Jtf Syracuse Herald-Journal, Tuesday, December 31, 1983 News briefing South Mayor Qoodt calls for racial unity PHILADELPHIA- Mayor W.Wilson Goode has met with community leaders in an effort to come up with a plan to defuse ra- cial tension in the City of Brotherly Love. "This city was created as a model for religious and racial freedom, and we have to continue to be a model for this nation in that regard," Goode said Monday, after the meeting in his office. "We have to send a message... that in this city which William Penn founded 303 years ago any person, regardless of color, can live in any block he wants to live in." Goode said he plans to announce a series of initiatives Friday to help ease tension in the Elmwood neighborhood of southwest Philadelphia, letting him lift a five-week-old ban on gatherings of more than four people. . _ • • " - The Associated Press School moment-of-silence law revised BOSTON —Students in Massachusetts public schools will have a daily moment of silence under a law that was revised to delete a reference to prayer. The new statute goes into effect 90 days after its signing Mon- day by Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, and was in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in May in an Alabama case. The high court ruled that the Alabama law, similar to one passed in Massachusetts in 1980, Was unconstitutional because it contained a specific reference to students using the time for medi- tation or prayer. The revised Massachusetts law calls simply for "a period of si- lence not to exceed one minute in duration" to be observed at the start of each school day. - The Associated Press " Fourth slaying blamed on police ring MIAMI —A fourth slaying has been linked to a police drug rip-off ring already blamed for the drownings of three suspected drug dealers, and a fifth officer sur- rendered in connection with the ring, police said. Rodolfo Arias, 29, a former "Officer of the Month," was booked into Dade County Jail on Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree mur- der, racketeering, two counts of armed trafficking of cocaine, grand theft and aggravated battery. Four other Miami police officers, who prosecutors say were part of a ring known as "The Enterprise," have been charged since last week. A former officer also has been charged. — The Associated Press Mill worker held in abduction of 2 girls STAPLETON, Ga. — A textile mill worker has been arrested in the abduction of two 12-year-old girls. Authorities say they be- lieve the man acted alone even though the girls originally said there were two kidnappers. Buford Williams, 23, who lives in a rural area near Stapleton, was arrested at midnight Monday as he prepared to leave his job at the J.P. Stevens plant, Jefferson County Sheriff Zollie Compton said. Jennifer Barrow and Elizabeth Tanner were released Monday on the same dirt road where they had been abducted while riding bicycles Dec. 22. The girls said they were raped during the week they were held captive. — United Press International Elections could shift council power CHICAGO — A fed- eral judge ordered spe- cial elections March 18 in seven redrawn alder- manic wards that could shift City Council power from the major- ity opposition bloc to Mayor Harold Wash- ington's supporters. — "There have been no fair aldermanic or committeeman elections in these wards since • 1981," U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle said Monday. Norgle, who last week approved the compromise remap drawn by attorneys for the council and the Justice Department, said the special elections should remedy the problem. The next regularly scheduled aldermanic election is not until 1987. The elections will coincide with the state primary and will de- cide the fate of at least five City Council seats currently held by majority-bloc aldermen. The majority bloc, opposed to the Wash- ington administration, currently holds a 29-21 majority. A number of minority plaintiffs filed suit in 1982, alleging a 1981 ward map discriminated against minorities by diluting their vot- ing power. - United Press International Friends mourn freezing death of student ROCHESTER, Minn. — Students and teachers at Chosen Val- ley High School are mourning the death of an honor student who died wandering away from the scene of a traffic accident and spending 20 hours in temperatures that reached below zero. "He tried his best in everything he did," football coach Ken Jacobson said of Scott Gardner, 18, of Chatfield. Gardner, an honor roll student, starting defensive end on the football team and a member of this year's homecoming royalty, died Sunday in the intensive care unit of St. Mary's Hospital. Searchers had found him, clinically dead, Saturday in a ravine northeast of Chatfield and rushed him by helicopter the 25 miles to Rochester. Olmsted County authorities said Gardner wandered away from three friends on a county road early Saturday as they walked to a farm after their'pickup truck slid into a ditch. — T ht Astocleted Press Girl may know who buried her in desert PHOENIX, Ariz. — A 4-year-old girl who was rescued from a 3-foot- deep, plywood-covered hole in the desert may know who buried her alive and may be "try- 'ing to protect the per- son," authorities say. The child, Jessica Anne Hardesty, was in- terviewed Monday by a woman detective, but "any time a man walks in the room, she gets pretty obviously scared," said Cpl. Jay Ellison of the Maricpa County Sheriff's Department. "We feel she knows the suspect," Ellison said. "The fact that • she's 4 years old and knows the suspect, that doesn't include a lot of people." - The Associated Preu Gunman robs California congressman LOS ANGELES — A congressman was robbed while walking to his car from a bank by a gunman who fired one shot that passed through the legislator's trouser leg without injuring him, police said. Rep. Glenn Anderson, D-Calif., was confronted