The Nation - News from Dec. 29, 1986

New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch called for a national commission and a local conference on racism. “We still have the cancer of racism. Anyone who says the country . . . is free of racism is not telling the truth or is simply an ostrich whose head is buried in the sand,” Koch said to reporters before he appeared on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.” He then attended Mass in Howard Beach, Queens, where three black men were attacked and one was hit by a car and killed while trying to escape Dec. 20. Three white teen-agers have been charged with murder. Three days later, black youths beat up a white teen-ager in Jamaica, Queens. Richard Garces, 17, of Queens, turned himself in Sunday, becoming the third suspect arrested in that attack. He was charged with second-degree assault and first-degree inciting to riot.