Banner Graphic, Volume 12, Number 95, Greencastle, Putnam County, 30 December 1981 — Page 3

u s. judge allows gun-control law to stand

NRA vows appeal of decision upholding Morton Grove guns ban

By Maurice Possley (ci 1981 Chicago Sun-Times CHICAGO A federal judge has declared constitutional a suburban Morton Grove ordinance banning the sale and possession of handguns, dealing a stunning blow to anti-gun-eontrol groups. - The ordinance, approved by village trustees last June, is the first known attempt by a U.S. municipality to bar its residents except for police, collectors, the military and target shooters from possessing handguns. ' The ordinance requires citizens to turn in their guns or face fines of up to SSOO and up to six months in jail. " Senior U.S. District Judge Bernard M. Decker said Tuesday the ordinance “does not infringe any of the provisions of either the Illinois state Constitution or the United States Constitution.” Martin Ashman, Morton Grove village attorney, acclaimed the ruling, saying. “Maybe if other communities around the Country follow this, a lot of lives will be saved.” Ashman said enforcement of the ordinance would be discussed at the next •'village board meeting on Jan. 11. The village passed its ordinance after residents protested the ■planned opening of a gun shop. Village officials denied a permit

Chesterton T rojans win band contest at Orange Bowl MIAMI (AP) won the Great Bands of the Orange Bowl contest at Miami. The 181-member Trojan Guard band, a four-time Indiana state champion, was among 300 bands which competed in -regional competition to win the chance to compete in the -finals here. - The Chesterton band will appear in the Orange Bowl - Parade on New Year’s Eve. Chesterton was invited to the Orange Bowl festivities after winning the regional competition against bands from Illinois and Michigan. The five other bands in the final round of competition were from Jefferson City, Mo., Denton. Texas, Travelers Rest, S.C., Red Wing, Minn., and Hammonton, N.J.

Hoosier trucker killed

By The Associated Press A Fort Wayne man was the victim of a three-truck pileup on Interstate 86 near Union, Conn., state police said. Dempsey Fruge Jr., 52, died at- Harrington Memorial Hospital in Southbridge, Mass., of injuries suffered in the 4:50 a.m. Tuesday accident, a hospital spokesman said. 'State police said a truck i '

Accused of soliciting bribe

Federal judge indicted in Florida

MIAMI (AP) Florida’s first black federal judge, charged with conspiring to solicit a bribe from two defendants in return for reducing their sentences, has become only the third federal judge to be indicted this century. U.S. District Judge Alcee Hastings was indicted late Tuesday along with prominent Washington attorney William A. Borders Jr. The two were charged with conspiring to solicit a $150,000 bribe. Hastings, 45, was not available for comment, and a guard at his Broward County condominium complex said the judge did not want to be bothered. On Oct. 12, Hastings removed himself from all cases

Legion head raps veterans' Hanoi visit

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The national commander of the American Legion says the four Vietnam veterans who recently talked with Vietnamese officials in Hanoi were manipulated by the Communist regime and should have stayed home. Commander Jack W. Flynt said the group, headed by Robert Muller, executive directiff of Vietnam Veterans of America, was “ill-equipped to cteal with the crafty Communists.” •“It is a pity this sorry episode hjs been added to the unpleasant memories and frustrations still lingering in the hearts of so many fine young and women who fought for tljeir country in Southeast Asia,”said Flynt.

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driven by Irwin Bleich, 58, of Edison, N.J., jackknifed on the ice-slicked road in Union and a second truck slid off the road. Fruge’s truck slammed into the two other vehicles, causing a pileup that took several hours to clear away, police said. Bleich and the other driver, John C. Sylvain, 37, of West Haven, were treated for slight injuries, police said.

pending the outcome of the investigation. He has charged that racism and politics are behind the Justice Department’s investigation. A man who answered the telephone at Borders’ home Tuesday night said Borders “would not be around tonight.” Hastings, one of Florida’s leading black political figures, ran unsuccessfully for several public offices, including the U.S. Senate, before President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the bench in 1978. Borders, also black, is a former president of the predominantly black National Bar Association. The federal grand jury indictment alleges Borders was