at about 11:30 a.m. Monday, by a lone gunman outside a First Interstate Bank in the Wilmington district, police said. Anderson,-72, is a former lieu- tenant governor of California. "The gunman demanded money and subsequently fired one shot from a handgun at Mr. Anderson, which passed through his pant leg," Capt. Robert McVey said. "The suspect grabbed Anderson's briefcase and fled in a white van," said McVey. Police later recovered the briefcase, which con- tained a small amount of monev. — United Press International West Perspective A BREED APART Pit bulls have killed 12 people since 1982 By Fred Associated Press Writer TIJERAS, N.M. - When the dogs finished with her, Angle Hands' right leg was gnawed to the bone. Flesh and muscle had been gouged from her upper arms, and the 9-year-old's ear was ripped in half. "She had lost so much blood the doctors couldn't tell me if she was going to live," said Donna Hands, her voice still breaking as she recalled the afternoon her brother-in-law's four pit-bull terriers attacked Angie on the path be- tween the school bus stop and her home. The child survived, to face years of recon- structive surgery. But the incident fuels a de- bate growing well beyond this rural Albuquer- que suburb. . Similar attacks have led Tijeras and more than 30 other communities across the country to consider special rules and outright bans on dogs known as pit bulls. Sponsors say the laws are necessary to pro- tect the public from animals bred for genera- tions to kill. Pit bull owners say laws singling out their pets are unconstitutional. ' "WE DO NOT DEFEND the attacks. But at the same time we feel it is unjust to punish all pit bull owners because of a few incidents," said Margaret Amacker, president of the Duke City Pit Bull Terrier Club, which is challenging the law with the help of the American DogOwners Association. The case is due for trial in early spring. • Known officially as Staffordshire Bull Ter- riers, American Staffordshire Terriers or American Pit Bull Terriers, pit bulls are power- ful dogs weighing 40 to 60 pounds with square jaws and muscular chests. An estimated 25,000 pit bulls are registered with various dog associations, and their popu- larity is growing. Owners say they are smart, affectionate and loyal. Pete, the dog in the Our Gang comedies, was a pit bull, as were Tige, the pet of cartoon charac- ter Buster Brown, and the RCA Victor dog lis- tening to its master's voice at the phonograph. But the breed has a darker history. PIT BULLS WERE BRED for dog fighting, a bloody and now illegal sport that requires a battle to the death. Over generations, the dogs have been selected for the strength, aggressive- ness and tenacity needed to survive the fighting pit. "Other dogs will bite, back off and attack again," said Dennis White, director of animal protection for the American Humane Associa- • tion. "Pit bulls are latchers and shakers. Once they attack, that's all she wrote." Since 1982, at least a dozen people —seven of them children — have died and scores have been severely injured by pit bulls. The stories, bloody and 'sensational, have attracted public attention: • A 4-year-old girl falls off a porch in Oregon City, Ore., and.is killed by a pit bull chained in the yard. • An Edgemere, Md., woman is killed by her two pit bulls. Police find her body covered with bites, skin stripped from her legs and an arm nearly severed. • Two pit bulls attack a Houston w^man as she steps outside to get her newspaper, then they maul a neighbor who tries to help. The dogs are shot after they stand off rescuers and chase a police officer to his car. Such incidents have understandably led to anti-pit bull regulations. When a 7-week-old boy was killed by a dog in Davie, Fla., Broward County commissioners ordered pit bulls penned or leashed and muzzled. Owners were required to buy $100,000 in liability insurance. Dog owners won an injunction against the law. "THE DOG HAS BEEN raised for hundreds of years to kill," said William Bosch, assistant general counsel to the county. "It only takes a little to set them off." But others argue there is no proof the pit bulls are a special threat. While an estimated 1 mil- lion Americans are bitten by dogs each year, little is known about the breeds involved. Dogs identified as pit bulls often turn out to be other breeds. Animal behaviorists split on the question of whether pit bulls are more dangerous than other dogs. Victoria Voith, director of the University of .Pennsylvania's animal behavior clinic, has stud- ied dog attacks, often observing the assailants. While she noted that pit bulls involved in AP Laserphoto Margaret Amacker, president of the Duke City Pit Bull Terrier Club in Albuquerque, N.M., gets a lick from Bluebelle, one of her four pit bulls. Amacker has raised pit bulls since 1970. incidents were much easier to incite to attack than other dogs, she said it was hard to draw conclusions about the entire breed. "We just don't know if they are likely to be more aggressive than other dogs," she said. "But those who show aggression are very ag- gressive. If you are attacked by one, you just don't have that much of a chance." I. Lehr Brisbm Jr., an biologist and animal behaviorist with the University of Georgia who uses pit bulls to trap wild boars, believes the breed is less of a threat than are other dogs. "FOR GENERATION AFTER generation, any dog that bit a man in the pit was shot," Brisbin said. "This is probably the only breed of dog that was culled if it bit a man." Many feel the problem comes from owners, who, attracted to the dog's tough image, encour- age aggressiveness. Phil Lyons, a breeder in Whittier, Calif., calls such owners "Mister Macho and his dog Lunger." "You'll see these guys walking their pit bulls down the street to show everybody how bad they are," he said. Peggy Allen, a Miami breeder, now screens potential buyers. "I've had a lot of people I considered