Augusta focus. ([Augusta, Ga.) 198?-current, April 27, 1995, Image 7

Augusta focus., April 27, 1995, Page 7, Image 7

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Newspaper Page TextAtlanta officials give themselves an “A” for effort during Freaknik ————————————————————————————— By A. ). Hostetler ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer ATLANTA City officials gave themselves an “A” for handling the huge Freaknik street party, while res idents and revelers split over how much fun was had during the three-day event marred by loot ing. Freaknik was expected to draw more than 200,000 young blacks - mostly college students - to downtown Atlanta, but students who attended said only about halfthat number came this year. City officials declined to estimate the crowd size Sunday. As Freaknik revelers contin ued to cruise on the streets sur rounding City Hall, Police Chief Beverly Harvard said Sunday her officers deserved the high grade for their efforts to keep the party under control. “We had a job to do and the officers went in and did it profes sionally,” said Harvard, who Sat urday night walked the crowded downtown streets near Under ground Atlanta, a downtown shopping and entertainment complex. The city’s move to restrain the Freaknik crowd came after sev eral years of large crowds, traffic Jams and unruly behavior. But police blockades and traffic reroutings didn’t prevent trou ble over the weekend. Revelers Friday night ran sacked 11 stores near Under ground Atlanta. And on Saturday, when Un derground and two shopping malls in north Atlanta closed early, the party shifted to south west Atlanta, where about 100 Rabbi sues Howard over 1994 protest By Kimberly A. C. Wilson ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer . WASHINGTON A New York rabbi is suing Howard University and one of its security guards, claiming they failed to pro tect him as he protested against Nation of Islam representative Khallid Abdul Muhammad. Rabbi Avraham Weiss alleges that security guard Robert Cyrus and the 128-year-old historically black institution violated his civil rights by allowing supporters of the former Nationoflslamspokesmantothreat en and physically harass him dur ing a protest last spring. The suit, filed April 12 in US. Students sue to wear confederate flag shirts | COLUMBIA, S.C. | (AP) Seven Barnwell County students suspended for wearing Confederate flag shirts have ued, saying if others wear i’lalcolm X shirts, then they ghould be able to show the flag. i The seven say Barnwell Coun s, District 19 has violated their ee-speech rights. The federal class-action lawsuit filed Mon day says at least 15 students ialwe been punished for wearing e shirts at Blackville Middle #chool. { Joyce Gunnells said her chil Tommsy's Factory Fummitune Outlert Lots Of Specials Throughout Store e gé 4 » kEii ; ; 2 pc. Living Room Suite Multicolored $699 Occasional Tables (3pc): $lB9 ®© 4 Drawer Chests: $49 ® Bunk Beds: $179 1607 Georgia Avenue ® 279-7447 OO 5 O S S i 134 “The message that we wanted everyone to receive was that if you came to Atlanta and obeyed the law, you would be welcomed to our city,” he said. “We make no apologies for what we did ... in making certain public safety was maintained.” looters smashed their way into a Rich’s department store as hun dreds of onlookers cheered. In contrast, Sunday was rela tively quiet as Freaknik cruisers drove peacefully to shopping malls before heading home. Police arrested 324 adults on 1,376 charges through Sunday morning, Harvard said. Another 223 juveniles, ranging in age from 9 to 16, were held for disor derly conduct. She said they would provide a final total of those arrested today. Mayor Bill Campbell said he wasn’t concerned about the im age of Atlanta Freaknik sent to those coming to the 1996 Olym pic Games next summer. “Atlanta is a great city. It will continue to be a great city,” he declared. But not everyone was happy with the city’s response to Freaknik. Shawn Jackson, a Tennessee State student from Kansas City doing some last-minute shopping at Lenox Square Mall Sunday afternoon, blamed police for District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $50,000 in damag es because Weiss said he was “thor oughly humiliated” by the experi ence. : In a speech on April 19, 1994, before a cheering audience of about 2,000, Muhammad, who gained noteriety by making anti-semitic statements, denounced Jews as “honkies.” “I am going to be like a pit bull. That is the way I am going to be against the Jews. I am going to bite thetail ofthe honkies,” Muhammad said. Weiss conducted a peaceful pro test outside the school auditorium that day, calling the Muslim leader dren, Michelle, 14, and Michael, 11, were suspended twice after being told not to wear Confeder ate flag T-shirts. She said one shirt had a flag and read “Flying high, ain’t coming down.” The other had a picture of the State house with the flag and said, “I have a dream.” “I don’t understand why they should be sent