European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 8, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday May 8, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page 13 commentary Robert . Burns a but it s still politics As usual any Hope that president Bush would use the occasion of the los Angeles riots to Rise to new Heights of dignity and statesmanlike composure was resoundingly shattered this week when the White House held a sneak preview of the official line on Why the nations second largest City blew up. And for sheer unoriginal Ity it must go Down in the history of Bush ism. Yes More than so americans have been killed and close to $1 billion Worth of property has been destroyed and at the head of this nation is a Guy squirming with unseemly haste and mincing anxiety to minimize the damage a not to los Angeles not to the nation not to society but to his own Fanny. Marlin Fitzwater declared that the White House philosophers had decided that a a mail of the Root problems that have resulted in inner City difficulties started in the 1960s and 1970s�?� and that a a we re paying the you get the idea. What Fitzwater seems to be saying is All those great society programs that first gave Blacks the idea they were entitled to a piece of America without working for it have now exploded in our face because now they All want Vars and tvs. The liberals have got them so whipped up that along comes a Little jury verdict they done to like and they riot. But for heavens Sake done to get the idea that it is caused by anything Bush and Reagan have done. They be Only been running the country for 11 years after All. This is the Standard pizza parlor and Beer Hall rubbish we hear All the time but usually from Blue Collar workers disgusted that their real wages have fallen under Reagan and Bush and who Are willing to buy the notion that it is the fault of All these minorities. We know the reason for their frustration and anger just As if we be got any sense we know the reason Why socially alienated Urban minorities will go on a rampage and destroy their own neighbourhoods. Anyway the White House has pressed the Button that causes a sign to Light up saying a the liberals did and since there Are so few visible or self confessed liberals left in american Public life Fitzwater and his shop had to go Back to the 1960s to discover their comes. Wonder that they stopped there. If they a gone Back to the 1860s, they could have discovered the riots were caused by freeing the slaves. A the mischief we liberals have done. None of us can get elected dog Catcher these Days but if there a a riot they still know where to find us and How to dust us off and exhibit us As the menace from which All these troubles flow. The conservatives have taken Over the supreme court the jails bulge As never in our history we re frying murderers again and at a rate exceeding Iran a Urban America has been abandoned by Washington and still we liberals possess this satanic Power to Burn great cities with a wave of our tails. American liberalism is in a pitiful state but nothing is More degrading to its condition than this process of being perpetually Hung in effigy by the Bush White House. Cursing the liberals has As the snivelling excuse for everything wrong with America become the last Refuge of scoundrels. You have to wonder How Many More cities will have to Burn before it occurs to the Bush people that they a better invent a new line to explain these a dinner City Well Quot inner City difficulties May be the operative phrase at the White House but a toilet is a toilet even if you Call it a water closet. And what this nation has undergone in its second largest City is a communal riot of extraordinary savagery. Decency and a sense of dignified bereavement might seem to dictate an appropriate period of truce from the vulgarity of Day to Day politics out of nothing More than a sense that it is like doing a tap dance at a funeral to politicize the ruin of a great City and the Slaughter of its citizens. With Bush the disposition to trivialize the unspeakable is one of those things he just can to seem to help. The dead were not yet snug in their tombs tuesday the bulldozers had barely begun Clearing the rubble when Bush chirped up that he was a very pleased that things have quieted Down out there Quot speaking As he might of some neighbourhood boys who a disturbed his Nap. C new Day William Safir Elet s not throw out baby with the Bath water a scandalous a judges Frances Mitterrand from a system that does not give the accused the presumption of innocence. A the los Angeles jury could not have done More damage to their country a image abroad if they had tried wrote the Japan times from a system that does not entrust decisions to juries in criminal cases. Most americans Supi Nely accept those condemnations. And no doubt the . Jury a decision in the face of televised evidence of outrageous police brutality a did trigger riots and scores of deaths gave credence to charges of racism in our society and Shook the Confidence of Many in american Justice. But the purpose of a jury is neither to project a National image nor to agree with the opinion of most . A jury should follow the judges instructions about rules of evidence setting aside All outside influence ideology and prejudice. But in coming to its decision its members must give the accused the Benefit of a reasonable doubt against the charges of the state. A viewed from outside the trial a said president Bush a it was hard to understand How the verdict could Square with the True enough. Then in his most presidential speech the text of which was printed in the Washington Post he went on to make this unpopular but Lincoln Ian Point a we must respect the process of Law whether or not we agree with the neither Bill Clinton nor Ross Perot nor any of our commentators had the courage and sense of responsibility to say that. The bulwark of civil Liberty is the jury system. The american civil liberties Union Abandons principle by failing to defend the rights of jurors to be free of the threat of Post trial inquisition or punishment by publicity. We can disagree with verdicts without impugning the motives of jurors or demanding that they Factor in world opinion. Before taking the contrarian plunge let me stipulate this i believe the tape shows overpowering evidence of excessive use of Force. I believe the change of venue to a White suburb was in error and the prosecution was inadequate. If on the jury i would have argued that Rodney King was victimized and would have voted to convict the accused policemen. But i am not about to join in the condemnation of the jury As a pack of racists or fools. Anybody who has been in a jury room an Eye opening experience that every american should seek knows now 12 average people do their Best to put themselves in the defendants shoes especially when the victim cannot or chooses not to testify. Although a acquitted a was the headline the jury verdict made this reasoned differentiation the Lawman who seemed most unlawfully Savage was not acquitted on one charge of excessive use of Force. Thus did a not completely certain jury say to the state pick another jury and let it decide on that accused cops guilt. A twelve Blind jurors was the snap judgment of the economist of Britain where free speech is denied by repressive libel Laws. But perhaps the reviled jurors knew that the alleged victim had other redress for Justice. In Kings civil suit for damages the Standard of judgment is reduced to a preponderance of the evidence which appears to be on the Side of the beaten Man. And in the background was a Federal statute protecting his civil rights a grand jury for which was promptly convened needing no impetus from anti asian arsonists or looters. Amid the worlds hypocritical Brouhaha lets Cut the self flagellation and ask ourselves where else is a person accused of a crime better protected from the powerful state or the angry mob and where else in the world today is a victim a of any race or Creed a More Likely to see Justice served in the end in the u.s., the presumption of innocence and judgment by a jury run the risk of letting the guilty go free. In other democratic and All autocratic systems the habit of state control prefers to risk the jailing of the innocent. All will occasionally err. Because our tradition puts the individual first we Are right to err on the Side of the individual accused. To subvert our Bill of rights to burnish our image of fairness would indeed be scandalous. C the new York times
