VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 10:07:24 04/09/01 Mon
Author: Anonymous
Subject: White Clay and Increase in tickets

Alcohol tickets up in Whiteclay
BY JOE DUGGAN Lincoln Journal Star


An increased law enforcement
presence in the reservation border town of Whiteclay
has boosted the number of
tickets for alcohol-related
offenses.

In recent months, Nebraska State
Patrol troopers have ticketed scores of people for
drinking violations in the
unincorporated village of 22 near
South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation.

An Oglala Lakota civil rights
leader has criticized the patrol's enforcement effort,
saying the agency is wrongly
targeting Native people
debilitated by alcoholism.

"We're not the criminals, we're
the victims," said Tom Poor Bear of Pine Ridge, who
participated in a Whiteclay
panel discussion Friday in
Lincoln. "The State Patrol should look at the real
criminals, the people selling beer in
Whiteclay."

The citation increase followed
Gov. Mike Johanns' Feb. 12 request that the patrol
tighten enforcement in
Whiteclay. At the time, the
governor was responding to a plea from Oglala
President John Yellow Bird Steele
and others to address alcohol
problems in the village. Four off-sale beer stores
operate in Whiteclay, several
hundred yards from a reservation
where alcohol possession is banned.

Troopers issued 30 tickets in
February and 33 in March. Most of the citations
involved misdemeanor offenses
such trespassing, public drinking
and open container, said Sgt. Martin Costello, the
patrol's alcohol and tobacco
enforcement coordinator.

Because the patrol has not tracked
offenses in Whiteclay in the past, a direct comparison
can't be made, said
patrol spokeswoman Terri Teuber.

"I think it would be safe to
indicate that it's an increase," she said. "Certainly
we have turned additional focus on
that area."

"Several" of the tickets were
issued against beer store owners, Teuber said, but she
did not have specifics on
how many.

Each year, the four stores sell an
estimated 4 million cans of beer - the equivalent of
nearly 16,700 cases -
almost exclusively to residents of
the reservation, where alcohol sales are prohibited.
According to tribal
sources, about 38,000 Oglala live
on Pine Ridge, the nation's second-largest
reservation.

Poor Bear, who since 1999 has led
marches from the reservation to Whiteclay to protest
violence against the
Oglala, said the patrol's
enforcement effort is misdirected. For years, Native
people have told Nebraska officials
about illegal sales in Whiteclay,
yet not a single liquor license has been revoked. Now,
he said, when the patrol
focuses attention on the town,
Native people pay the price.

"I hope one day the governor will
come back to Whiteclay and see that nothing's
changed," he said. "My people
are still in pain."

State Patrol Col. Tom Nesbitt
responded by saying troopers can't pick and choose
which laws to enforce. If
they see a violation in Whiteclay
or any other Nebraska town, they must act accordingly.


"We need to enforce all laws and
that includes laws for the establishments, the Native
Americans and the other
citizens in Whiteclay," he said.
"We need to treat everybody fairly and equitably."

Nor have troopers limited their
efforts to alcohol offenses. Over the two-month
period, they've cited motorists
for 112 traffic violations and
given 74 warnings.

Frank LaMere, a Winnebago from
South Sioux City who has been involved with the
conflict for years,
questioned why officials couldn't
take action against the beer vendors who were
contributing to so many
violations on the streets. He
pledged to closely monitor how law enforcement
authorities and the state Liquor
Control Commission follow through
on the violations.

"If there are that many citations,
I am hoping, I am anticipating, that something is
going to happen to those liquor
licenses," he said.

Costello, the patrol's liquor
enforcement officer, said it's difficult to connect an
open container case with the
seller. Last month, Costello was
in Whiteclay when he and another officer saw a man
drinking beer in the middle
of the street.

"We asked him, 'Where'd you buy
it?' And he said, 'I don't think I need to tell you
that.'¥"

In addition to stepped-up law
enforcement, Johanns also agreed in February to a
summit involving Nebraska
and Oglala leaders. A date for the
summit has not been set, said Tanya Cook, urban
affairs assistant to the
governor.

"We want this meeting to have some
results at the end, not to be a meeting to have a
meeting," she said.

Yellow Bird Steele said he was
still optimistic his nation can work with Nebraska.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.