drug dealers come around looking to buy the dog," she said. "People have decided that this is the biggest, strongest, meanest dog they could own." Kent Salazar, head of Albuquerque's animal control division, believes no special laws are needed. He noted that several years ago some people wanted regulations for Doberman pinschers. "We have all the means to protect people with clauses about vicious dogs," he said. BUT COMMUNITY LEADERS often see pit bulls as a special threat. After the March 1984 attack on Angie Hands, Tijeras, a close- knit community of 300, banned the dogs and gave officials the power to seize and destroy pit bulls. - • "There are still dogs like these around, at- tacking other dogs, cattle and people. We can't have that," said Mayor Felix Garcia, whose wife once babysat for Angie. Pit bull owners say the publicity has brought a backlash. Amacker tells of pit bulls aban- doned and abused by owners who become fear- ful after hearing of attacks. In some cases, pit bulls have been poisoned or shot. John Ulrich, an Albuquerque stockbroker, said that when his pit bull, Sugar, got loose and began frolicking with a neighbor's poodle, the w6man panicked and began beating the dog with a piece of lumber. "Sugar just laid down and cried," said Ulrich. •"I apologized to the woman for the dog getting out, but I pointed out if Sugar was really that vicious, she wouldn't have been able to hit her." Donna Hands was always taught that a bad dog reflected a bad owner. But she said the combination of careless owners'and aggressive dogs was too dangerous to permit. "Picking on one breed of dog might be uncon- stitutional, but killing a human being is against the law," she said. "Have we sunk so low that the dogs' rights are more important than a child's right to go play in their yard?" Alexander reflects on 16 years as mayor ALEXANDER Continued from Page Al Today is the last day people will call him .Mayor Lee Alexander. Tomorrow, he will be former Mayor Lee Alexander. After 16 years, it won't be easy for some to say. Sometime in February, he'll open a law office with his son. Jamey. Many in the press will miss seeing Mayor Lee Alexander at City Hall. But he may not miss the press. The news media has not always been kind. Friday, at his last Board of Estimate meeting, a television reporter questioned Alexander over and over again to get him to share his inner- most feelings at what might seem to be a senti- mental time. He would have none of it. What did he plan to do after this? "I plan to go to lunch," he answered. What did he want to do more than anything else? "I want to go to lunch," he said laughing. What were all the reporter's questions keep- ing him from doing? Going to lunch! When Alexander finally relented, his an- swers were off-hand, low-key and cagey as ever. "I'm so busy right now, I haven't had time for reflection," he said. What did he regret he didn't get to do in his years at City Hall? Become U.S. senator, pave more city streets and get along with a Republican-majority Com- mon Council, were his quick replies. . Will he run for political office again? "I can't rule that in or out at this time," he said. Will he miss the excitement of battles in the public arena? "I'm sure I'll find new ones in the courts," he answered. Alexander is doing his share of private remin- iscing with friends, however. Saturday, he laughed about old times over lunch with one- time campaign worker Hank Bersani, now New York State Thruway Authority chairman. Mon- day, Alexander lunched with Syracuse Univer- sity administrator Tom Cummings, who ran his first campaign. In an interview Monday, Alexander sat be- hind the mayor's desk and spoke with an energy that belied his departure. On his desktop were an empty wire basket and tape and string meant for the empty boxes lying nearby. Today, he planned to open the mail, answer calls, finish packing his personal files and go to the dentist. There won't be a last gathering of the troops. He already said goodbye to the City Hall staff last summer, Alexander said, minutes before he publicly announced he would not seek a fifth term in office. To make the office pleasant for Young, Alex- ander ordered the mayoral refrigerator stocked with orange juice, Perrier, soda and some beer. He also asked Everson Museum curators to lend some prints and oil paintings for the Office and' waiting room, so the walls wouldn't be bare when Young sits in the mayor's chair for the first time on Wednesday. Lastly, a de^k stand has been filled with desk freshly sharpened pencils. A cleaning crew will dust and vacuum the office after Alexander leaves. As he does in public, Alexander praises Young in private. Young is a mayor for the 1980s, Alex- ander said, just as he himself was a mayor for the 1970s. "It's not the fun it used to be," he added. "The '70s were the challenging years, lots of great fights. The real job was done in the '70s when we (urban mayors) woke up this nation to the crisis in the cities." He's proud to leave the city fiscally stable, proud of the political battles that proved he was right. At a Christmas party last week at the Bene- dict-Moore housing project, a group of children —at the urging of their mothers —thanked him for not backing down in the face of public pressure against its construction. "They didn't know who I was, but they thanked me for their beautiful housing," Alex- ander said. After the acrimonious debates, the court battle and the bad feelings, the neighbor- hood is peaceful, and the children have a decent place to live, he said. "I don't have to say 'I told you so,'" Alex- ander said. "I have the satisfaction of having done it." When he walks out of the front door of City Hall today, Alexander leaves for a two-week vacation in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. No inaugural ceremony. No inaugural ball. No mushy, public farewells. Just the sun, the beach and a newhorizon. _