Opinion
Winston-Salem Chronicle
I ' vwi C ity's A~i2/<J W inning Weekly
Ernest H. Pitt Ndubbi Egcmonye
Publisher/Co-founder Co-Founder
" Richard L. Williams
EfaUnt Pttt
Director of Community Halations
M?l White
Circulation Manager
Managing Editor
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*'?*? Auoo?? n AtVK4l?"
Michael A. Pitt
Advertising Manager
Vlpaporn Ratanatanincheri
Office Manager
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Audit Buffiii a mimwuii ??
of Circulations ^
Concord and Winston-Salem
Police -Community Relations
There is a heat wave going on. And in Concord, N.C.,
Tacial tensions rivaled the high temperatures following the
death of Angelo Robinson in police custody. The black man
died in police custody after officers used pepper spray to
subdue him during his arrest. Robinson suffered from
asthma and the spray apparently hampered his breathing.
The resulting riots left several people injured and destroyed
many businesses. The State Bureau of Investigation is cur
rently investigating the incident
In Winston-Salem, the barometer is also reaching the;
boiling point, as a number of similar incidents ? ranging
from the McKellar incident to the police's use of pepper
spray, a product whose potentially hazardous effects con
tinue to be investigated ? have strained police-community ,
relations.
The Concord civil unrest could be viewed as a harbin
ger of what the future holds for our racially divided city. A
black man recently became unconscious here after being
sprayed with pepper mace. He remains hospitalized. Last
week, a young black man was charged with assaulting two
officers in Kimberly Park. The police no longer command
"respect from blacks but instead inspire fear and, subse
quently, hatred from members of the community.
A June 10 issue of the Chronicle expressed the commu
nity's distrust of the police, who they believe used exces- .
sive force in black neighborhoods. A few even stated that
there is a serious possibility of a race riot if conditions do
not improve.?
- Recently a plot was uncovered in Los Angeles that the ~
Ku Klux Klan planned to bomb a black church and to mur
der Rodney King and other prominent African Americans
in an attempt to provoke a major race war. As a microcosm
of society, there also seem to be attempts to sever race rela
tions in Winston- Salem.
After months of refusing to speak to the black press,- ?
Winston-Salem Police Chief George Sweat finally agreed
to an interview with the Chronicle. This decision came only
after one of Sweat's supervisors, assistant city manager A1
Beaty, stated in the presence of the chief andChronicle
reporters that the city's "official position" is to talk to all
the media, a practice that Sweat up until this point has bla
tantly ignored. The chief's past actions demonstrate that he
does not place the concerns of African Americans in the
same category of importance as the white community.
The racial division of the city, if it is ignored and not""
ameliorated, will only worsen, inciting more anger and
frustration in what seems to be a problematic situation that
many acknowledge but fail to solve. The formulation of a
police review board to protect the rights of citizens is an
admirable start, but the bottom line is that unless the police
are more emphathetic to the city's black population, the
antagonism will continue to rise between the two factions.
Respect earned, after all, is respect given.
The conditions are ripening for a repeat in Winston
Salem of what has ravaged the small community of Con
cord. The heat wave is getting hotter, and there seems, for
the moment, to be no shade in sight
Credo of the Black Press
The Black Press believes that America can best lead the world
away from antagonisms when it accords to every person ? regardless
of race or creed ? full human and legal rights. Hating np person, the
Black Press strives to help every person, in the firm belief that all are
hurt as long as anyone is held back.
How To Reach Us
722-8624
Production
Kathy Lee - Supervisor
Deborah Belcher
Crysul Wood
Karen Harmon
Doug Ritz
Reporters
Mark R. Moss
Deby Jo Ferguson
David Dillard
Circulation
Bill Moser
Walter Mickle
Varnell Robinson
Todd Fulton
Patrick Edmunds
Business Office
Donna Conrad
LaCheryl Mitchell
Emma Jean Pitts
Crystal McNair
Advertising
Cliff Hunt
Judie Holcomb-Pack
Unjustifiable Attack on Alderman Womble
To the Editor:
The unjustifiable attack on
Alderman Larry Womble for expos
ing this city of its very unfair prac
tices of dealing with all people
justly and humanely is another clas
sic example of the way some of our
leading officials think we should be
satisfied with being rated as second
class citizens.
They fail to realize even we as
a minority have the same needs,
| wants and got-to-haves as all crea
tures. God gave us this right, and
the Constitution of the United States
of America is supposed to uphold it.
But we all know man must have a
change of heart before he can ever
change his action, and until then we
cannot have an All- American City,
Ail-American harmony, All-Ameri
can love or anything else that's clas
sified as Ail-American.
A segment of our society wants
us to just exist when our spirits are
screaming to live, which we cannot
do until all long-overdue rights can
be exercised by us all.
Angela Boston
In the Dark
To the Editor:
Mr. Womble, why is it that the
All-American City or the number
- one city cannot replace night lights
at the Waughtown post office or the
street lights on Pleasant Street and
other streets?
