The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 24, 1990, Page 4, Image 4
Danger
Public has double standard
on release of police information
Nearly two years ago, The State newspaper was criticized by
some members of the public for publishing information that police
wanted kept quiet. Now, citizens are complaining because similar
information was not released and printed before now.
Two years ago, Lexington County Sheriff James Metts asked
media nersnnnel nnt tn release the fart that a serial lridnanner ran
J ...-"-J/J/W, .
ist and murderer was finding his victims by responding to advertisements
in the Carolina Trader. The Sheriffs department was
going to place a decoy ad in the Trader and didn't want their plan
to be foiled by media attention. This left the editors at The State
with a dilemma: bow to police wishes, keep the information quiet,
and possibly aid in the criminal's eventual arrest, or print the information
and possibly prevent a future attack. They chose the latter,
acting in a way they believed was in the public's best interest.
The public buzzed with murmurs of disapproval, saying the
paper should have honored the request of the police and not
chanced thwarting an arrest. The paper's ethics were questioned
and the media in general was criticized for trying to scoop a story
and attract more readers.
Now information has just reached the public that a series of
child molestations has taken place in Lexington County beginning
on May 22. Parents of children in the Oak Grove area are petitioning
the sheriffs department for keeping this information from
them for so long. Parents claim another attack could have been
preveniea 11 iney naa neen lniormea earner.
The point is, yes, they should have been informed earlier, but
the reasoning again was that media publicity might thwart a possibility
for arresting suspects.
So what does the public want? Reporting information that might
hinder arrest attempts draws angry criticism. Not reporting information
that might hinder arrest attempts draws angry criticism.
What is a sheriff's department to do? Also, what is a news medium
that has access to such information to do? v
The answer lies in who the information might affect. If knowing
the information might directly affect someone, that person wants
to know the information even if an arrest might be hindered by his
knowing. But if the information in question is not likely to affect
him directly, he believes it should be kept secret so the police can
do their job. It's a double standard that could someday backfire.
What is most important: immediate public awareness of a potentially
harmful situation that allows people to take precautions,
or the possible chance of someone getting arrested if a police investigation
works out just right? The public must make a decision
and stick to it. And remember ? someday the information that
might save a life might affect you.
WWAuxm BEEN RM/UMBtf CffNSIST?MT"
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The Gamecock
News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249
Jeff Wilson Sharon Willamson
Editor in Chief Managing Editor/Copy Desk Chief
Lynn Gibson Elizabeth Lynch
News Editor Carolina Life Editor
L?ULU AUM KEINKE JVIKYEK
Sports Editor Photography Editor
Kelly C. Thomas
Viewpoints Editor
Elizabeth Fox Sherri Tillman
Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor
David Bowden Kathy Heberger
Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Carolina Life Editor
Brant Long Julie Bouchillon
Assistant Sports Editor Assistant Photography Editor
Sara Verne Octavia Wright
Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant to the Editors
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1\IUJ1111 I'A/lllVlO I^IVIIV
Graduate Assistant Faculty Adviser
Ed Bonza Laura S. Day
Director of Student Media Production Manager
Ray Burgos Renee Gibson
Assistant Production Manager Advertising Manager
Kyle Berry Carolyn Griffin
Assistant Advertising Manager Business Manager
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should
be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional
title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if
a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The
Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of
space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any
circumstance.
foapTribwe.
Post-same fiel
USC was involved in an exciting football
, game Saturday against The Citadel. Unfortunately,
a late Citadel touchdown spelled a 38-35
Bulldog victory over our heavily favored Gamecocks.
The game's conclusion produced feelings
of disbelief, shock and even anger.
What transpired in the north end zone shortly
after the game, however, made me feel sick.
The Citadel faithful had largely occupied a
few sections of the stands in the northeast corner
of the stadium. Understandably, they were
overcome with emotion and delirious with joy
after watching their beloved Bulldogs post the
greatest win in their football history. And as the
final gun sounded, several of their fans attempted
to go out on the field to celebrate the
victory with the Bulldog players.
A few of the most overzealous fans made a
weak attempt to pull down the goalpost, an admittedly
dangerous and probably stupid ploy to
show their elation. The other Bulldog fans,
however, were simply jumping up and down,
cheering loudly and trying to join their football
team's midfield celebration.
