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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1994)
/a uy qiO 1 ol. 93 No. 112 (6 pages) The Battalion 1893 — A Century of Service to Texas A&M — 1993 Friday, March 11,1994 hree finalists named for A&M president position By Lisa Elliott The Battalion I A list of three candidates for the posi- |on of president of Texas A&M was pre- nted to Dr. William Mobley, chancellor f the University System, Thursday by e Presidential Search Advisory Com- ittee. The finalists are Dr. Ray Bowen, inter- iin president of Oklahoma State Universi- Dr. James Corbridge Jr., chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Dr. Luis Proenza, acting vice presi dent for academic affairs and research of the University of Alaska System. The list of candidates was sent to Mob ley and the Board of Regents during a workshop session Thursday in Laredo. The three finalists were selected by a 20-member committee comprised of stu dents, staff, faculty and representatives from the Association of Former Students. Brooke Leslie, judicial chair of student government and a member of the selec tion committee, said the committee was looking for candidates who have a strong academic history with a talent for leader ship, a vision for the future and a good relationship with students. "An understanding of A&M is essen tial, but bringing in fresh and new ideas is also important," she said. Leslie said the candidate who is select ed as president will have a tough job ahead of him for the first few months in trying to undo the controversy the Uni versity has been involved in recently. "There's been a lot of controversy sur rounding A&M lately," she said. "Who ever is selected will come in with a lot of package, but all three would be able to handle it." Bowen has a bachelor's and a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M and a master's from the Cali fornia Institute of Technology and, prior to his appointment as interim president at Oklahoma State, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the uni versity. He also served as deputy assis tant director for engineering with the Na tional Science Foundation and as dean of the College of Engineering at the Univer sity of Kentucky and was a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineer ing at Rice University. Corbridge has a bachelor's degree in See President/Page 6 ice system in need f redesign, officials say [any offenders use loopholes to escape punishment By Jan Higginbotham The Battalion I Pressure is rising on government officials to get tougher on criminals, and some Texas A&M University officials said the justice sys tem is not designed to work for victims. I Ben Crouch, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said the justice system is de signed to deter those individuals who might be public offenders. I "Historically, the victim tends to be left out of the equation," Crouch said. "Crime is a sit uation in which the state ultimately becomes the victim. If I kill you, the state moves as if it is the aggrieved party." I Crouch said loopholes exist in laws so that a single person does not decide a criminal's fate, tiie law does. I "Those safeguards can be avenues whereby offenders do get off," he said. "That is some thing we have to accept in a system that is ailed by laws not persons." Bob Wiatt, director of the University Police epartment, said the justice system is not the controller of violence; it is society's problem. I "The system is not responsible for all of so ciety's problems," Wiatt said. "It is overbur- 4ened and overwhelmed by the number of people committing crimes. The system is inca pable of taking care of all these cases." I Crouch said some criminals have to slip by if the system is going to work. I "If you remove the safeguards of a guilty party getting off, you've removed the techni calities for somebody who is likely to be inno cent to get off," Crouch said. People tend to expect too much from the justice system, he said. "We can't have a cop on every corner," Crouch said. "If we have to rely on police and the courts to keep peace, we are in trouble." Wiatt said it is a determined fact that the justice system is weak. "The system is weak to the point that crimi nals know the system is working for them," Wiatt said. "The criminals know that if they get 10 years, they are only going to serve one." Wiatt said the weakness in the system stems from the overcrowding problem in prisons and the government must deal with that prob lem. "What the justice system is looking at is the prisons should be used for violent offenders," he said. "We're looking at having minimum security prisons for less violent offenders." Beth Price, coordinator for the Citizens Crime Commission, said building more pris ons is not going to help. "Prison is not a deterrent to crime," Price said. "Laws need to be tougher. Legislators need to change those laws that are no longer effective and which make favor the criminal." Price said current laws do more to protect the criminal than the victim. "Tine time is coming that society is tired of being victimized," she said. "The majority of the citizens have finally reached the point where they can take no more." Wiatt said a solution will not be found until society realizes crime has gotten out of hand and decides to deal with it. "Society has got to deal with this and you can't dump it on a small part of society in the justice system," he said. "Nobody knows the proper solution, because the proper solution is going to take lots of money." Israelis wound 16 Palestinians after attack on Jewish enclave The Associated Press HEBRON, Occupied West Bank — Pales tinians still angry two weeks after a Jewish set tler massacred Muslim worshipers attacked the main Jewish enclave with stones and burn ing tires Thursday. Israeli troops answered the attack, which occurred after a curfew was briefly lifted, with bullets and tear gas. Sixteen Palestinians were wounded, one seriously, and two dozen were treated for tear-gas inhalation. Some of the protesters yelled "settlers out!" and others set tires ablaze and rolled them to ward army positions. Protests also erupted near the Tomb of the Patriarchs where the massacre took place. Troops protecting the Beit Hadassah settler compound fired tear gas, live ammunition and rubber bullets into groups of Palestinians, some hurling stones with slingshots. The PLO has demanded that Beit Hadassah and several other settlements be evacuated to reduce tensions and clear the way for resump tion of Israel-PLO peace talks. Palestinian sources said Thursday that PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin were expected to meet in Washington within two weeks to try to get the talks back on track. Israel rejected a pitch by Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev to gather all parties to the Middle East peace talks in Moscow, with Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres saying they had to focus on