He criticized Muller for placing a wreath at the tomb of Ho Chi Minh. Flynt said he could not understand Muller’s comment, “It’s obscene to think what we dumped on these people,” referring to Agent Orange and other chemicals. “Has he forgotten what the North Vietnamese dumped on

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for the shop and the board then acted to ban the sale and possession of handguns. The first suit challenging the law was filed by Victor Quilici, a lawyer who lives in Morton Grove. Other suits followed and were consolidated. Quilici said he planned to appeal. Decker’s ruling also lifted an order that blocked the village from enforcing the ordinance. Sheldon Davidson, attorney, far the National Rifle Association, which also filed suit challenging the ordinance, said an appeal would be filed and another stay of enforcement would be asked pending appeal. John Aquilino, an NRA spokesman in Washington, said the judge “has essentially ruled in favor of a minority element that has for a long time been trying to deny the rights of individuals. The NRA will not rest until we are assured this erroneous opinion...is reversed." Katherine Zartman, president of the Committee for Handgun Control, said Decker’s ruling “vindicates our position that there is no constitutional reason, at either the federal level or at the state level, to preclude strong laws curtailing ownership and use of handguns.” “We believe that this ruling is not only a significant judicial

But Puerto Rican issue concerns FBI

'No significance'to U.S. terrorism hike

(c) 1981 The Baltimore Sun WASHINGTON - Activity by international terrorist groups increased this year in the United States, but it was still well below recent years, FBI Director William H. Webster says. Webster, meeting reporters at FBI headquarters Tuesday, said the bureau had identified 42 “terrorist incidents” in 1981, compared with only 29 last year. However, he said there was no particular significance to the increase in terrorist activity in the United States because “there has been no effective analysis” of the data gathered by the bureau. “While the percentage increase may appear great,” he said, “you have to keep in mind that the actual number of such incidents is still well below the figure for 1977, when he had 111 terrorist incidents.” Since 1977, the number of terrorist acts in the United States, has declined each year

the middleman for a bribe paid by an FBI agent posing as a convicted Teamsters union racketeer. In return for the bribe, Hastings was to reduce prison sentences and return confiscated property to two brothers already convicted of misusing a Teamsters pension fund, the indictment said. The first count of the fourcount indictment accused Borders and Hastings of defrauding the United States “in connection with the performance of lawful governmental functions” and of conspiring to solicit bribes to influence Hastings “in his performance of official acts as a United States district judge.”

their countrymen in the south; how they treated our POWs; what they are doing today to their own people, to the Cambodians and the Laotians?,” Flynt said. The commander also rapped the current government in Vietnam for its stance regarding those U.S. soldiers still listed as missing in action, saying the

mm ■ iiii

FBl's WEBSTER Eye on terrorists

until the current year, according to Webster. There were 69 acts in 1978 and 52 in 1979. Webster said most terrorism in the United States is carried out by those who have political grievances with other countries, not with the United States.

The second count charges both with obstruction of justice. Counts three and four charge Borders with travelling across state lines to promote bribery. Each of the counts carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a SIO,OOO fine. A federal affidavit filed in Arlington said Borders solicited a $150,000 bribe from a man he believed to be Frank Romano in return for a promise that Hastings would reduce charges and restore forfeited assets for Romano and his brother, Thomas. The man was Paul Rico, a retired FBI agent working undercover for the Justice Department, the FBI said.

