European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sidelights since its War in our cities Send in the army Clarence Page is on vacation. Lars Erik Nelson substitutes for him today by Lars Eri Mcnelson the new York daily news Christopher Thomas 18, an escaped convict shot and killed cab Driver Oladipo Edu during the course of a Holdup in Washington d.c., last Jan. 31. Edu left a wife and three children. Thomas was identified by witnesses arrested and charged with murder. He pleaded guilty As charged. There was no plea bargaining no sympathetic jury to be swayed no extenuating circumstance no improperly admitted evidence. It was murder As bad As murder gets cold blooded execution of a working Man for the Sake of a few Bucks. Judge Hariett Taylor sentenced Thomas to six Vears in prison. Hell be Back on the Street when lie s 24. This is not a mistake. The statutory sentence for armed murder in the District of Columbia is 15 years to life with a five year mandatory prison term. Life is cheap on the streets of Washington. Life also is cheap in its courts. Leu s life was Wottlin six cats of Thomas. Ludicrous sentences like this a which Are the Norm in America a amplify the demand for the death penalty. There was much cheering a month ago when the state of California final i v and Clumsy la put murderer Robert i Larris to death in its Gas chamber for shooting two kids in another cheap Iob Berv. Yet on the weekend of May lb-17, three weeks after Harris went to his death in a publicity spectacular los Angeles county recorded 53 shootings in 48 hours nine of them fatal. It was a perfectly Normal weekend said the los Angeles times. The Harris execution had not the slightest deterrent Impact. Capital punishment May or May not be cruel according to your sensibilities but it certainly is unusual a and will remain so regardless of the Yahoo yelping for death sentences galore. There is no Way this country could execute enough criminals to make a difference. Can you imagine 2,000 electrocutions a year in new York state can you imagine even 20? can you picture some 18-year-old Flea brained gunman hesitating to pull a trigger because he fears the electric chair it will never happen. Witnesses wont testily in capital offences. They Are routinely threatened with death for testifying in burglary cases As it is. The police cannot protect them. Nor will juries convict in sufficient numbers not when conviction Means death. Capital trials will become charades of plea bargaining and outrageous acquittals. As judge Taylor a six year sentence showed murder is no big Deal anymore its the equivalent of writing a bad Check. The death penalty is great for exacting revenge on the few hapless culprits such As Virginia murderer Roger Keith Coleman who Don t manage to beat the system. But you Are deluding yourself if Vou think the execution of Coleman or Harris of and of the others who die gasping i gurneys or in the electric chair is going to make the streets and safer. What s the alter Nate War. We Aie at War in our cities. Armed men Are murdering our citizens and each other at an unprecedented rate. We should therefore do what we did in Panama and Kuwait. Send in troops and disarm the enemy. This need not be that intrusive. And it won t necessarily violate any rights. All airline passengers must March through Metal detectors on the was to their planes implicitly surrendering their fourth amendment Protection against unreasonable Saieh. The airlines secured that Protection because armed hijackers were costing them Money. Now our cities Are being hijacked. So let s apply the same principle. Surround City blocks at key moments a Friday nights at a disco say a and March everybody in sight through a Metal Detector. Is tins an infringement of civil liberties no More than going through Security to get on an plane. The lives of innumerable children Are More important than any right not to be scanned by a magnetic Detector. Will we need the army then lets use the army. What else has it got to do what threat do we face that is greater than walking Down our own streets at night this May seem like a draconian measure to liberals. I reply it is a lot less draconian than the electric chair and it will make the cities a whole lot  names smiles and ears up political polls Andy Rooney i had. See where the latest poll indicates that Harry Truman would get the most votes for president if the election were held tomorrow. Or wait a minute. I guess i did no to actually read that but i  be surprised if i if i never see another poll in my life i wont feel in be missed anything. Polls Are a poor substitute for the real thing an election. Even when polls turn out to be accurate which they sometimes do i dislike them. We get All these polls because they attract attention to organizations that take them. The new York times the Washington Post lbs Abc and Abc have stopped paying organizations like Louis Harris and Gallup to do their polling for them. Now the networks make a few thousand phone Calls themselves and pronounce their own findings. In the last two years in be read polls that showed George Bush is the most trusted beloved revered respected president in american history. And then in be seen polls that show George Bush has the Low est popularity rating of any president who Ever lived. If you wait around Long enough sooner or later there a going to be a poll you agree with. The latest poll proves according to itself that if the election were held today or was it tomorrow Ross Perot would beat either Bill Clinton or George Bush. If the people taking that poll had substituted a  or a none of the above a the result would have been the same. Perot May get to be a Factor before the election in november but he Isnit one now because All americans know about him is he a this funny looking Little billionaire from Texas. They figure if he looks that funny and made that much Money he must have a lot on the Ball. What he has on the Ball or what Ball he has it on no one knows. Polls Are meaningless because All they show is what people thought yesterday or last month or a few minutes ago. No poll Ever designed can predict what people Are going to be thinking tomorrow let alone next november. They Are popularity contests Between two or More people. Polls usually Deal with people instead of ideas because ideas Are too hard. Americans have stronger opinions about personalities than about issues or political philosophies. That a because people understand personality better than philosophy. Ideas done to have Nice smiles pretty wives or irritating speaking mannerisms that influence voters being polled. Polls assume americans know All about the issues and the candidates and Are capable of giving intelligent answers to questions about them. They Arentt. There is no Way we can All know about everything. We read the papers and watch television news. We know something a wrong and we want it fixed but we done to know How it should be done. Its like being sick. If we re sick we done to prescribe our own Medicine. We go to a doctor. Politicians Are our Issue doctors. God help us. Id like to ask some of the people who said a a yes Ross Perot is having a Bull with popularity. To Clinton in a poll where they think he stands on a dozen foreign issues and what he thinks about the welfare system taxes and the relationship Between the Federal and state governments. Id like to ask Bush supporters if they really think they know what Bush a plans Are a or whether he has any candidates Are As vague As they can get away with on what Are known As a the  that s lie cause anyone like gov. Clinton or president Bush who a in a position of having a Box after his name for the purpose of being chosen or rejected in a poll knows that the More he smiles and the less people know about what he actually believes the More Likely he is to attract the most x s in those boxes. To Quot to in no i d is. Mgt a it Jda Page q