John Bredin
08-13-1999, 03:28 PM
The following story was printed in today's (August 13, 1999) Chicago Sun-Times.
BEGIN QUOTE
Daley lambastes Clinton's FALN offer
Mayor Daley accused President Clinton on Thursday of endangering Chicagoans by offering clemency to 11 members of a Puerto Rican independence movement linked to a spree of guerrilla bombings here. Daley, who rarely criticizes Clinton, said FALN members don't deserve leniency after bombing 28 Chicago buildings between 1975 and 1979.
"We've seen the bombing [at the federal building] in Oklahoma City. Think of that," Daley said. "People were killed there. Do you wait till they're killed, then say it's more serious than just planting bombs around?"
Puerto Rican nationalists insisted the prisoners already publicly renounced the use of violence in a document sent to the White House last year. "They understand the times have changed and that there is an opportunity for them to participate in the democratic process to resolve the status of Puerto Rico," said Jose E. Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and brother of Oscar Lopez Rivera, one of the imprisoned leaders of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known as FALN.
Lopez Rivera was offered clemency but still would have to serve more time before his release. None of the FALN members offered clemency have made a decision on Clinton's offer, said their attorney, Jan Susler. Instead, Susler has requested that the White House transfer all of the inmates to Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center so they can address the release offer collectively. "They want to have an intelligent discussion face-to-face to seriously consider the offer and hear from family members and people who have lobbied many years for their release," Susler said.
FALN was responsible for more than 100 bombings across the country that killed six people and wounded dozens of others. The 11 members who could walk free if they renounce violence were convicted in Chicago.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson called the parole conditions set by President Clinton "extraordinary and humiliating" during a trip to Puerto Rico, the Associated Press said.
END QUOTE
So, a proposal to grant clemency to persons convicted of bombings in the 1970s. What's up with that?
1) Does Clinton think these are political prisoners? They aren't in prison because they support Puerto Rican independence (if that were so, I can think of some prominent Chicagoans, including elected officials, who would also be in prison!) but because they committed acts of violence that caused deaths and injuries.
2) Clinton makes speeches condemning violence after such horrific events as Littleton and the recent L.A. shootings. But now he's proposing clemency for terrorist bombers. Is it that these criminals didn't use the "wrong" weapon (i.e. they didn't use guns) or just that they didn't commit their violence for the "wrong" reasons (murder in support of a left-wing cause, as opposed to killing in support of an extreme-right-wing cause like racial or religious hatred)? Isn't violent crime supposed to be wrong no matter what cause or purpose was meant to be served?
3) There are a lot of people who seem to think that because someone did something in the 1960s or 70s that it should be excused because of the "tumultuous times." But, it seems to me, there's a big difference between, on the one hand, burning draft cards, fleeing the country to evade the draft, or scrawling pro-VC graffiti on the statue of General Logan in Grant Park during the '68 Convention and, on the other hand, setting bombs and killing people.
So, what do you all think?
BEGIN QUOTE
Daley lambastes Clinton's FALN offer
Mayor Daley accused President Clinton on Thursday of endangering Chicagoans by offering clemency to 11 members of a Puerto Rican independence movement linked to a spree of guerrilla bombings here. Daley, who rarely criticizes Clinton, said FALN members don't deserve leniency after bombing 28 Chicago buildings between 1975 and 1979.
"We've seen the bombing [at the federal building] in Oklahoma City. Think of that," Daley said. "People were killed there. Do you wait till they're killed, then say it's more serious than just planting bombs around?"
Puerto Rican nationalists insisted the prisoners already publicly renounced the use of violence in a document sent to the White House last year. "They understand the times have changed and that there is an opportunity for them to participate in the democratic process to resolve the status of Puerto Rico," said Jose E. Lopez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and brother of Oscar Lopez Rivera, one of the imprisoned leaders of the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known as FALN.
Lopez Rivera was offered clemency but still would have to serve more time before his release. None of the FALN members offered clemency have made a decision on Clinton's offer, said their attorney, Jan Susler. Instead, Susler has requested that the White House transfer all of the inmates to Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center so they can address the release offer collectively. "They want to have an intelligent discussion face-to-face to seriously consider the offer and hear from family members and people who have lobbied many years for their release," Susler said.
FALN was responsible for more than 100 bombings across the country that killed six people and wounded dozens of others. The 11 members who could walk free if they renounce violence were convicted in Chicago.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson called the parole conditions set by President Clinton "extraordinary and humiliating" during a trip to Puerto Rico, the Associated Press said.
END QUOTE
So, a proposal to grant clemency to persons convicted of bombings in the 1970s. What's up with that?
1) Does Clinton think these are political prisoners? They aren't in prison because they support Puerto Rican independence (if that were so, I can think of some prominent Chicagoans, including elected officials, who would also be in prison!) but because they committed acts of violence that caused deaths and injuries.
2) Clinton makes speeches condemning violence after such horrific events as Littleton and the recent L.A. shootings. But now he's proposing clemency for terrorist bombers. Is it that these criminals didn't use the "wrong" weapon (i.e. they didn't use guns) or just that they didn't commit their violence for the "wrong" reasons (murder in support of a left-wing cause, as opposed to killing in support of an extreme-right-wing cause like racial or religious hatred)? Isn't violent crime supposed to be wrong no matter what cause or purpose was meant to be served?
3) There are a lot of people who seem to think that because someone did something in the 1960s or 70s that it should be excused because of the "tumultuous times." But, it seems to me, there's a big difference between, on the one hand, burning draft cards, fleeing the country to evade the draft, or scrawling pro-VC graffiti on the statue of General Logan in Grant Park during the '68 Convention and, on the other hand, setting bombs and killing people.
So, what do you all think?