Washington Report

...A spokesman for the Department of the Navy complained at a press conference that his service was continually called upon to bear the brunt of surprise attacks...

...In liberal democracy, the mixing principle does not make virtue visible...

...the liberals have been more democratic in their demands than the democrats, and thus have become invisible to themselves...

...It is expected that strong support from federal, state, and local civil service employee organizations will be forthcoming...

...In the New York Times, an unusual joint column by Anthony Lewis and Tom Wicker emphasized that the essential issue in the crisis was the moral one...

...I do not propose a return to Aristotle's moral splendor, or to the exemplary arrogance of the British aristocracy, but to the wisdom of that liberal democrat Thomas Jefferson, who frankly spoke of democracy's need for natural aristocrats—though to be sure in a private letter...

...The United States was supported only by South Africa, Israel, Bolivia, and Liberia...

...The Secretary of State in Washington was said to have privately expressed particular annoyance at the abstentions of Britain and France...

...Frequently there are witnesses to testify or stolen property that can be identified...

...The result should please both parties, but the trouble is that liberal oligarchs have been taken in by the appearance more than the democrats...

...They do not see that they as liberals must contribute to the whole, but instead they use their unequal status to destroy tolerance for unequal status...

...They speak as if the whole were not a mix but merely democratic, and as if it could be created by the verbal exertions of partisan extremism...

...Most of those charged with offenses can be divided into two groups: those for whom arrest is an embarrassment and those for whom it is a mere inconvenience...

...As I have studied, first the police and then crime itself, I have been struck by how remote from the reality I have observed is the rhetoric I have heard...

...Crime is not the only issue that evokes this theme, but it is one that does so dramatically and it happens to be one that I have, quite without intending it, found myself studying on and off for the last ten or twelve years...

...Now they have taken refuge with the many, and have justified their own privileges by attacking others...

...Asked whether the crisis would cause the U.S...

...The claim that slum residents despise the police and refuse their aid, often made by nonslum residents who wish, forvarious reasons, to see the police in poor neighborhoods incapacitated or removed, is a strange claim if one has spent the night in a station house or patrol car...

...by OPEC nations of a total and permanent oil embargo against this country, comments and reactions from all quarters have swamped the Washington press corps...

...Morton Gaither Washington Report • • (WASHINGTON, December, 1975)—Following the Soviet surprise missile'attack on December 7, which virtually annihilated the entire U.S...

...Senator McGovern stated on "Face the Nation" that the reductions in the size of the Navy had been inadequate, since only the Sixth Fleet was involved, and that further cuts would have to be forthcoming, as recommended in the latest policy statement of the Democratic Party...

...The Reuters correspondent in Beirut reported that a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization claimed credit for the sinking of one U.S...

...If the United States, despite its record in Korea and in Vietnam, despite its indifference to poverty and hunger in the world, and its refusal to admit the existence of these conditions at home—if the United States still feels that it has a moral case to.present, it should press this case before the only appropriate body—the United Nations, where the one-nation, one-vote principle would permit the developing nations to participate in the collective judgment...

...A body falls, a neighbor screams, the police arrive, the culprit is enccuntered, still standing with the weapon in his hand, gazing in drunken bewilderment at his victim...

...One observes the constant stream of humanity, much of its poor and black, seeking police assistance for every imaginable problem, from crime to marital disputes, broken windows to electric failures, drunkenness to terminal illness...

...The Department of State in Washington said that this allegation was without foundation...

...A fight begins...

...Both resolutions were introduced by Syria and seconded by Sweden...

...I wish to make clear," he stated in measured tones, "that the policy of detente is still in effect...

...The ensuing spirited debate was seen by millions on television...

...Public interest in the Security Council debate almost obscured the important and humiliating defeat of the United States in the General Assembly, which passed a sharply-worded condemnation of American imperialism, and a vote of thanks to the Soviet Union for forestalling an attempt by the United States to reestablish a colonial empire in the Mediterranean...

...The People's Republic of China stated that the poor farmers and working peoples of the world would not be deceived by the collusive maneuvering of the two imperialist co-conspirators, but would continue to work toward socialist liberation...

...As news reports continue to arrive here, it has become clear that the Soviets are in complete control of the Mediterranean and that our oil supplies will be exhausted before spring...

...Out of embarrassment the younger and even some of the older liberals dress and behave in such a way that no one could accuse them, on superficial acquaintance, of being gentlemen...

...Such a theory also leaves one dissatisfied with the explanation it purThe Alternative: An American Spectator June/ July 1975 13...

...Today the two wings of our liberal aristocrats reveal an active hostility to see each other and at the least an inadequate comprehension of liberal democracy as a mixed regime...

...Someone picks up a knife or a gun...

...So far we have not been consulted in this matter, nor given an opportunity to express our many reservations with regard to any attempt to seek a military solution...

...Public entertainments in which the climax of the mystery story is the arrest of the guilty party bewilder me .because, in the real world, an arrest rarely ends anything...

...Often they are caught right in the act of robbing or burgling...

...He pointed out that the Defcon 3 alert was costing the government about thirty million dollars per day, most of which would benefit only the oil companies and the aerospace giants...

...Ambassador 3cali convened an emergency session of the Security Council in the early hours of December 8. The Council entertained a resolution of the United States in condemnation of "unwarranted and irresponsible violations of the Charter...

...The joint Administration-congressional committee appointed last March by President Ford stated that in view of the crisis it would make every effort to complete its report on energy policy as soon as possible...

...government to cancel the sale of one million tons of soybean meal to Russia or the negotiations for the sale of 100 Phantom F-4s to Saudi Arabia, the Secretary stated that since the soybean meal is not war materiel and since Saudi Arabia had not directly participated in the overt military action, he saw no reason why the recent unpleasantness should be considered in relation to normal commercial intercourse between friendly nations...

