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^^olume XII: Numhar 14
The 3t«ideiit New*|M|ier of tiie Uiinrrnty of IMorlli Carolina at Cliariollr
Ciiariottr, North Carolina
November 23, 1976
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Calls courts ‘...arm of destruction’
By Brad Rich
“It is not just in the U.S. where the
legal system is utilized as a method for
ontrolling society,” said self-avowed
radical lawyer William Kuntsler to a
erowd gathered in the McKnight Lecture
Hall Tuesday night, “but the U.S. is the
most hypocritical. We utilize the court
system as an absolute arm of
destruction...It creates situations of
intolerable cruelty...It is really a system
of injustice, not a system of justice.”
Kunstler is perhaps the most famous
of America’s “radical lawyers.” He has
defended, among others, the Chicago
Seven, Angela Davis, Rap Brown, Joanne
Little, the American Indian Movement,
Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, and the
Freedom Riders of Mississippi. He has
been a lawyer for 30 years, but sees the
law and morality as “opposite poles.”
“Legal systems,” Kunstler said, “Are
in arm of the ruling class designed to
prevent disruption of power. It utilizes
;his power to convict people and either
take them out of the system or destroy
them physically. This is a political trial.”
Kunstler said a political trial is
supposed to do three things; “destroy a
/oice, inhibit those who follow the voice,
md solidify support of the silent
najority behind the ruling class.”
He cited the trial of Christ as the
dassic example of the political trial. He
laid Christ was a threat to the system, a
‘small communist,” and had to be
disposed of. To kill him by the sword
vould have excited too many people, so
le was arrested for conspiring to destroy
;he temple. Later the charge was changed
o blasphemy, for claiming to be the son
)f God; he was convicted, thus the voice
vas destroyed, and the followers were
mattered. The silent majority fell right
nto line, and on the Passover Day picked
iarabas to be released instead of Christ.
“Our government does this
egularly,” Kunstler said, and cited the
rials of ^n Chavis, Angela Davis, Dr.
spock and’the Berrigans as examples.
Kunstler used the peace movement
rs the central example for his analysis of
Political trials in the United States. He
aid John Kennedy was the President
yho actually started the Vietnam War
|ie sent in the first 1800 combat troops,
nd initiated the first defoliation of the
/ietnamese countryside, but Lyndon
ohnson accelerated the war by sending
n half a million troops secretly after his
andslide victory over Barry Goldwater in
964. “Goldwater was more truthful
luring the campaign,” Kunstler siad,
‘but I didn’t thiiik so at the time.”
“The first people to oppose the war
vere “respectable” citizens like Dr.
fenjamin Spock,” he said. Spock was
ndicted for conspiring to pervert the
fouth of America, “just as Socrates had
leen in Greece.” He had been telling
American youths to avoid the selective
ervice draft.
“Conspiracy can’t be defined; it is an
let of ‘thinking,’ and you don’t even
ave to think, they’ll provide an informer
zho will think for you,” said Kunstler. A
lerson can be tried for this anywhere a
upposed overt act has dccured, and
Ipock was tried in Boston, a perfect
ilace to try defendants because of the
igh percentage of Catholic population.
Kunstler said the “Chicago Seven”
/ere tried by jurors drawn from
Daley-land,” yet they still were not able
,3 get a conviction on the original
barges. “We were, however, convicted of
ontempt of court,” Kunstler said.
“The Chicago Seven trial, while an
pparent victory for the .Movement
arces, did accomplish the goals the
system had hoped for. The leaders were
scattered, many were harassed into going
underground, and a new leadership,
called “The Catholic Left,” emerged.
This group included such people as
Daniel Berrigan, Phillip Berrigan and
Dorothy Day. Eventually, they too were
brought to trial on a conspiracy charge,
this one the most outlandish of all. They
were accused of conspiring to disrupt the
steam-heating system of Washington,
D.C., then sneak into the White House
and kidnap Heiuy Kissinger, then the
President’s advisor on foreign affairs.”
The trial was held in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, a town Kunstler said “is
composed of two per cent Catholics, and
98 per cent Fundamentlaist Protestants.
There are almost no bfacks, no nearby
universities, and only two airline flights a
day — Allegheny Airlines in and
Allegheny Airlines out.” 80 per cent of
the city’s wealth comes from the
Bethelem Steel plants, which are directly
linked to the production of war
machinery. “Even with all that,”
Kunstler said, “The jury voted 10-2 for
acquittal.” The government had based its
case on a witness. Dale Boyd, who
testified that, while in prison at
Louisburg, Pennsylvania, he had heard
Berrigan tell of the plot.
Kunstler said the only trouble with
this was on the date Boyd gave for the
conversation, Berrigan was serving time
in Danbury, Connecticut for another
charge. “Ten jurors didn’t believe
Berrigan could shout from Danbury,
Connecticut to Louisburg,
Pennsylvania,” Kunstler said, “but two
still did.”
