The Battalion
OPINION
f he Battali
Tuesday, September 18,1990
Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs
845-32
Bank investigation throws bad light on Williams
To no one’s surprise except Clayton
Williams groupies, the Republican nom
inee for governor finds himself on the
defensive once again. This time he
hasn’t offended women by linking rape
with the weather, or by referring to his
solicitation of sex from prostitutes as
“servicing,” but by having a controlling
interest in a bank that is under investi
gation for possible violations of state
and federal consumer protection laws.
The Houston Chronicle reported last
Wednesday that hundreds of car buyers
who financed their loans through Clay-
Desta National Bank of Midland were
forced to purchase needless insurance
as a condition of getting the financing
approved. Known in the industry as “in
surance packing,” this illegal practice
sometimes adds thousands of dollars to
the cost of a car. Buyers who were
duped into purchasing this often un
wanted and unnecessary insurance were
led to believe the insurance was manda-
Patrick
Nolan
Columnist
tory.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Williams’
bank reportedly made a commission off
the sale of the insurance. As people read
about this scam in the Chronicle, they
began to come forward with stories of
their own.
The Chronicle reported Thursday
that at least a dozen people called in and
said they had also purchased the insur
ance with the understanding that it was
necessary in order for ClayDesta Na
tional Bank to approve the financing
package. Apparently, most of the car
buyers were “poor credit risks,” and felt
they had to either agree to the insurance
or face losing the loan.
Thursday’s story quoted one car
buyer as saying, “We needed the car and
we had no place else to turn. I wanted to
put a paper in the file stating I was tak
ing the insurance under duress.”
Williams has ducked any questions
about his bank by developing a new
found respect for the law. He says it is
illegal for a bank owner to comment on
federal regulatory investigations. He
goes as far as saying “If they (the investi
gative agencies) give me permission, I’ll
be happy to talk about it, but I’m not
gonna start breaking laws.”
Start breaking laws? Are we to pre
sume his little “service” jobs back in his
college days were endorsed by the state?
Give us a break. It is his perogative not
to answer the questions concerning this
matter, but why doesn’t he say so? In
stead, he brushes the questions off with
mumbo jumbo excuses about regula
tions preventing him from comment.
Where was this respect for the spirit of
the law when these insurance policies
were being tied to these much needed
loans?
What these recent allegations tell us
about the Republican hopeful is how he
operates. While certainly not a reflec
tion on Williams’ personal honesty,
these allegations, if proven to be true,
show us what type of people Williams
associates with in his business trans
actions. Ignorance is no defense to Wil
liams concerning this matter, especially
because his wife, Modesta, is bank direc
tor.
Williams also contends that his fi
nancing loans made it possible for mi
norities, who ordinarily would not have
sufficient credit, to own a car. The
Chronicle quoted him as saying, “I make
no apologies, and I don’t see anything
wrong with making loans to minorities
... some of ’em had trouble in credit, and
they pay a higher rate of interest be
cause their credit is not as good.”
But tell that to Don Myers who pur
chased an automobile made possible
with financing through ClayDesta Na
tional Bank and ended up paying
$7,000, after the life and disability in
surance was added, for a car worth
$4,800, according to the Chronicle. This
needless insurance that Myers believed
was mandatory, increased the price of
the car by 46 percent. Nope, nothing
wrong here, Claytie.
Williams further responds that these
allegations of wrongdoing are “pure
politics.” Apparently the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency felt differ
ently, because they ordered ClayDesta
National Bank to stop making 18 per
cent loans to potential car buyers with
poor credit records.
Thursday’s Chronicle quoted Wil
liams further as saying “I’m proud of
my bank. Our gates are still open. Nine
out of 10 of the major banks in Texas
went broke — we’re still in business,
this how Clayton Williams rational®
this “insurance packing” scheme byl
bank? Because it is good for busines
Let’s hope he believes there is mort
business than the bottom line.
Whether or not these allegations hai
any influence on the election is impos
ble to foresee. Yet it is interesting
note that the candidate who wants to
state government in shape is busy
swering questions regarding his oi
business practices.
This takes a little wind out of thesa
of Williams’ campaign strategy,
commercials about his great busini
ventures seem to fall flat on their face
light of these most recent accusations,
But one could always say in defeu
of Williams that a bad apple (Williait
employee) doesn’t spoil the bunch,
can he be held accountable for the
tions of one of his many employees:
more appropriate observation
ever, might be that birds of a feallt
flock together.
Hi
Patrick Nolan is a senior politicali
ence major.
Gun-buyer background check won’t deter crime
Last week the U.S. House of
Representatives began debate on a
useless (surprised?) piece of legislation
which bows to the wishes of the anti-gun
lobby while doing absolutely nothing
about crime in America.
