[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E855-E856]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            EXPOSING RACISM

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, in my continuing efforts to 
document and expose racism in America, I submit the following articles 
into the Congressional Record.

   Florida to become battleground state on racial, gender preferences



                           (By John Pacenti)

       MIAMI--The California businessman who plans to launch a 
     ballot initiative to abolish state-sponsored racial and 
     gender preferences in Florida attacked Gov. Jeb Bush on 
     Monday as a purveyor of racial politics who is ``siccing his 
     attack dogs on me.''
       Ward Connerly, a black conservative Republican who has been 
     successful with similar propositions in California and 
     Washington, said a poll he commissioned found 80 percent of 
     Floridians support his proposal.
       Lawmakers, though, are a different story. ``Florida doesn't 
     need somebody from California to come here and tell it how to 
     write its Constitution,'' said U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.
       Connerly said politicians, particularly Republicans, are 
     afraid of offending black voters. He described campaigning in 
     black churches, like Bush did, as playing the ``race card.''
       ``That is saying I want your vote on the basis of your skin 
     color, on the basis of your ethnicity,'' he said.
       Bush met with Connerly in January and later wrote a letter 
     to him saying he felt a ballot initiative targeting 
     affirmative action would be divisive. The governor refused to 
     answer questions on the matter Monday.
       ``His goal is to build a consensus around issues we should 
     be focusing on-- and those are education, fighting the drug 
     war, protecting the developmentally disabled,'' said Bush's 
     press secretary Nicolle Devenish. ``His focus is not going to 
     be on this political debate right now.''
       Connerly said Bush is behind a concerted effort to keep the 
     initiative off the Florida Ballot.
       ``I can overcome the obstacle of the sitting governor of my 
     party who is siccing his attack dogs on me and his party 
     against a proposition I believe in,'' Connerly said. ``I 
     believe the establishment is wrong, is dead wrong on this 
     issue.''
       Connerly, who also made announcements in Jacksonville and 
     Altamonte Springs, said he plans to get one or more 
     initiatives on the November ballot next year or 2002.
       ``It's like an old car. It's got a lot of mileage on it and 
     it's ready to sputter out any minute,'' Connerly said of 
     affirmative action. ``I think we should give it a graceful 
     retirement and find a way of getting some new wheels that 
     solves some real needs.''
       He said that economic-based affirmative action should 
     replace the raced-based preferences that has spilled over 
     into private businesses and caused so much resentment in the 
     workplace.
       ``We are talking about getting rid of the marginalization 
     that flows from race-based affirmative action,'' Connerly 
     said ``. . . it is all over America.''
       Connerly, a member of the University of California Board of 
     Regents, would need to gather 435,073 signatures to put the 
     measure on the Florida ballot.
       Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was in Miami to talk about AIDS in 
     the black community, said Connerly was ``trying to peddle 
     fear'' and is going to have trouble without Bush's support.
       ``Gov. Wilson in California cooperated with Ward 
     Connerly,'' said the Rev. Jesse Jackson. ``It seems like Gov. 
     Bush will not. Florida must avoid the mistake made by 
     California.''
       Washington Gov. Gary Locke, though, opposed a Connerly-
     backed measure in 1998 and it passed with 58 percent of the 
     vote.
                                  ____


            Alleged Witness to Attack Says Statement Coerced

                           (By Tammy Webber)