the agree ments already signed. But Kozyrev is due in the region Saturday bearing a message from President Boris Yeltsin to Israel and the PLO. Thursday's unrest began after the army lift ed the curfew for two hours to allow Palestini ans to shop for this weekend's Id Al-Fitr holi day marking the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. Noam Amon, a spokesman for the 450 set tlers in Hebron, said Palestinians used mosque loudspeakers overnight to threaten the settlers in Hebrew. "Your day will come, and we will destroy all of you," he quoted the message as saying. Danny Hizmy, a Beit Hadassah resident, said the army asked settlers to stay indoors while the curfew was lifted, but several defied the request to show they could not be cowed. Also Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed an 18-year-old Palestinian, Moussa Dawas, during a clash in the Deir el Balah refugee camp in the occupied Gaza Strip, Arab reporters said. Monkey around Fifth graders from Henderson Elementary School in Bryan play on the jungle gym at Spence Park Thursday afternoon. The children were on a field trip to visit the Amy Browning/THE Battalion Mimbres art exhibit as part of their social studies class and were enjoying the park during their lunch break before going to visit the military museum. Wild West revisited Texans question use of harsh self-defense to protect property The Associated Press HOUSTON - In the days of the Wild West, the theft of a horse could easily endanger one's life by stranding the rider hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles from food and safety. The so lution? Shoot first, if it prevents the theft. But the recent fatal shootings of a visiting Scottish businessman and a car repo man in Houston has some raising questions about the broad applications of the Texas self-defense statute, which allows homeowners to defend both property and self with "deadly force" during nighttime hours. In Texas, crimes as minor as say, egging a house, can legally be greeted with gunfire — if the homeowner proves his property or personal safety is threatened. "Compared to most states, it is very harsh," said Robert Schuwerk, a Uni versity of Houston Law Center profes sor. In the early 1970s states were asked to adopt or tailor what became known as the modem penal code. "Almost every state is going to be fairly liberal in protecting yourself, your child, whatever," said Schuwerk. "But most states take the view that property is a much lesser issue than a self-defense type of issue." For instance, in New York, deadly force can only be used to protect prop erty in cases of arson or burglary. The Texas law, in comparison,extends it to include such minor offenses as theft and criminal mischief during the night time. "Criminal mischief can be just about anything," said Sandra Guerra, an as sistant law professor at the University of Houston and former Manhattan prosecutor. "It can be egging your house." "It's very broad," Guerra says of the Texas statute. "It gives homeowners the right to deadly force in many more situations that even involve trivial vio lation of property rights." In 19th century Texas, crimes such as criminal mischief and theft of prop erty were much more serious. "If I were in West Texas and some one stole my horse, I would probably die," reasons Schuwerk. With a lack of police force, property owners literally had no choice but to take the law in their own hands. But in 1994, what is the threat? Schuwerk gives an example. "Say you've got this crazy guy in the back yard, yelling and shouting that he needs to make a phone call," explains Schuwerk. "...All you have to believe is, that if you go out there, the guy will take the gun away. Even if I believe that I don't really need to use deadly force, I can because I might get hurt if I didn't." Sound far-fetched? On Jan. 7, Andrew De Vries, a visit ing businessman from Aberdeen, Scot land, was fatally shot in the predawn hours by homeowner Jeffrey Agee. De Vries and another Scottish busi nessman, Sydney Graves, were wind ing up a night on the town when the shooting occurred. The two were being driven back to their hotel by a man and woman they had met when De Vries for some reason wanted out of the car, police said. Graves got out too, and the two men then started knocking on doors in "It gives homeowners the right to deadly force in many more situations that even involve trivial violation of property rights." - Sandra Guerra, assistant law professor Agee's upscale west Houston neigh borhood around 4 a.m. De Vries rang Agee's doorbell twice, hiding each time Agee came to the door. He then jumped a backyard fence and banged on glass doors. Agee, fearing for his family's safety, shot De Vries. Agee was cleared of the shooting by a grand jury last month. Then on Feb. 25, in the early morn ing hours, Jerry Casey Jr. fired on Tom my Dean Morris, whom he thought was stealing his car. Morris was legally repossessing the car because Casey was three days late on a payment. Inside •A&M crushes SMU Mustangs 85-66 •A&M women's tennis beats Baylor Opinion •Landauer: Dealing with a dislike of Barney Page 5 Controversy arises over meaning of Iron Cross By Geneen Pipher Page 3 The Battalion Some members of Texas A&M Universi ty's German Club are upset over the group's decision to include the Iron Cross on its T- shirts, saying the cross is a Nazi symbol of racism and white supremacy. Julie Gray, a senior German major and for mer treasurer of the German Club, in a letter to The Battalion called the club's use of the Iron Cross "offensive" and "belligerent". The cross is a symbol of a "vicious, white supremist war machine bent upon genocide," Gray said. "The symbol has been used in the past military history, but it was reissued during the second World War by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich," she said. "What the Iron "What the Iron Cross symbol izes to most people today is racism and white supremacy." - Julie Gray, a senior German major and former treasurer of the German Club Cross symbolizes to most people today is racism and white supremacy, especially to Jewish people. I just find that extremely of fensive." John Bartram, a senior German major and president of the A&M German Club, said the Iron Cross is an ancient Germanic symbol that has been used by the German people since 1190 and is in no way a symbol of racism. "Racism and Nazism are ugly to me," he said. "I don't hate —I am not that kind of person. The history of the Iron Cross goes way back to medieval times and has never been a symbol of white supremacy. It is a re ligious symbol. "It is the cross that the German knights wore when they went off for the Crusades. The cross was first made into a medal in 1813 and was presented to soldiers to commemorate the free ing of the German states from Napoleon." Bartram concedes the Iron Cross was is sued in 1939 by the Nazis, but maintains it is not a symbol of racism, but a symbol of Ger man heritage. See German/Page 2