and the other two judges - Mary
M. Schroeder and Samuel P. King
- said that there was a good rea-son
to make an exception.
"The Torture Victim Protection
Act does not impose new duties
See Doctor, Page 3
Loitering drives shops
away from Tate Street
•Merchants complain about loss of business
Paula Nelson
News Editor
UNCG is bound on the East by
that entity known as Tate Street.
Long popular with college stu-dents
for its restaurants, coffee
houses, unique shopping, and an
atmosphere conducive to "hang-ing
out", recently it has become
the street of choice for a large
population of vagrants and loiter-ing
teenagers.
This has become such a prob-lem
in recent months that at least
two businesses arc rumored to be
leaving.
Merchants are losing custom-ers
and students have started
avoiding the area at night.
Complaints handled by the po-lice
from both Manhattan Bagels
and Ben & Jerrys state that these
businesses arc bothered by both
young kids, labeled "Punks" on
official police reports, who con-gregate
usually between the hours
of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.. and by older
"Winos" who arc usually hanging
around during the day.
A small group of teenagers
who claim to be vampires can also
be found loitering after dark.
Students and the public arc tired
of being accosted as they walk
down the street.
Some of the panhandlers seem
to be aggressive and refuse to
leave patrons alone until they are
given money.
Tate Street has developed a
trash problem as well. When
Manhattan Bagels opens at 6 ev-ery
morning the manager is faced
with a large pile of cups and gar-bage
directly in front of his store.
At the same time he is usually
greeted by vagrants who have
passed out on the sidewalk, and
who immediately begin begging
for small change as soon as they
arc fully awake.
People have started to avoid
Tate Street because they are scared
to walk or hang out amongst the
loiterers who and tend to make
them feel unwelcome.
This is what most of the busi-nesses
identify as their biggest
problem. Store owners echo each
other. "Tate Street has a bad im-age."
"Tate Street has a bad reputa-tion."
Why is Tate Street so popular
with these unpopular crowds?
Everyone has a different opinion.
Some say the accessibility of
drugs and alcohol draws them.
Others claim that UNCG supports
the panhandling because the
heavy foot traffic means more
opportunities to solicit spare
change. Or perhaps the late hours
of several businesses in a small
area as well as the late hours kept
by university students provides a
social atmosphere that is not found
in other parts of the city.
What is interesting is that the
problem only affects the eastern
half ofTate Street, from the Handy
Pantry to Sub-way.
———
Other areas of "They have tO
the street seem to . ....
attract different be Willing tO
ZSLSi take the time to
come and go in- follow thrOUSh
with their com-plaints
and not
get discour-aged.
"
stead of lingering
in the same spots
for hours.
So what can be
done about the
Tate Street prob-lem?
Already
businesses are
turning cold
shoulders to the
problematic '
groups.
They have put locks on their
bathrooms and refuse to give away
even cups of ice, which they sus-pect
are being filled with alcohol.
Signs prohibiting loitering have
been put up on private lots, and
store owners have been given the
authority to order loiterers to leave
the sidewalk and benches in front
of their stores, or face trespassing
charges. Many business owners,
however, feel that they are unable
to do anything to really get rid of
the problem.
The situation is complicated by
the fact that the sidewalk and
benches on Tate Street arc public
property, which means that the
police and merchants really have
no right to tell people to leave.
Only those people violating the
'No Loitering' signs on private
property can be charged with any-thing.
As for panhandling, state law
was recently modified to provide
for more leniency.
For panhandling to be consid-ered
a crime, it must involve
bodily harm or the threat of bodily
harm.
The police can get involved if
an individual or a store owner files
a complaint, which many have
done.
However, most people are un-willing
to go further which would
involve pressing charges and tes-tifying
in court
Whether they lack the time or
if they are scared to get too in-volved,
almost all of the com-
^^^^^_ plaints handled by
the University and
Greensboro police
departments do not
go anywhere to-wards
solving the
problem.
University police
are particularly
concerned with
Tate Street.
They have
stepped up patrols
around the area and
admit that this has
led to a slight im-provement
in the
_ situatioa But com-munity
involve-ment
is needed if the problem is
to be completely eradicated.
UNCG Policeman Paul Lester
had several suggestions that could
help to solve these problems.
"Police could be more effective
if people would get more in-volved,"
Lester said. "They have
to be willing to take the time to
follow through with their com-plaints
and not get discouraged."
Lester also said that local par-ents
should keep a closer eye on
their teenagers since many of the
younger Tate Street regulars are
from area high schools. "They
have just as much of a right to be
there as anyone else," Lester said,
"Unless they are doing something
wrong. Courts have tried to shoo
some away But eventually they
return and it's the same process
over again."
Paul Lester,
UNCG Police
Kim Mr K«dd«v-rH E CAROLINIAN
The amount of people hanging out on Tate St. has become a problem for local businesses and their patrons.