       CHICAGO (AP).--The man prosecutors once described as their 
     key witness to the 1997 racial beating of a 13-year-old black 
     boy now claims his rights were violated during police 
     questioning.
       Richard DeSantis, 20, is charged with obstructing justice 
     after disappearing for eight months as prosecutors tried to 
     build a case against three men charged with beating Lenard 
     Clark into a coma after he wandered into their predominantly 
     white Bridgeport neighborhood.
       His disappearance forced a five-month delay in the trials 
     before prosecutors decided to proceed without him. One 
     defendant was sentenced to eight years in prison for 
     aggravated battery and committing a hate crime, while two 
     others accepted plea agreements and got probation and 
     community service.
       DeSantis on Monday claimed authorities coerced him into 
     signing a statement and would not allow him to speak to his 
     attorney despite repeated requests.
       The statement, therefore, should not be admissible in 
     court, said attorney James Cutrone, who was not DeSantis' 
     attorney at the time he signed the statement.
       Cutrone said if the Cook County Judge Robert W. Bertucci 
     grants the motion to suppress the statement, the county 
     should drop its case. Testimony is scheduled to continue 
     today.
       Under questioning Monday, DeSantis said several portions of 
     his signed statement are incorrect, including where he 
     allegedly told police he saw three friends beat Lenard.
       He described being held for questioning for more than nine 
     hours at the police station, where he claims he was 
     interrogated, put through a police lineup and told that he 
     was lying when he said he did not witness the beating.
       He said he signed the statement because police allegedly 
     told him he could go home and would not be charged if he did 
     so. He testified it was also after he heard his attorney's 
     voice in the station but was not able to see him.
       ``I thought after I heard (the lawyer's voice) . . . and 
     they didn't let him see me, I thought they could do whatever 
     they wanted to,'' he said.
       John O'Malley, his attorney at the time, also testified 
     that he was at the police station for more than two hours 
     before he was able to see DeSantis--and after DeSantis signed 
     the statement.
       But under questioning by Assistant State's Attorney Robert 
     Berlin, DeSantis conceded that authorities let him read the 
     statement and make any changes before he signed it.
       Frank Caruso Jr. received an eight-year sentence after 
     being found guilty of aggravated battery and committing a 
     hate crime, but innocent of attempted murder. Victor Jasas, 
     18, and Michael Kwidzinski, 21, received probation and 
     community service after accepting plea agreements.
       Clark, now 15, cannot remember the attack. All three 
     defendants were accused of knocking Clark from his bicycle, 
     then kicking and pummeling him until he was unconscious.
                                  ____


                             RACIAL ATTACK

       DARIEN, Conn.--A white businessman accused of stabbing a 
     black man in the face with a pen on board a Metro North train 
     has been given special probation in the case.
       Kevin Keady was arrested by Metro North police June 28, 
     1996, after he allegedly hurled racial slurs and his fists at 
     Michael Moore on a train.
       Keady allegedly used a pen as a dagger to slash Moore's 
     face. Moore's nose was broken and he received stitches to 
     repair a torn ear lobe, said Moore's attorney, Charles 
     Harris, Keady was charged with intimidation by bigotry or 
     bias and second-degree assault.
       A Superior Court judge last week granted Keady accelerated 
     rehabilitation which is available to first-time offenders who 
     face charges that could result in prison time. If the 
     defendant successfully completes the two-year probation, all 
     records are erased.
       Keady denies the charges. He claimed Moore and others 
     attacked him and uttered bigoted remarks. He filed a civil 
     lawsuit against Moore in July 1998.
       Moore also has sued Keady. A Superior Court judge awarded 
     him a $150,000 lien on Keady's home in Darien, ruling that 
     there is probable cause that Moore could win at least that 
     much. Moore's suit seeks $15,000 in damages for claims of 
     assault and battery, false imprisonment and intimidation 
     based on bias or bigotry.
       Keady's next scheduled court date is March 9, 2001, after 
     the completion of his special probation.
                                  ____


          Number of Black Applicants to UW Law School Plummets

       SEATTLE.--The number of black applicants to the University 
     of Washington Law School has plummeted since a voter-approved 
     ban on public affirmative action programs.
       In the first round of admissions since the initiative 
     became law in December, the number of black applicants was 
     down 41 percent

[[Page E856]]

     from a year earlier. Applications from Filipinos and 
     Hispanics also are down, by 26 percent and 21 percent, 
     respectively, while total applications were off 6 percent 
     through March 5.
       Although too early to say what this year's entering class 
     will look like, university officials say the new figures may 
     confirm their fear that the law prohibiting race 
     consideration in admissions will make the university's 
     population less diverse.
       ``One possibility has to be that Initiative 200 has caused 
     a chilling climate in which minority men and women are 
     reluctant to apply for fear they won't be welcome at the 
     university,'' President Richard McCormick said.
       ``The applications are the material with which you have to 
     work, and if minority applications are down, it doesn't help 
     with respect to the recruitment of a diverse class,'' 
     McCormick said.
       But the man who ran the initiative campaign took a 
     different tact.
       ``I think it shows that the word is getting out on the 
     street that the use of race-driven admissions is becoming a 
     thing of the past,'' John Carlson said. ``Students are more 
     apt to apply to schools that match their skills levels.''