This legislation, the so called “Brady
Bill,” would establish a nationwide
seven-day waiting period and
background check prior to a handgun
purchase or transfer. This bill, named
after former presidential press secretary
Jim Brady, who was critically wounded
in the attempted assassination of Ronald
Reagan, is being touted as a reasonable
and effective deterrent to crime. The
facts show otherwise.
Criminals, by their nature, do not go
about lawful means to obtain firearms
with which to commit crimes. A 1986
study sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Justice’s National
Institute of Justice found that,
“Legitimate firearri s retailers play only
a minor role as direct sources of
handguns for adult felony offenders.
Policies attempting to regulate handgun
acquisition at the point of sale ... are
likely to have little effect.” The study
found that 79 percent of the handguns
used by convicted felons were acquired
from non-retail sources. These sources
included fences, drug traders and the
black market.
When threatened with the possibility
of a background check, the 21 percent
of felons who acquired guns through
retail means agreed strongly that non
retail means were easily accessible and
preferable to undergoing a waiting
period. Given these facts, the gun-
grabbers in Washington continue to
push for useless waiting periods, even
though the U.S. Attorney General
recently testified on a task force report
that current systems to identify felons
when they attempt to buy firearms are
likely to identify innocent law-abiding
citizens as much as 40 percent to 60
percent of the time. The toss of a coin
will give results that accurate, without
using police manpower or funds to
perform inaccurate background checks.
In municipalities and state
governments across the country, waiting
periods have been heralded as a
panacea to deter criminals from
obtaining weapons. California’s 15-day
waiting period, the country’s longest
statewide wait, had an adverse effect on
crime. Between 1965 and 1987, the rate
of violent crime per 100,000 persons
rose 235 percent. The ineffectiveness of
waiting periods led predictably to a call
for a handgun ban, which was defeated
statewide by a two to one margin in
1980.
background check is overlooked. As did
John Lennon’s killer, the California
schoolyard murderer Patrick Purdy,
and countless others.
Anong the first to testify in favor of
the Brady bill were the chiefs of police
of Washington D.C. and New York City
— two cities which have basically
outlawed handgun sales. Why, might
you ask, would these gents be interested
in legislation which would not affect
their cities? Because, they claim, guns
find their way to their cities from areas
with lax gun laws, like Texas, Ohio, and
Virginia.
They, along with all the liberal gut
grabbers in Washington, are primed
and ready to use the failure of a natio:
waiting period to call for the compleit
prohibition of handgun sales. And fit
there ....
Groups like Handgun Control Inc.
overlook the obvious facts and attempt
to use blatant emotionalism to push
their anti-gun agenda through
Congress. As Sarah and Jim Brady
emotionally testify in favor of the bill,
the fact that John Hinckley Jr. would
have passed even the most restrictive
Do New York felons drive to Texas to
buy guns? No, of course not. If, in fact,
guns from Texas or Idaho or wherever
do find their way to New York it is by
non-retail means which are wholly
unaffected by waiting periods. The
logical conclusion? These police chiefs,
from the number one and two murder
capitals in the country which also
incidentally have the strictest and most
draconian gun laws in the country, have
a hidden agenda.
Politicians prefer an unarmed
populace. They are easier to control
Instead of using police manpower
run dubious checks on handgun salei
our elected officials should push for
mandatory sentencing of firearms
felons. They do the nation a great
disservice by distorting the truth
Restraint must always be used inordt
to insure that thexivil rights of law
abiding gun owners and purchasers
protected.
By JULIE MYEF
Of The Battalion
Although th
name, T’ai-wan
explored the isl
beautiful.”
Taiwan is a If
off the southea:
is approximate
across at its widi
Mountains o
land, which ah
and hot spring:
Fore
By SEAN FREf
OfTheBattalior
When Chid
three years aj
classroom kno\
was accustome
city life.
But when s
A&M to work
S ree, Peng was
om she found
Peng, presii
Students Assoc
student in oa
most noticeabl
Chin
for tl
By SEAN FRE
Of The Battalio
Chinese fo
some the epil
ture.
People have
miles to exper
and taste. On
chure even cal
ne."
Waiting periods don’t stop crime
The remedy, or any appropriate
penalty, must come after the
commission of a crime if the
presumption of innocent until provei
guilty is to be preserved.
Larry Cox is a graduate student in
range science.
El Salvadorian students speak out against FMLN
We are writing to you in response to
the column published in The Battalion
on Thursday Sept. 13 regarding U.S.
aid to the Salvadorean government.