Next to rise to the front of the fight
was an organization known as the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
(WAW). Kunstler said they were
thought the most dangerous of all,
because they weren’t draft evaders,
yippies, etc., they were Aihericans who
had served, then become wounded and
disenchanted with the war. “They had
been there and had firsthand
knowledge.” Another conspiracy charge
was brought, this one accusing them of
“conspiring to pin down delegates to the
Republican National Convention in
Miami, Florida.” This time the
government’s witness was a man who had
been discharged from the army for
psychiatric reasons, and who claimed the
VVAW members planned to fight the
delegates with such things as slingshots
and crossbows. “1 thought crossbows
went out at the battle of Hastings,’
Kunstler said. Nonetheless, the trial took
five months before the jury acquitted the
defendants in a 53 minute session.
The final trial Kunstler discussed was
the Daniel Ellsberg-Anthony Russo trial
which ceatered around Ellsberg’s
publicizing the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg
and Russo were accused of conspiring to
break down the classification system of
the United States by removing and
xeroxing copies of the “Pentagon
Papers” and sending them to such
“disreputable” publications as the
Washington Post and the New York
Times. Charges were later dropped
against when it was discovered his only
part in the action was allowing free use
of the copying machine. During the trial.
Federal Judge Burke of California was
offered the Directorship of the FBI after
the trial. Burke said he had to think it
over, and another meeting was set up.
This one, to be held in Mac Arthur Park
in Los Angeles, would be between Judge
Burke and John Erlichman, the
President’s chief advisor for domestic
affairs.
Little did Burke and Ehrlichman
know that Anthony Russo’s bathroom
window looked over the park. Russo saw
the two men talking, and contacted his
lawyers, who brought it up in court.
Judge Burke left the bench, and in 30
minutes returned and dismissed
prosecution, “This was the first trial ever
dismissed for governmental misconduct,”
Kunstler said.
Kunstler said lawyers must
constantly play a charade, namely; that
there is justice in the legal system. “This
is not true. All yoii can do is throw up
roadblocks and bring out the
contradictions in the system. This is
where you can damage it the most,” he
said. “There is no justice in the system,
n o truth or beauty. It’s a dirty little game
where the rules are manipulated. There
are things happening all the time, but we
see only the celebrated ones. Joanne
Little was lucky. Because of the nature
of her case, she broke the anonymity,
but very few do.”
To change the system Kunstler
believes a fundamental attitudinal change
must occur. “Somewhere in our minds,”
Kunstler said, “is the idea the legal
system is sacrosanct, We think it may
make mistakes, but is basically decent.
We accept these not as assasinations,
'which they really are, but as some part of
a legal process. It is time to begin to
question the system. People have to take
an interest or the system will destroy you
as well.”
Kunstler said he thinks electoral
politics is a waste of time. He advocates
political activism instead, and feels
eventual arrned revolution will be the
way the system is finally changed. “If
you think you vote for America’s rulers,
you' have another think coming. You
don’t make any choices. America’s rulers
never run for public office,” he said.
He said the only thing that’s
important is how people relate to their
brothers and sifters around them in love.
“Don’t trust my examples; you yourself
must take an interest and understand
what is going on around you,” he said.
^Possible irregularities ’
Spur SBI investigation
By Les Bowen
The State Bureau of Investigation
(SBI) is investigating what Vice
Chancellor Leo E. Ells last week called
“possible irregularities” at UNCC.
Ells, vice chancellor for Business,
said,he couldn’t discuss the nature of the
“possible irregularities” until the
investigation is concluded. He said the
situation involved “possible wrongdoing
on the part of an employee...no one has
been charged, no one has been found
guilty, and almost anything I could say
would be the most sheer speculation.”
When asked to comment on reports
that a university employee’s resignation
was related to the “irregularities,” Ells
said, “Yes, a person resigned, but, you
know, I think that happens every week,
or maybe twice a week. We have
approximately 1,000 employees at
UNCC, so the fact that a person resigned
has almost no significance, unless you
connect it with something else — and if
you do that you might be lookin’ at a
nice, fat, libel suit.”
Ells said he consulted with Security
Director Jerry Hudson, who
recommended- that they advise
Chancellor Colvard to bring in the SBI.
“We decided to>-ask for the SBI
because of the nature of the kinds of
things we’d have to do to find out if we
had a problem or not,” Ells said.
Ells cited several investigatory
avenues open to the university in the
event of “irregularities.”
“If you have a theft, you call in the
police. If you are missing money, you
call in the internal auditor. In this
particular instance we decided we needed
investigative skills.”
FJJs said he felt the investigation had
been damaged by publicity — that the
persons being investigated were alerted
by the media and would be harder to
catch.
“Anytime an investigation is
broadcast through the media, it’s
destructive. Anytime the conclusion of
an investigation is broadcast, it’s
helpful,” he said.
Carolina Journal photo by Pete Meuser
Vice Chancellor Leo Ells.