MIA question has been turned into a “propaganda venture.” “If Hanoi is sincerely interested in helping account for those still missing, it would allow the specially trained U.S. recovery teams to do their work, not simply provide lip service for the TV cameras,” Flynt said.

landmark but will also...encourage legislators at every level of government to act more courageously on this controversial issue,” she said. Zartman said Morton Grove’s action had attracted national attention, with some 300 communities across the country seeking copies of the ordinance. Attorneys attacking the ordinance argued that the handgun ban violated the Illinois and U.S. constitutions. Decker ruled that the ordinance was “properly enacted” under an exemption of the state Constitution granting the state the right to control guns as part of its police power. “The trustees of Morton Grove , have made a legislative decision that the danger posed by the easy availability of handguns is serious enough to warrant the banning of all handguns,” the judge said. “Before taking this action,” he said, “the trustees must have been aware of the deep-seated conviction of a number of its citizens that they should be permitted to retain handguns for the protection of person and property. “The trustees concluded, however, that the public interest

As examples, he cited bombings and airline hijacking attempts by Croatians, who seek independence of their homeland from the Soviet Union; expatriate Cubans who want to undermine Premier Fidel Castro, and Filipinos who want to overthrow President Ferdinand E. Marcos. One death in the U.S. this year was directly attributed to terrorist activities. That occurred at New York’s Kennedy Airport in May when a porter was killed by a pipe bomb left by members of a Puerto Rican group seeking independence from the United States. Webster said violence by Puerto Rican independence groups causes the greatest concern for the FBI. “The Puerto Rican issue is one that has to be faced,” he said. “It’s something that could turn out to be our Achilles heel.” He said the Puerto Rican nationalists, particularly in San

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Juan, the territory’s capital, require “a relatively high percentage” of the bureau’s resources in Puerto Rico. The most active group is the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FLAN), which regularly claims responsibility for bombings and attacks in Puerto Rico and the United States. Despite the group’s activities over several decades, it is believed that only 3 percent of Puerto Rico’s population supports independence from the U.S., Webster said, with the great bulk of Puerto Ricans split about evenly between Commonwealth Status or statehood for the island. Webster rejected the suggestion that a recent spectacular •nrtired truck robbery in New York, carried out by members of the Weather Underground, indicated a resurgence by that antigovernment organization. “We don’t consider the Weather Underground a viable

December 30,1981, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

outweighed the claimed personal interests of the opponents of this legislation.” Decker added that the “ultimate settlement of this troublesome political question must be returned to the citizens of Morton Grove... rather than in the courts. ” Suburban Arlington Heights last summer started to consider an ordinance similar to Morton Grove’s but postponed action indefinitely to await the outcome of legal challenges to the Morton Grove law. In suburban Evanston, Aid. Betty Papangelis said that as a result of the Decker decision the question of whether suctran ordinance will be proposed for Evanston will be on the agenda of the Jan. 13 meeting of the City Council Police Services Committee, which she chairs. Chicago Police Supt. Richard J. Brzeczek said that while he would support an anti-handgun ordinance for the city, he feels the realistic answer to handgun violence in the United States lies in a national approach, not local ordinances. In any event, he said, it would be more feasible to enforce such a ban in a community like Morton Grove, which “has large numbers of single-family dwellings, less transiency and more positive socio-economic factors” than Chicago.

group,” he said. “In fact, we don’t see any new groups. Most of them are circulating old literature that has been around for a number of years. ’ ’ The FBI director refused to comment on the role his agency might be playing in attempts to find and rescue Brigadier General James Dozier, commander of U.S. forces in Italy, who was kidnapped two weeks ago by members of the Red Brigades, an international band of anarchists. Asked if the FBI was engaged in the investigation under way in Italy, Webster said only, “That’s an extremely sensitive subject.”

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Banner-Graphic “It Waves For All" (USPS 142-020) Consolidation of The Daily Banner Established 1850 The Herald The Daily Graphic Established 1883 Telephone 653-5151 Published daily excent Sundays and Holidays by LuMar Newspapers. Inc. at 100 North Jackson St., Greencastle, Indiana 46135. Entered in the Post Office at Greencastle, Indiana, as 2nd class mail matter under Act of March 7,1878. Subscription Rates Per Week, by carrier ‘I.OO Per Month, by motor route *4.55 Mail Subscription Rates R.R. in Rest of Rest of Putnam Co. Indiana U.S.A. 3 Months ‘12.00 '12.55 *15.00 6 Months 24.00 25.10 30.00 1 Tear 48.00 49.20 60.00 Mail subscriptions payable in advance . . . not accepted in town and where motor route service is available. Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper.

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