We regret that Mr. Tang is yet
another victim of the disinformation
campaign carried out by the political
wing of the Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front. We hope this letter
will help him and others open their eyes
towards the reality of the Salvadorean
people. We feel the need to refute some
of the points brought up in the column.
We wonder if Mr. Tang ignores the
fact that the Salvadorean government
was democratically elected with a
landsliding approval rate of more than
66 percent.
Jaime Abdul
Gutierrez
Reader’s Opinion
To us it does not seem conceivable
that a government that slaughters its
own people could stay in place with such
an overwhelming popularity. If, in fact,
according to Mr. Tang, the army has
killed 60,000 people, this would mean
that the FMLN guerrillas have not fired
a single shot!
We assume he’s getting all his
information out of the offices of
Amnesty International since this is the
same group of people that knowingly
ignore the crimes committed by the
guerrillas.
Just to mention some of these crimes
Amnesty International has ignored in El
Salvador are the killings of Dr.
Francisco Rodriguez Forth, Secretary of
State for President Cristiani and Dr.
Jose Francisco Guerrero, ex-chairman
of the Supreme Court. They also
neglect to mention the thousands of
innocent children who were killed on
their way to school or the people at work
who stepped on a mine planted by the
FMLN.
He mentions that anyone who speaks
in favor of peace talks is automatically
‘red-tagged’ by the army. Mr. Tang, do
you really ignore, as a political science
major, that immediately after the peace
talks held in Mexico city last November
the guerrilla launched their biggest
offensive against the Salvadorean
population? They cowardly used the
innocent civilian population as human
shields and held them hostages for a
period of two weeks.
the FMLN forces consisted of foreign
mercenaries from around the world,
with Nicaragua’s Ortega as their main
supporter.
We wonder where the civilian
support you talk about is? If there was
Let us now take a look at the analysis
he presents:
The impoverished condition of the
people is a direct result of the attacks
launched by the FMLN against the
economic infrastructure of the country:
FLMN is constantly sabotaging the
power lines, attacking the public
transport system, threatening peasants
that work the land, bombing industrial
facilities and more.
“The more civilians the army kills, the
more people join the FMLN,” Tang
says. The fact is, Mr. Tang, that during
the November offensive, 40 percent of
If, in fact, the army
has killed 60,000
people, this would
mean that the FMLN
guerrillas have not
fired a single shot!
any at all, the Salvadorean government
would have been overthrown by
December last year. During the first day
of the November offensive, the FMLN
went door to door offering AK-47s to
the people to revolt against their
government to no avail. Is this the so-
called support you talk about?
It is widely known in all international
circles that by asking the Salvadorean
government to disband the army, the
FMLN is only setting obstacles for the
peace talks to progress. Even Mr.Javif
DeSoto, the United Nation’s mediator
is well aware of the dillatory tactics
followed by the FMLN in order tobui
time and convince the international
opinion, like Mr. Tang, that they’re,®
fact, fighting for the Salvadorean
people.
U.S. aid to El Salvador is already
conditioned on the progress of the
peace talks currently taking place in
Costa Rica and of the trial of the
military men involved in the murders!
the Jesuit fathers.
Nevertheless, let us thank Mr, Tan(
for the chance he gave us to bring a
piece of reality to those of you that ha'
been so badly misinformed.
Jaime Abdul Gutierrez is agraduatt
student in mechanical engineering ai
president of the El Salvador Student
Association. This Reader’s Opinion ut
accompanied by seven signatures.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Cindy McMillian,
Editor
Timm Doolen, Managing Editor
Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor
Holly Becka, City Editor
Kathy Cox,
Kristin North,
News Editors
Nadja Sabawala,
Sports Editor
Eric Roalson, Art Director
Lisa Ann Robertson,
Lifestyles Editor
Editorial Policy
The Battalion is a non-profit, self-sup
porting newspaper operated as a commu
nity service to Texas A&M and Bryan-
Colle^e Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion
are those of the editorial board or die au
thor, and do not necessarily represent the
opinions of Texas A&M administrators,
faculty or the Board of Regents.
The Battalion is published Monday
through Friday during Texas A&M regu
lar semesters, except for holiday and ex
amination periods. Newsroom: 845-3313.
Mail subscriptions are $20 per semes
ter, $40 per school year and $50 per full
year: 845-2611. Advertising rates fur
nished on request: 845-2696.
Our address: The Battalion, 230 Reed
McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col
lege Station, TX 77843-1111.
Second class postage paid at College
Station, TX 77843.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes
to The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald,
Texas A&M University, College Station
TX 77843-4111.
Adventures In Cartooning
by Don Atkinson Jt
AS VOU AW
hlOriCCD, bflLD (W5
DON'T GO CN6R TOO