...Many—I should say most—of those arrested, far from wishing to remain silent behind their constitutionally protected rights, are eager to talk in order to see whether, by confessing to other crimes or implicating other persons, they can lighten the charges against them...

...The ambassadors of France and the United Kingdom made almost identical speeches in which they cautioned against haste and urged that no action be taken pending a thorough investigation of the very grave charges and counterchargesby members of the Council against each other...

...It may be that they lost sight of themselves at the time when the intellectuals came under the influence of romanticism and Marxism and, to put it mildly, lost their sense of community with businessmen, then dubbed the bourgeoisie...

...Demands that the police "get tough" and "crack down" on crime seem incongruous given what I have learned, from hundreds of hours spent in patrol cars, about what the police actually spend their time doing...

...Several members deGlared their view that the current "crisis" had been "manufactured" by the Administration to divert public attention from its domestic failures...

...However, observers say that the committee is at loggerheads on the question of rationing and that no consensus can be expected at an early date...

...The arrested person is usually released within a few hours, will probably not come to trial for months, and, even if his guilt is determined, has an excellent chance of being returned to societypromptly without any penalty at all...

...The proper design of public policies requires a clear and sober understanding of the nature of man, and above all of the extent to which that nature can be changed...

...The Department of the Navy had no comment...

...According to Mr...

...The theory that crime is an expression of the political rage of the dispossessed, rebelling under the iron heel of capitalist tyranny, leaves one wondering why virtually every nation in the world, capitalist, socialist, and communist, has experienced in recent years rapidly increasing crime rates...

...The recently-formed Armed Services Union, the organization of volunteer enlisted men and women, reported a surge in new membership following the announcement that a strike vote was being prepared in the event that the President 12 The Alternative: An American Spectator June/ July 1975 announced any intention of military hostilities...

...Whatever the cause, the groups that Locke joined were put asunder...

...The success of the mixed regime of liberal democracy depends on a recognition that it is a mixed regime, and that although liberals can contribute to democracy, they cannot become democrats and should not try...

...The intense debate over the evidentiary rules governing search and seizure, police interrogations, and the taking of confessions, while it illuminates some interesting legal and philosophic issues, has a hollow ring when recalled in the context of what actually happens in a police station house...

...Against this background Secretary of State Kissinger called a special press conference to announce that in the name of the National Security Council he had recommended to President Ford that an alert at the level of Defcon 3 be ordered...

...Wilson's latest book, Thinking about Crime, published in June by Basic Books, New York, New York 10022...

...The Democratic caucus of the House of Representatives quickly passed a resolution affirming its intention not to permit flag-waving by the Ford Administration to distract the caucus from vigorous promotion of national health insurance, increased social security, and a higher minimum wage...

...James Q. Wilson Checking Our Premises on Crime • (This article has been adapted from Mr...

...The Soviet Union introduced a counter-resolution charging the United States with extreme provocative action against the Soviet Mediterranean Fleet, citing the destruction of three missile boats and a destroyer...

...They are allowing or urging liberal democracy to be transformed into an extreme democracy to which men who wish to excel cannot contribute and in which they cannot live without increasing frustration, self-delusion, and hypocrisy...

...The United Nations in New York was, in fact, a beehive of activity...

...However, this reporter has attempted to distill enough of these to give the reader the flavor of what the important people are saying and doing in this latest crisis...

...Why should it always be the Navy which suffers losses on December 7," he asked, "when this is never taken into consideration at the time of appropriations...

...Most persons arrested for the more common serious crimes, such as burglary and robbery, have been arrested under circumstances such that no confession is required, no searches need be conducted, and scarcely any police interrogation occurs...

...Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, and the declaration...

...Rights are asserted and disputed, greed claimed and denied, sexual prerogatives demanded and rejected...

...There is a night of drinking...

...Liberal democracy therefore has a dual advantage over the ancient mixed regime of a more democratic appearance anda more oligarchical reality...

...However, he added the United States government was prepared to take appropriate action in the event that these nations continued to be uncooperative...

...Tocqueville expressed his fear that American democracy would suffer from "individualism," by which he meant the danger that former aristocrats in a democracy would sulk and live privately in apathy...

...The recent actions by certain nations with whom we have been attempting to improve our relations have been unhelpful, and the government of the United States is disappointed and discouraged by this behavior...

...Ron Nessen, when the President has studied carefully all of the options, he will make a full report to the nation, and will meet with congressional leaders to work out a comprehensive program of action...

...Eric Sevareid, in an unaccustomedly somber mood, stated that after thirty years of cold war with the Communist powers, we were obviously still no nearer to peace, and that if this nation really wanted peace, it would have to make some hard choices...

...but we hope that by our firm yet unthreatening response we can show the powers in question that it is to their interests as well as our own that the progress and extension of detente continue smoothly and without disturbing incident...

...The passionate debate over the death penalty as a deterrent to murder is difficult to interpret when one remembers the murders one has actually seen...

...aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean, charging that the vessel was engaged in carrying planes, pilots, and bacteriological weapons to Israel...

...We did not volunteer to enter into armed combat at the whim of the President," the statement read...

...They do not see how they profit more from equal rights, and so they take their own inequality for granted...

...The conversation turns to money or women...

...The American Civil Liberties Union has offered its services in all legal actions arising out of refusals to obey military orders...

...President Ford asked the Security Council to hold an emergency meeting at his ski lodge in Vail, where he is vacationing...

...The Soviet forces naturally took defensive action in accordance with international law...