There's no doubt that this
would have been done in another
part of this great city (yesterday) but
not on this side of U.S. 52.
Sir, it's not the big things that
always count. It's the litde things
also. We pay taxes also. Just think
about iL
John H. Klder
Sharing Crumbs
To the Editor:
L
Muhammad Nassardeen, left , talks with Melva Joyce Parhoms of the African International Village in a Los
Angeles studio. Nassardeen is president of Recycling Black Dollars , art.os Angeles-area group that provides
signs to stores to indicate they are black-owned and plans to distribute more than 50,000 free discount cards to
encourage blacks to patronize black businesses . ? - ? ? ? ^ ? ? - ?
-CHRONICLE MAILBAG
Our Readers Speak Out
In response to an article by
Mayor Martha Wood, the purpose
of Alderman Larry Womble being
against this city's becoming Ail
American is because this city isn't
halfcwaythere; ?
We are not asking for special
privileges ? just equality, honesty
and to be treated like mankind is
supposed to be treated. Over the
generations we have worked,
fought, grayed and voted for all
things to be equal with us as a
minority, but some in the majority
still think of us as being kept in our
place. This city' is like a feast being
spread ? with us only allowed the
crumt5S which we will never be sat
isfied with.
J A, Williams
About letters .. .
The Chronicle welcomes letters as well as guest columns from its
readers. Letters should be as concise as possible and should be typed
or legibly printed. The letter must also include the name, address
and telephone number of the writer to ensure the authenticity of the
letter. Columns must follow the same guidelines and will be pub
lished if they are of interest to cur general readership. The Chroni
cle will not publish any letters or column.'' that arrive without this
information. We reserve the right to edit letters and columns for
brevity and clarity. Submit letters and columns to
Chronicle MailNiy
P.O. Box 1636
Winston-Salem, N C. 27102
President Clinton, Someone is Lying
Now comes word from the CIA
itself that it bungled big time when
it allowed Sheik Omar Abdel Rah
man to enter the United States in
1990.
Described generally by the
media as a terrorist and suggested as
the mastermind behind the World
Trade Center bombing murders and
wounding of thousands ? as well
as a plot to blow up key parts of
New York on July 4 ? the Sheik
was recently taken into custody
"pending resolution of a contested
deportation order.
Earlier reports, attributed to
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt,
described Abdel Rahman as a CIA
operative. Later there was a retrac
tion.
Most recently, Osama al Baz, a
senior aide to President Mubarak
says his government told U.S. offi
cials in January (the trade center
bombing was on Feb. 26) that "cer
tain terrorist groups" assisted by
"Iranian elements" were "plotting
and training" in Pershawar, Pak
istan, a former CIA base to train
Afghanistan guerrillas, to attack
U.S. targets.
A month after the Egyptian
warning, 12 of the sheik's followers
were tied to the trade center bomb- -
ing and the plot to bomb other New
York landmarks.
The CIA, with a budget of
S27.5 billion, told us that it
approved Sheik Abdel Rahman's
permit to enter the U.S. in 1990
because it did not know he had
alleged terrorist ties, because a clerk
said he was not on a list of undesir
ables. Earlier reports said the snafu
happened because a computer didn't?
wof*. The CIA did a better job of
following Malcolm X and Martin
Luther King than that, and they
weren't suspected of terrorism.
Dr. Nathaniel Lehrman of New
York, in an open letter to Attorney
General Janet Reno, asks, "Was the
FBI involved in the bombing of
New York City's World Trade Cen
ter last February?"
"ABC-TV's 'Day One' sug
gested on July 12," he continued,
"that the bombing was a 'rogue'
operation by Muslims who with
CIA encouragement and assistance,
fought the Russians in Afghanistan.
Was it?
"Or might it have been a delib
erate FBI effort," he added, "using
Emad Salem (FBIinformer) to raise
fears and strengthen its own position
by discrediting the unpopular Amer
ican Muslim minority." ?
"Was the bombing a repeat of
Berlin's Reichstag fire 60 yeas
such as ihe innocence of accused
Rabbi Mcir Kahane's murderer El
Sayvid Nosair.
But the Clinton administra
tion s strange accounting of these
events has opened the flood gates
for more speculation. Moreover, this
episode could turn into something
TONY BROWN
Syndicated Columnist
ago?" Lehrman asked Janet Reno.
"The Nazis who help power
there then deliberately attacked a
national landmark ? the German
Parliament building ? in order to
blame and destroy a minority ? the
Communists. Their purpose ? and
they succeeded ? was to create
fear, strengthen their police-state
goals and undercut democracy," he
asserted.
Lehrman goes on to make some
extremely speculative statements,
that would make Watergate look
pale by comparison.
A fiml note from the Washing
Ton~Post: "Egyptian officials have
been irritated by what they suspect
was a lack of U.S. candor in
explaining to them how and why
Abdel Rahman was issued at least
two U S Visas, one in 1986 in
C.uio and one in 1990 in Sudan. w
Where I'M Coming From
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