I was determined to avoid the violence that had...
- Posted at 9:28 AM on Thursday, February 4, 2010 by shuijuanjiao675
I was determined to avoid the violence that had erupted between Klansmen and protesters recently during a similar rally in Decatur, AlabamaMy public safety director, Tommy Robinson, studied the Decatur situation and put in place stringent security measures to avoid a repeatWe had a lot of state troopers and local police on the ground, with instructions to arrest people at the first sign of disorderEventually, six people were arrested, but no one was hurt, thanks largely to the deterrent effect of the large police presenceI felt good about how we handled the Klan situation, and it increased my confidence that we could deal properly with anything that might happen in the futureA year later, something much bigger came up
In the spring of 1980, Fidel Castro deported 120,000 political prisoners and other undesirables, many of them with criminal records or mental problems, to the United StatesThey sailed to Florida, seeking asylum and creating a massive problem for the Carter administrationI knew immediately that the White House might want to send some of the Cubans to Fort Chaffee, a large installation near Fort Smith, because it had been used as a relocation center in the mid-seventies for Vietnamese refugeesThat relocation was largely successful, and many Vietnamese families were still living in western louis vuitton fabric Arkansas and doing well
When I discussed the issue with Gene Eidenberg, the White House official handling the Cuban issue for the President, I told him the Vietnamese effort had worked well in part because of preliminary screenings in the Philippines and Thailand to weed out those who shouldnt be admitted to the United States in the first placeI suggested he put an aircraft carrier or other large vessel off the coast of Florida and do the same kind of screeningI knew that most of the refugees werent criminals or crazy, but they were being portrayed that way in the press, and the screening process would build public support for those who did come inGene said screening would be pointless because there was no place to send the rejectsSure there is, I saidWe still have a base at Guantnamo, dont we? And there must be a gate in the fence that divides it from CubaTake them to Guantnamo, open the door, and march them back into CubaCastro was making America look foolish and the President look powerlessJimmy Carter already had his hands full with inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis; he didnt need thisMy proposal seemed to me to be a good way for the President to look strong, turn lemons into lemonade, and pave the way for public acceptance of the refugees who were allowed to stayWhen the White House chanel coin purse dismissed my suggestion out of hand, I should have known we were in for a long, rough ride
On May 7, the White House notified me that Fort Chaffee would be used to resettle some of the CubansI urged the White House to take strong security precautions and made a statement to the press saying the Cubans were fleeing a Communist dictatorship and pledging to do all I can to fulfill whatever responsibilities the President imposes upon Arkansans to facilitate their resettlementBy May 20, there were nearly twenty thousand Cubans at Fort ChaffeeAlmost as soon as they arrived, disturbances by young, restless Cubans, tired of being fenced in and uncertain about their future, became a staple of daily life inside the fortAs I have said, Fort Smith was a very conservative community, and most people were none too happy in the first place about the Cubans comingWhen reports of the disturbances were publicized, people in Fort Smith and nearby towns became frightened and angry, especially those who lived in the little town of Barling, which borders the fortAs Sheriff Bill Cauthron, who was strong and sensible throughout the crisis, said in an interview: To say that they [local residents] are scared is an understatementThey are arming themselves to the teeth, and that only makes the situation more volatile
On Monday night, rock of love tiffany's necklace May 26, a couple hundred refugees charged the barricades and ran out of the fort through an unguarded gateAt dawn the next morning, primary election day, I called sixty-five National Guardsmen to Fort Chaffee, flew to Fayetteville with Hillary to vote, then went to the fort, where I spent the day talking to people on the ground and at the White HouseThe commanding officer, Brigadier General James Bulldog Drummond, was an impressive man with a sterling combat recordWhen I complained that his troops had let the Cubans off base, he told me he couldnt stop them; he had been told by his immediate superior that a federal statute, the posse comitatus law, prohibits the military from exercising law-enforcement authority over civiliansApparently, the army had concluded that the law covered the Cubans, though their legal status was uncertainThey werent citizens or legal immigrants, but they werent illegal aliens eitherSince they had broken no law, Drummond was told he couldnt keep them at the fort against their will just because the local population detested and feared themThe general said his sole mission was to keep order on the baseI called the President, explained the situation, and demanded that someone be given authority to keep the Cubans on the baseI was afraid people in the area were going to start tiffany bracelet shooting themThere had been a run on handguns and rifles in every gun store within fifty miles of Chaffee
The next day I again spoke to the President, who said that he was sending more troops and that they would maintain order and keep the Cubans inside the baseGene Eidenberg told me that the Justice Department was sending the Pentagon a letter saying the military had the legal authority to do soBy the end of the day, I was able to relax a little and to ponder the primary election, in which my only opponent, the old turkey farmer Monroe Schwarzlose, got 31 percent of the vote, thirty times the vote he had received in the 1978 primaryThe rural folks were sending me a message about the car tagsI hoped they had gotten it out of their system, but they hadnt
On the night of June 1, all hell broke looseOne thousand Cubans ran out of the fort, right past federal troops, and onto Highway 22, where they began walking toward BarlingOnce again, the troops didnt lift a finger to stop themThe only barrier between the Cubans and several hundred angry and armed Arkansans was composed of state troopers under the command of Captain Deloin Causey, a dedicated and coolheaded leader; the National Guardsmen; and Sheriff Bill Cauthrons deputiesI had given Causey and the National Guard strict instructions not to let the Cubans replica louis vuitton wallet pas
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