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CA L I F O R N I A P O LY T E C H N I C S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y Some relationships are easier to maintain than others across long distances.
Bull runs rampant through New Jersey Streets. IN NEWS, 3
Find out how Cal Poly men’s soccer finished out the Husky fever Classic IN SPORTS, 12
IN ARTS, 8
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Volume LXXIV, Number 16
www.mustangdaily.net
Politicians hear the noise San Luis Obispo police chief to propose harsher noise and party violations to city council tonight Kate McIntyre mustanG Daily
In June, the San Luis Obispo City Council directed Police Chief Deborah Linden to come up with strategies to reduce the number of noise and party-related disturbances. She will report at tonight’s 7 p.m. ‘study session,’ held at the council chamber on Palm Street. Students are encouraged to attend the city council meeting to testify for or against the proposed ordinances. “In order to reduce noise and party violations and related crime, staff recommends council consider: modifying the existing noise ordinance; enacting new unruly gathering and nighttime curfew ordinances; increasing use of the Safety Enhancement Zone ordinance; and evaluating options related to residential rental property licensing,” Linden writes in her report to the council. Linden and her staff reviewed the existing noise ordinances within San Luis Obispo and the Safety Enhancement Zone ordinance, researched
procedures in other communities, options for licensing residential rental properties and strategies to deter young adults under 18 from attending parties and developed a program to ensure greek houses are obeying their permits. Linden will present the strategies tonight and consider feedback from the council when generating ordinances or procedural changes. She will return to the council with her recommendations in Jan. 2010. Mayor Dave Romero expects a full house at tonight’s session, but believes most audience members won’t be college-aged. “The majority will be residents, people who have been dealing with the problem for a long time,” he said. The situation is unfortunate, Romero said, because while many activities are fine, some are becoming out-of-control. “If everyone acted responsibly, we’d all get along well. It’s unfortunate we have to come up with tighter regulations because the ones we
have aren’t doing the job,” he said. The students who are most likely to attend tonight’s session are the responsible ones and the ordinances to be considered aren’t directed at them, Romero said. Despite the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s efforts to educate students about noise and party laws — presentations at orientations, given to student groups, fraternities and sororities; the establishment of SLO Solutions conflict resolution program; marketing and increased fines — the number of complaints from San Luis Obispo residents has generally increased over the past five years. The number of Disturbance Advisement Cards (DAC) (warnings) and citations issued has also increased since 2004, especially in 2007 and 2008, the report said. Linden’s staff believes there are multiple contributing factors, including the “Pervasive presence of alcohol and party behavior in the student culture; annual turnover in students; lack of sense of neighborly respon-
SoUrCe: CoUnCiL AGenDA rePorT CoMPiLeD BY PoLiCe Chief DeBorAh LinDen
see Council, page 2
Court weighs taped animal cruelty David G. Savage triBune washinGton Bureau
“Late-night Love”
WASHINGTON — The video images were disturbing — a tiny white kitten singed with the flame from a lighter; a gray cat struggling beneath a woman’s spiked heel; pit bulls tearing into a trapped animal. The Supreme Court has often said that freedom of speech includes ugly and foul language. But this fall the justices will be looking at video clips like these to decide whether selling films of dogfights or animal torture is protected from prosecution under the First Amendment. The dispute, expected to be heard in early October, has driven a wedge between traditional freespeech advocates and defenders of the humane treatment of animals. Book publishers, movie makers, photographers, artists and journalists have joined the case on the side of a Virginia man who was convicted of selling videos of dogfights. They argue that any new exception to the First Amend-
ment, no matter how laudable the goal, poses a danger to free expression. “The road to censorship is paved with good intentions,” said Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. But animal rights advocates say no one should be able to profit from the abuse and torture of animals for entertainment. “This is not about speech, but about a commercial activity of a sickening type,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States. The society said it had seen a resurgence of horrific “crush videos” for sale on the Internet in the last year, ever since a U.S. appeals court struck down on free-speech grounds a federal law that banned the selling of videos of animals being maimed and tortured. These underground videos, said to appeal to a bizarre fetish, typically include tiny animals being crushed by a woman’s shoe. Investigators for the Humane Society said hundreds of such
videos could be purchased online. They showed clips of them to reporters this month. All 50 states have laws against animal cruelty, including bans on dogfighting and cockfighting. The 2007 dogfighting case against NFL quarterback Michael Vick prompted a new round of laws, including a Calif. measure that added penalties for attending a dogfight. Ten years ago, Congress made it a federal crime to market videos or other depictions of live animals being illegally “maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed.” Its sponsors made clear they did not intend to interfere with legal hunting, fishing or the slaughter of animals for food. More recently, the law was used against the underground dogfighting industry, which utilizes videos and magazines. The case coming before the Supreme Court involves Robert Stevens, 69, a Va. pit bull breeder. Stevens ran a business called Dogs of Velvet and Steel, which provided books and other materials see Cruelty, page 4