ACLU Talks About the Pain, Then Goes Limp

Few would dispute that the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has been a leader in rallying public concern over police brutality.

Love it or hate it, you know where the ACLU stands. In September, the group even established a 24-hour telephone hot line for citizens to report brutality cases.

But now the ACLU has gone strangely silent about an alleged case of brutality involving the way police handled dozens of demonstrators who refused an order to walk to the paddy wagon.

At issue is a martial-arts weapon called a nunchaku , which was used to arrest anti-abortion protesters at two demonstrations last month outside San Diego medical clinics.

The ACLU had monitors at both demonstrations. The ACLU in Los Angeles had obtained a court order prohibiting Project Rescue protesters from blocking the clinics’ entrances.

When a news story implied that the ACLU therefore approved of nunchakus , legal director Betty Wheeler announced that the group had no position on “pain compliance” and was reviewing the question of how much pain can be inflicted on people not actively resisting.

ACLU members talked to San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen, who said that nunchakus were used only when protesters refused to cooperate. Cops could hurt their backs by carrying uncooperative arrestees, he said.

A nunchaku consists of two pieces of 12-inch plastic connected by 4 inches of braided nylon cord. Even a defiant suspect quickly complies when a nunchaku is applied to his wrist or arm and given a twist.

A private demonstration of nunchakus was arranged so Wheeler could feel the excruciating pinch. The ACLU’s Police Practices Committee debated the problem at two meetings.

Committee Chairman Michael Crowley said the membership was split nearly evenly between those who felt the ACLU should always oppose excessive police force and those who felt a controlled use of nunchakus is acceptable.

The meetings, he said, erupted into “rancorous debate back and forth, with people losing their tempers. I spent most of my time trying to keep the meeting under control.”

Project Rescue activist Connie Youngkin says the ACLU is silent because the nunchakus were used “to clear away people the ACLU wanted cleared away.”

“If they were used on a rapist or a bank robber, the ACLU would immediately cry foul,” Youngkin said. “But they were used on law-abiding citizens who only wanted to stop the slaughter of innocent babies. The ACLU doesn’t care how brutally we’re treated.”

Wheeler and Crowley say that isn’t so. They insist that the fact the nunchakus were used on anti-abortion demonstrators is irrelevant to the ACLU’s internal debate.

“It pains me that we can’t come to a consensus about it,” Crowley said. He said he could not predict when, if ever, the group will reach a decision.

Mitigated Murals

Make no mistake: Chairman Mao is not necessarily endorsed by San Diego State University.

The controversy over dormitory murals at SDSU is headed toward a compromise. The Young Americans for Freedom had objected to wall murals of Mao, Castro, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and two Soviet generals.

The administration will install ideological disclaimers near the murals saying that the historical figures are open to differing evaluations and that no one is trying to indoctrinate the students.

A Dog Could Do Worse

Joan Kroc has dropped efforts to locate the owner of a lost dog she found last November outside a Rancho Santa Fe restaurant.

No more reward, no more newspaper ads, no more trips to an Escondido woman who claims she talks to animals. Boots is now an official member of the Kroc family.

Boots knows a good thing when she sees it. “The dog seems very happy in her new home,” said a Kroc spokeswoman.