Center aids 22 Negroes in suit against police
By BILL DICKE City editor
A suit charging Thomas Reddin, chief of Los Angeles police, and his department with a systematic pattern of brutality, humiliation, false arrest and harrassment will be filed in Federal District Court today by 22 Negroes.
Derrick Bell, executive director of the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said at the Faculty Luncheon yesterday that the center is one of the sponsors of the suit.
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, another sponsor, said the suit will ask for $189,000 in actual damages and $428,000 in punitive damages.
He said the suit will seek an injunction barring police infringement of rights of Negroes: ordering the department to dismiss officers whose prejudicial attitudes make them unfit to police the ghetto: telling the Board of Police Commissioners to hold open hearing on all complaints of police misconduct filed with it, and ordering the City Council to hold hearings
before summarily turning down complaints for damages.
The spokesman said the suit details 12 incidents—including three cases of alleged false arrest, cases of alleged physical and verbal brutality, and alleged illegal searches and rousts—including the gunfire-punctuated end of the Watts Festival.
He said nine of the complaintants charge they were struck by officers of the LAPD, 10 were arrested but released without being charged, 14 say they were stopped and interrogated at gunpoint and five charge they were the victims of illegal searches.
Other sponsors of the suit include the Los Angeles Neighborhood Legal Service and Frank Evans Jr., an attorney. Eleven attorneys helped prepare the brief.
In a speech at the Faculty Center, Bell said people still retain a semblance of the myth that the good guys will step in and solve problems.
“We maintain this myth when faced with difficult domestic problems which we know need
attention but we would prefer not to deal with,” he said.
The danger to society from the frustrations of ghetto residents is very real, he said, because the country is in the midst of a national rebellion.
The response to the crisis has been studies which document the situation but cannot correct it, he continued.
“It is almost as if we felt the need to give official recognition to the problem, as if by sc doing we would provide the necessary signal to a mythical character out of radioland who would run forward, don the proper costume and proceed to clean up the problem,” he said.
“For all its great potential, I must admit that the Western Center on Law and Poverty represents to the society one more of these mythical beings that can take on evil-doers and conquer them in the same way Superman once leapt tall buildings in a single wind-whistling bound.”
The center, located in the Law Center
Building, has a staff of 13 attorneys and is by the Office of Economic Opportunities.
The center is doing very little about changing the conditions which brought about a need for it, Bell admitted.
The activities of the center include conducting litigation, assisting local legal aid offices in the area in preparing cases which will probably require complex innovations, assisting neighborhood law offices in improving their efficiency, serving as house council for organizations of the poor, conducting studies of basic legal institutions and trying to set up programs for law students to gain experience in neighborhood law offices.
The problem is that the institutions and persons who support the center “soon learn that they themselves, or institutions or individuals with whom they are involved, are involved with much of the evil they had commissioned us to correct,” Bell said.
“The fact is that the poor, especially the black and brown poor, are not poor because they are
less worthy, but because they have been trapped in a society which directly and indirectly subjugates them economically and spiritually jus' as effectively as any law intended for that purpose could do.”
To alter such conditions requires that thf. society be sufficiently strong to permit attack or its cherished institutions, he said.
He added: “In the ghetto there is a great deal of law, little order and almost no justice. As far as the poor are concerned, the police do not protect; they contain. They do not assist: they harrass. They do not keep the peace; they maintain control.”
He said several alumni called to complain about the center’s first case, a suit against the Santa Ana School Board.
“I must say Dr. Topping has been very strong. He seems to be completely unruffled by any of the veiled threats from alumni and fund-givers,” he added.
University of Southern California
DAILY • TROJAN
LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1968, VOL. LX, NO. 26
INGOLF DAHL AT WORK
Photo by Jamie Baldwin
Conductor returning to direct opening concert
Ingolf Dahl, composer and former conductor of the USC Symphony Orchestra, will return to conduct the orchestra’s first performance of the season Monday in Bovard Auditorium at 8:30 o.m.
This marks the first USC Symphony Orchestra performance conducted by Dahl in eight years.
In a recent interview, Dahl was enthusiastic about the orchestra and the program.
“We really have a first class orchestra,” Dahl said. “It is an orchestra of young professionals.”
Dahl conducted at USC from 1945 to 1960. In those 15 years, he brought the orchestra to a full standard size.
As a conductor, he said he believed in the philosophy of “doers.” He thought the orchestra should perform music of all composers.
Dahl’s “doer” philosophy will be reflected in Monday night’s concert, as the program features both familiar and unfamiliar compositions.
The orchestra will perform Mahler’s “Symphony No. 4.”