home for wearing a flag,” she said. “It’s in the his tory books.” The flying of the Confederate flag above the Statehouse in Co lumbia has been attacked by civ B LA s ?’f”" 3 pc. Special Sofa, Love seat & Chair dampening the party atmo sphere. “It was too hard to have fun.” “I think it’s nice to come down here and spend some money, but Ifeltl was unwanted,” said Corey Griffin, 25, of Dalton. “The city handled things poor ly,” said Roxanne Gregory, legal counsel for the Southern Chris tian Leadership Coalition. She said a legal aid committee mon itoring Freaknik arrests found that the majority of offenses were frivolous. “The police were rude and dis dainful,” she said. By closing off 200 blocks to traffic and restrict ing the flow of cruising cars, the city set up a bad situation, she said. Campbell defended the police action. “The message that we wanted everyone to receive was that if’ you came to Atlanta and obeyed the law, you would be welcomed toourcity,” he said. “We make no apologies for what we did ... in making certain public safety was maintained.” a racist and “an anti-Semite of the worst order.” The lawsuit alleges that Howard “intentially refused and failed to provide protection for Weiss in the face of threats and imminent and serious violence made by Mr. Muhammad’s supporters.” Weiss was not physically harmed during the encounter. It also claims the security guard reprimanded the rabbi and several supporters for conducting the pro test, and after tearing several signs from his hands, left him unprotect ed in a hostile crowd of Muhammad sympathizers. Several calls to Howard Universi ty about the suit were not returned il-rights groups and has provoked a lawsuit, but so far the Legisla ture has refused to take it down. Gunnells said she would sup port the school district banning T-ghirts that had obscene or rac ist'remarks. . School board trustee Edgar Hartzog said he had been told about the lawsuit, but would not discuss it. Superintendent Rich ard Huggins would not comment on the case today, but said the district’s lawyer would issue a statement later. According to the lawsuit, the Réélinef Sale Reg. 598 $269 Doug Monroe, a traffic colum nist for The Atlanta Journal-Con stitution, gave the city an “F” for failed public relations in dealing with the Freaknik revelers. He gave the “draconian” traffic plan an “A,"” saying it was “perhaps too effective” at restricting traf fic. To police, who grew “cranky” as Freaknik frayed tempers, a “B-and-falling,” he said. After driving around the city for four days, Monroe called Freaknik'9s “a strange episode,” and said the city will have to mend a lot of fences with an gered residents. Retired FBI agent Richard Roberts, who lives in midtown, said he felt “required” to stay home because of the city’s traffic plan and feared getting caught in gridlock. “They infringed on my liber ties,” he said. Other residents left the city for the weekend. At one midtown condominium tower, only a hand ful of the 118 residents stayed, said condo association president Bill Austin. But some at Freaknik didn’t let the police or restricted traffic ruin their weekend. “We had a lot of fun,” said Rashee Calhoun, 24, of Cleve land. “I plan to come back.” Rain kept many of those at tending Freaknik from one tra ditional hot spot, Piedmont Park. And residents of midtown said they saw far fewer revelers than in past years. Freaknik began in 1982 as a picnic held by the D.C. Metro Club, a group of Washington natives who attended predomi nantly black colleges in Atlanta. Thursday. The suit claims civil rights viola tions under the D.C. Human Rights Act, the First Amendment, the Civil Rights Act and the common law. Weiss, president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, is a prominent Jewish activist who protested last year in Norway against the honor ing of PLO chairman Yassar Arafat with the 1994 Nobel prize. Last May, a Seattle judge threw out a slander case brought by Weiss against a Polish cardinal. The rabbi claimed he was falsely accused of trying tokillnunslivingatthedeath camp church during a 1989 visit in which several people scaled the con vent’s walls, school district has a dress code prohibiting “distasteful or dis ruptive display of symbols, patch es or writing on wearing appar el.” The lawsuit says the policy unfairly limits students’ freedom of speech. It also says the policy has not been followed because students have been allowed to wear flags, insignia and other symbols, including Malcolm X shirts and “Afro-American soli darity flags and slogans, some of which may be offensive to white students.” ﬁ‘.% é?“%ggé k3B T R TR } 22 T 5 pc. Dinette Set Oak AUGUSTA FOCUS April 27, 1995 THE SHOPPLE Kidz Wear Children’s Boutique All Girls’ Navy Blue School Jumpers EXTRA 50% off with this ad m Infants m Toddlers m Girls 7-14 m Boys 4-14 m Junior Miss & Preteen m PrePlus 2101 Kings Way * Augusta, GA 30904 Corner of Central Avenue & Hickman Rd. 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