I certainly realize that the garnet-coated sec
LETTERS TO TH
Israel getting
deserved slap EngIish/p
To the editor:
I would like to take a minute to
comment on the recent atrocity in ij
the Middle East No, I am not re- XxOlTl^
ferring to the Persian Gulf problem
but that of Palestine. II01 S (
A few days ago, there occurred To the editor
a ruthless, hateful and bloody mas- Once agaii
sacre. Unfortunately, everyone is enter into tl
not aware of this, and that may be little perspet
for several reasons. However, the sion. It is in
most important thing is to make to the Oct
the public aware that once again, Mallace.
Israel had displayed a brutish show First of all
of force and violence toward the mend Mr. M
unarmed, defenseless Palestinian minded enou
people. Now, let us look at the ity of "pre
cause of the outbreak of violence. mosexuality
A group of fanatical Jews began begrudge Mi
to march angrily toward the Dome else, the rij
of the Rock, a place of worship morality of
extremely sacred to the one billion this is a pe
Muslims around the world. This, everyone has
of course, was seen as an immedi- do not objec
ate threat to the Palestinians whose is recognizee
only method of retaliation is that everyon
throwing rocks at their angry not believe
enemy. I realize, of course, the right to mak
horrible threat these rocks pose to anyone else,
the massive, well-equipped Israeli tion the reas<
army. I hope my sarcasm is obvi- uses in his k
ous enough. This army, fearing for To begin,
its well-being, opened fire ran- that not all i
domly with live ammunition on the sexual attrac
fleeing Palestinians. Reports even same sex cl
show that Israeli troops blocked urges. There
* the way of Palestinian cars carry- are exclusi
ing injured babies preventing them bisexual wh<
from reaching much-needed medi- prefer, to k<
cal attention. As a result of this non-sexual 1
ugly massacre, more than 30 life-partner.
Palestinians will never again draw is homosexu
breath and nearly 300 Palestinians they are rav
were injured. that you a
Now, I would like to commend promiscu
Bush for condemning Israel's out- preference,
rageous behavior through the Un- As to the
ited Nations declaration. For once, tural fitness
Israel is getting a small slap on the male and fei
hand for misbehaving. It really is not touch it
time America stopped blindly sup- My reason
porting Israel's tyrannical rule in this point is
the area and continue to take a ligious belie
Id-clearing ta<
^ RICH TAYLOR .
frv" d
n
s
urity force surrounding the field's perimeter is, n
along with uniformed highway patrolmen, re- n
sponsible for keeping fans off the field. o
But the way these keepers of the peace carried
out their job on this occasion was disgust- v
ing and, frankly, scary. The tactics used in li
keeping celebrating fans off Williams-Brice C
Stadium's sacred turf included punching and r
kicking. A fan I spoke with after the game said, b
half-jokingly, he thought "they were going to I
start shooting at us."
I remember in 1984, the Black Magic year, tl
when we beat Notre Dame 36-32 at South e
Bend. I remember the ecstatic feeling shared by s
all of our fans. I remember seeing hundreds of c
Carolina fans spill out onto the field, congratu- f
C Cf\IY/\Q
r~ cyj ? , , v',?,
n i t i m i i i i'11V1V1ii1.il ..iiriiiiiiiii i hi i ni i n inininii '
look at Israel's hate- for married couples and 01
/ards the Palestinians. for procreative purposes. 1
Noha Bakr ally believe that I have n
olitical science tential as a human being
sophomore just become a brood-mare
propagation of the species.
r\cnviiolc< Also> 1 would like 10 F
UCJvAUUlCJ that the large intestine was
?* ? covered by homosexual m
ex-rienas that not all homosexual n
joy anal sex. In fact, quite
: ber of heterosexual ma
ri, I feel compelled to some females practice a
tie fray and inject a Sexual positions have no
'live into the discus- wjth sexual preference,
this hope that I reply Finally, you asked in yc
. 12 letter of Tim how homosexuals feel abo
and pedophilia. I imagin<
, I would like to com- yOU asked, you would fi
allace for being open- most people, homosex
gh to allow the legal- these practices
imiscuity" and ho- gusting and immoral, es
. Secondly, I do not because they involve the
. Mallace, nor anyone 0f children. Homosexuals
*ht to determine the pedophiles. I say this stro
sexual activities, as cause i that people
irsonal decision that understand this. Did you k
; to make for oneself. I statistics of reported cases
t to such, as long as it an(j pedophilia show that
i that this is a decision these crimes are comm
e gets to make. I do heterosexual males?