“The composition is the embodiment of romanticism—the last gorgeous glow,” he said.
The fourth and final movement of Mahler’s symphony features soprano soloist Carol Hositer. She is studying for her doctoral degree in voice at USC.
Ramiro Cortes, a former student at USC, will have his 1966 composition, “The Eternal Return,” performed.
“It is a very exciting and modernistic piece,” Dahl said. “It has a great deal of vitality, impact, and is tightly constructed.”
The third composition on the program is “Piano Concerto No. 17” by W.A. Mozart. This features piano soloist Joanna Graudan. She is a member of the USC piano faculty.
Tickets for Monday night’s performance may be purchased in the student ticket office or at the door. Student admission is $1 and general admission is $2.
Trustees elect new members
HOPE FOR THOUSANDS
Transplant alternative developed
Robbery rises in USC area
University division police have reported the thefts of 12 cars, most of them belonging to students, in the USC area during the past 10 days.
There have also been numerous thefts from vehicles and residences near the campus. Auto radios, stereos, and tape players were the most frequent articles stolen. Police urge students to lock their cars and to hide loose tapes to discourage theft
Among the cars stolen were: a 1966 ChevelleonOct. 10 at 928 W. 28th St. ; a 1963 Chevy Impala at 1195% W. 30th St. on Oct. 16; a 1966 Pontiac GTO stolen at 1707 So. Portland sometime between Oct. 15 and 17; a
1963	Corvair taken at 1071 W. 30th St.; a 1966 Chevy at 505 W. 31st St. on Oct. 19.
Hub caps valued at S>40 were pried off a car at 2707 So. Portland on Oct. 10. Another set of hub caps valued at $50 were taken the next day from a car at 1195''4 W. 30th St.
A car was broken into on Oct. 10 at 625 W. 28th St. and a stereo tape player and tapes valued at $165 were stolen.
Two more cars were broken into on Oct. 14. A tape player and clothes worth $146 were taken from one auto parked at 707 W. 28th St., and a $123 auto stereo was lifted from another car in the 900 block on W. 30th St.
A stereo and tapes valued at $137 were removed from a car in the parking area at 3019 University Ave. on Oct. 18, and an $85 auto stereo was taken the next day from a car parked at 721 W. 30th St.
Television sets were the objects of burglars on the 13th and 14th of this month. A TV was stolen from a residence at 620 W. 30th St. and another from 1129 W. 27th St. In both cases the burglar entered the residence by prying open the front door.
Television sets, camera equipment and clothes have also been the objects of thefts in the area.
On Oct. 16 a burglar ranscaked an apartment at 979 W. 32nd St. and made off with a camera and clothes worth $225.
The occupant of an apartment at 1577 W. 29th St. returned to his residence on the morning of Oct. 18 to discover that his television, stereo set and records worth $570 had been stolen.
By LYNN PINEDA
A team of seven surgeons from the L.A. County-USC Medical Center and St. Vincent’s Hospital has developed an alternative to the heart transplant, known as partial left ventricular resection.
The new method of heart surgery, which could save 85 to 90 percent of the patients suffering from severe coronary- artery disease, was developed by Dr. Jerome Kay. chief of thoracic surgery at the Medical Center, Dr. Harold Tsuji, Dr. John Redington and Dr. Adolfo Mendez with the assistance of attending staff members Dr. Oscar Magidson, Dr. Bernard Krohn and Dr. Edward Dunne. All except Dunne are with the USC Medical School.
Dr. Kay said that X-ray motion pictures often show that in hearts with coronary artery disease only a portion of the left ventricle is functioning. The lower one-third to one-half of the ventricle may be inoperative and this hinders the function of the remaining portion of the heart.
“In such cases,” Dr. Kay said, “we remove the diseased portion of the ventricle, sew up the remaining healthy portion and the procedure is
completed. In all instances the remaining healthy portion of the heart has been able to take over the task of pumping blood with greatly increased efficiency.”
The operation was first performed five months ago on a patient whose X-ray revealed that only one-half of the left lower chamber of the heart was contracting, thus seriously
By LARRY SHEINGOLD
Jack L. Warner, a founder and former president of Warner Bros., was one of four prominent business and professional men to be elected to the USC Board of Trustees.
Justin Dart, chairman of the board, announced the selection of Gordon S. Marshall, chairman and president of Marshall Industries; Ray Watt, president of R.A. Watt Company Inc.; Dr. John C. Wilson, chairman of the medical staff of the Hospital of the Good Samaritan Medical Center, and Warner to fill vacancies created by the recent deaths of several trustee members.
