Page 6
Assault Charges Son
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Continued from Page 1 arrest 16 year old Wayne '
situation in hand when plain Thomas. The crowd angered
clothes officers the witnesses by this began to throw rocks
refered to as "Narcs" came to ?and bottles at police vehicles '
the scene and attempted to An altercation between police
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Winston-Salem Chronicle
ight
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and the crowd erupted. Two
officers were hit by objects.
More than 20 persons stated
that after Thompson a
narcotics agent was hit in the
Face he cursed, dropped his
night stick and fired from a
:rouched position, into a
:rowd of about 100 people
near the of the Big ~'Q'V
Lounge, striking Smoak who
had just come out of the door.
Witnesses also stated that
rhompson fired no warning
shot, fired in the opposite
direction of the person who
struck him and fled in a car
with two other officers and
Wayne Thomas, who had been
irrested without checking to
see if he had hit anyone.
Patricia Kama ^aid Smoak
:ame out of the door of the Big
'D" Lounge just as Thompson
turned after being struck.
She stated that Smoak stepped
'ight in front of her just as
someone shouted' "he's geting
ready to shoot." As the
shot was fired she fell to the
-ight and Smoak fell to the
eft. Both lay there for a few
seconds, according to Miss
(ama, when the crowd started
o move. "As I started to get
ip my left leg was under his
ihoulder when I pulled my leg
rom under him 1 noticed he
iidn't move, I got on my knees
tnd noticed the blood on the
ight side of his body. 1
ihouted he's been shot", she
itated.
However Chief Surratt said
Monday August 18 that a
letailed investigation of the
listurbance had produced
virtually conclusive evidence
hat Smoak was shot by
lomeone other than a police
>fficer. Reports at that time
laid that the investigation had
ailed to produce clues to the
tssailant's identity.
The investigation indicates
hat Smoak was shot by a
imall caliber weapon, smaller
han the weapon fired by
rhompson. Thompson's gun
vas at first said to be a .38
raliber revolver, later it was
.aid he carried a .357
nagnum. The bullet that hit
Smoak still has not been
bund.
The investigators report
ilso indicates that: 1- the
>ullet that struck Smoak
Taveled from the right side of
lis body to the left while,
iccording to the report if
rhompson's bullet had struck
lim it would have traveled
torn left to right.
2- The bullet that struck
Smoak traveled at a downward
ingle and that if Thompson
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have had to be more than 30
Feet above the ground.
3- A chronilogical reconstruction
of the nights events
indicate that Smoak was shot
two to three minutes before
rhompson fired his gun.
Officer Thompson though
still on active duty was not
ivailable for comment.
August 23, 1975
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The Changing Times:
? African
Those who know Africa well will agree that African has long
experienced her own share of crises and social unrest. What
with rapid changes in government and ethnic-wars which have
at various stages been as brutal as they have been
unconventional.
The rest of the world have not been without all kinds of unrest
either. If you look back into history, you will find out that the
present African experiences have been repeated over and over
again in other parts of the world even in those parts that now
behave as if they have been trouble free in their evolution.
? I J _ _ .1. _ ....i, i.L. f it-' _ 1 l I !j? *
i nccu nui pumi oui inai me iunny ining aooui numaniiy is
that we do not learn from history. If human begins learn from
the history of the past there probably would not have been all
the wars that man have involved himself in. If man learns
?sufficiently from history, many would have stopped offering
simplistic solutions to problems that require complicated
analysis. If man learns from history, African experiences would
have benefited from the sad experiences that other parts of the
world have gone through.
Man also remembers what is pleasing and comfortable for
him to remember and forgets what he wants to forget. I will not
call this kind of behavior intellectual dishonesty, since that will
imply that the people who remember only what they choose to
remember are intellectuals in the first place. Rather, I will
attribute that kind of sensitivity to a view of the world which is
narrow in scope and simplistic in objectivity.
I will be the first to say that all is not well with many African
countries. But 1 will also be the first to say that Rhodesia and j
South Africa as presently governed represent tyranny and
repression at its worst. There is no justification for South Africa
or Rhodesia white minority to be as brutal as they are in the
name of so-called democracy.
Many rulers make a vital mistake when they fail to realize
that democracy starts in the stomach. The kind of democracy
that a hungry man will want to talk about is probably the
democracy that tells him how to put some food in his hungry
stomach. No wonder that many people do not even both to vote
in many countries. They think that their votes do not count.
What counts for them is not so much who is in power but how
are they going to solve their day to day problems of living.
African people worry about the same thing other people
worry about. And since all the trappings of free system is
present in the basic lives of all African people, the ultimate
result of African experience will be democratic. What is needed
in many African countries, perhaps more than any other thing is
a free flow of information. Those who rule must learn to live
with criticism by the people they rule and look deeply into what
is being said about them to find out how they can improve their
leadership and accountability.
Given what we presently know about other forms of
government, African states must necessarily choose to be
democratic in their systems of government. Democracy will be
meaningless without the assurances that make it work: the
protections of minority, the right to be heard, the right to free
expression and discent and a system of justice that does not only
make sure that justice is done but also shows that justice is
available to all.
Democratic chemistry requires that all those involved in the
process fully understand the rule of the game and that freedom t
becomes a right of all instead of the privilege of the few. That is
why I do not consider South Africa or Rhodesia, by any stretch
of imagination a democracy. Instead, they are to me and
nerhans to manv. nthf?r ri#?nn1#? a tvrannv
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Ndubisi Egemonye