that anyone has the There is nothing threate
:e such a decision for out a person's sexual prefe
However, I do ques- n0 more than a person's s<
Miing that Mr. Mallace ligion or color or preferent
-tter. vor of ice cream. In the sc
I would like to state things, these things do no
jeople who experience what matters is that we
:tion for others of the man, and we are all alike i
hoose to act on such \i/rinHr?c onH clrin I
lA/llV^, Tf A11UV1VO Uliu kjivni ?
are many people who Dorene ]
vely homosexual or ^
o are content or even Library Technical As
sep relationships on a
jasis until they find a USC Thomas CooPer
Just because someone it n ni*rmn
lal does not mean that U?i3? ?*10Lip
ing sex-fiends. I think ? p
re confusing sexual pUSll lOF W
ity with sexual *
To the editor:
: subject of the struc- After closely observ
of the connection of events of the Persian Gi
male genitalia, I would through CNN and varioi
with a ten-foot pole, papers, I've noticed a wei
is that at the core of Whenever it appears that
the Judeo-Christian re- ful resolution is abou
jf that sex is reserved adopted, an instigator
ctics scary
iting our conquering heroes.
What I don't remember is Notre Dame's secrity
agents using excessive force on our fans,
ind there were no arrests in the end zone, un?
n - 1 *
xe Saturday s game.
And guess what? Their playing field was not
estroyed. The Irish did not have to cancel their
jmaining home games. A riot did not even enue.
Unbelievable as it may seem, within miutes
USC's players had filed into their locker
oorn, and USC's fans had exited the field with?ut
even setting a grassfire.
What was stadium security trying to prevent
/hen they went off on those dangerous hoodiims
that were traveling under the guise of The
'itadel fans? Were they afraid that if these fans
eached the 20-yard line, we would be obligated
3 allow a Rolling Stones concert in Williamsirice?
Seriously, there is no excuse for the brutality
hat occurred in Williams-Brice Stadium's north
nd zone after Saturday's game. USC's field
ecurity could use a lesson in diplomacy and
ommon sense. And Notre Dame's security
wee would be a good teacher.
-.i
nly then, hawk" throws the tide toward war.
person- Toward the first two months of the
lore po- crisis, it seemed as though the
than to powers that be that work for the
i for the Pentagon were the ones itching for
war. It was their way of responding
to Saddam Hussein's fiery
>oint out WOrds of bravado,
not dis- Now, the "war hawks" are apales
and pearing from a most unlikely
lales en- source. Amnesty International is
; a num- currently using the Congressional
les and floor to have Kuwaiti refugees renal
sex. flgot on horror stories about the tathing
to keover of Kuwait. The hope is that
Congress will become so desponHir
letter dent that the United States would
ut incest attack not only Kuwait but usurp
5 that if Hussein's power in Iraq,
nd that, much as I want to symuals
find pathize with the Kuwaitis, the
are dis- prospect of a violent war is very
ipecially unappealing. In a crisis that I feel
violaUon concerns us little (except our oil
a'c ""L dependent leaders and oil tycoons),
ngly be- Kuwait is attempting to drag
do not America into a bad situation. Plus,
now that Little has been said about the emir
o ,ncesj; of Kuwait's integrity. Little has
most of j)een saj(j Qf Kuwait's role in the
ltted by Iran-Iraq war. Apparently, Iraq
agreed to protect Kuwait from
nmg ab~ Iran. However, once the war was
rence completed, the emir commenced
fx ?ri|c~ stabbing Iraq in the back by play;f
? a" ing with oil prices. As much as
.heme OI u,ice<?in Hpc<>rv(?c tn Jv? th/?
11UJJVUI V4VUV1 V VJ IXJ l/UOIIVU, uiv
1 ma. r" emir's track record hasn't been
afc hu- dean
mder the ^ this point in the crisis, Bush
r? ?Jj' is being played as a sucker by his
0 z allies here and abroad. How else
graduate ^ you explain most of the troops
distant II in Desert Shield being American?
Library By going in too deep, Bush is
walking on a tightrope. As long as
}? the "war hawks" persist as a match
to ignite war, his popularity will
^oi* continuously decline as fast as the
economy. If war does develop,
then thousands of loved ones can
ing the blame the "war hawks" and a Presjlf
crisis ident hying to show how "bad" the
news ^8 is while ignoring what's really
bid trend" "bad" wilhin ^ nation of ^
a peace- ^a^'
[t t0 Thomas Grant
or ?war journalism junior