Warner is the youngest of four brothers who revolutionized screen entertainment in 1926 with the introduction of talking pictures. He has won several Oscars for his contributions to film making and received an Academy Award in 1965 for his production of “My Fair Lady.”
Marshall, from San Gabriel, is a native of Los Angeles and a USC nlumnus. He graduated with a B.S. degree in 1947.
HUMPHREY AT SHRINE TONIGHT
Vice-president Hubert Humphrey will speak at the Shrine Auditorium at a community-labor rally tonight at 8.
The 45-minute rally will be part of Humphrey's two-day campaign tour through Southern California, which began yesterday in Watts, and will end tonight at the Vice-president's Ball at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
diminishing the supply of blood to the body.
Dr. Kay believes that thousands of potential heart transplant patients could be saved by ventricular resection, but he stated that about 10 to 15 percent of the people suffering from coronary disease have hearts in which the entire ventricle is not functioning, therefore necessitating heart transplants.
“The problems involved in heart transplant surgery make its utility on a large scale basis impractical.” Dr. Kay said. “With transplants, there is the problem of rejection as well as the necessity for an isolation room for the patient in order to protect against infection.
“Cardiac resection, on the other hand, can be performed by a small team of surgeons. Most hospitals have the necessary’ facilities for this resection procedure and the patient is usually up and about in two weeks.
“Our patients have ranged in age from their late forties to 66. Eight of the 11 patients on whom the operation was performed are living and much improved over their preoperative status.”
Marshall Industries in San Marino, is an electronics company engaged in space, science, computers and the distribution and manufacturing of components.
Watt is a member of the UCLA class of 1941.
Dr. Wilson, a Stanford graduate, is a clinical professor of orthopaedic surgery at the USC School of Medicine. He is also director of the Physical Therapy Department of Good Samaritan Hospital, a member of the consulting staff of Santa Fe Hospital and on the baords of the Good Hope Medical Foundation and Children’s Hospital.
New board of trustee members are nominated and elected by the entire board. They are selected on the basis of interest in the university and concern about higher education.
The board is composed of 32 men and three women, including three alumni and three life trustees. It functions as the governing body of the university.
Dorms hit by increase in thefts
The five-finger discount business in the dorms is booming. Both campus residents and school officials report an increase of thefts in the residence halls.
“Even when I go down the hall for a drink of water,” said a young resident of Birnkrant Hall, “I have to make sure that my door is locked.”
In a memorandum this week, Liz Roebuck, coordinator of residential counseling, warned dorm occupants of the increased danger of having money stolen from their rooms.
“This is a request to each of you not to leave money or wallets lying in plain sight in your rooms,” the memorandum stated “Unless you are willing to run the risk, do not leave your room unlocked for anv reason."
Miss Roebuck confirmed the fact that there have been more thefts than usual. She added. “There is no way to tell who’s been doing it—it could be a group or a single person. But whoever they are they’re relatively talented.”
A spokesman for the campus police agreed. “I have no idea as to who it might be. But I don’t feel that I could go so far as to say it’s not anyone who lives in the dorms right now."
The campus police commented that money and wallets were the main items being stolen.
FOUR PLEAD NOT GUILTY
The final four students of the 11 arrested during the Row disturbance were arraigned in L.A. County Municipal Court yesterday.
The four students—Robert Berry, sophomore; Ronald Egenes, senior; Walt Failor, sophomore; and John O'Leary, sophomore—pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The date for the trial was made by Judge Mary E. Waters and is scheduled for Oct. 29.
Friday night choice: blues or hootenanny
The Reverend Gary Davis will present blues and gospel music in the Grill tomorrow night from 9 to 1 a.m. The J&P Sound, winners of last year's Songfest, will also appear at the Grill, while the Cheshire Cat will feature a hootenanny of on-campus talent.
Mr. Davis is a 69-year-old Negro Baptist minister and a former Harlem street singer. He appeals to young audiences by developing a personal relationship between his singing and his guitar nicknamed Miss Gibson.
Mr. Davis has performed at the Newport Folk Festival, Columbia University, the University of Wisconsin, and at other schools and clubs in the United States and Canada. Admission to the Grill show will be 50 cents.
All students who wish to perform in the Cheshire hootenanny on Friday night are welcome, but Steve Milner, president of the club, requests that they come before the show begins at 8:30 p.m. to sign up. No admission will be charged and refreshments will be served.
Milner also said that he needs students to staff the newly reorganized folk club.
BOMB SCARE CLEARS HALL
A bomb scare emptied Bridge Hall for a short time yesterday. A police officer on the scene said it was the third such scare at Bridge Hall this semester.