The Nation - News from Oct. 8, 1985

New York Mayor Edward I. Koch called the Rev. Louis Farrakhan “a cancer,” and Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward ordered extra police into the area around Madison Square Garden, where the Nation of Islam leader is speaking. But several black activists expressed support of Farrakhan. “I see 99.9% of Louis Farrakhan’s message as positive,” said the Rev. Lawrence Lucas, a community leader. Police Commissioner Ward renewed his appeal to the public not to demonstrate against Farrakhan’s speech because “that would turn it into a media event, exactly what he (Farrakhan) seeks to turn it into.”