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TheNewJournal Volume 23, No. 3
November 30, 1990
EDITOR'S NOTE 5
LETTERS 6
NEWSJOURNALS Yale Reading Machine ......... New Haven Greens ........... Housing Scene 7
FEATURES Pastore-izing the Police There's a new police chief in town. From redecorating the station house to endorsing drug decriminalization, Nick Pastore is letting the community know that things have changed in the New Haven Police Department. By Josh Plaut.
12 Saying No to Hate Some crimes are more equal than others. Or at least that's w hat the law says. On October 1 Connecticut enacted a new law which mandates stiffer penalties for crimes motivated by hate. By Jennifer Pitts.
18 Hidden Obsessions For several years, physicians have charted the growing number of college students suffering from eating disorders. Three women bring the point home. By Janina Palmisano.
22
AFTERTHOUGHT Changsha Christmas For teachers working for the Yale-China Association, holidays away from home can bring many surprises. The writer describes one Christmas he spent in the province of Hunan. By Tony Reese.
26 Cover Design by Mark Badger- Cover photo by Jennifer Pitts <Volume 23, Number 3) 1M New Jouno<ll is publi.shed six times duJins 1M school year by The New Journal at Yale, Inc., Post Office Box~ Yale Station. New Haven. CT 06520. Copyright 1990 by The New Journal at Yale, Inc. All rights .-vect. Reproduction either in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher and editor·in-<:hief is prohibited. This magazine is publilhed by Yale Co~ students, and Yale Uniwrsity is not responsible foe its rontents. Eleven thousand ropies of each issue are distributed free to members of 1M Yale University community. 1M NftD /OtlnW is prinled by Turley Publications of Palmet-, MA. Boolcl<eeping and billing sevicft are provKied by Colman Boolcl<eeping of New Haven, CT. OffiClt address: 305 Crown Street Clf6ce 312. Phone: (203) 432·1957. S..blcriptions are available to those outside 1M Yale community. Rates: One year, $18. Two years, $26. 1M New /Otino<ll encourages letters to the editor and CXIO'IInent on Yale and New Haven iss\Ms. Write to Motoko Rich. Editorials, 3432 Yale Station. New Haven. CT 06520. All letters foe publication must include address and signature. 1M Nn» /OUI'Ml .-ves the right to edit all letters for pul>Ucation.
November 30, 1990
The New Journal 3
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November 30, 1990
Editor•s Note
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As we put the final touches on the last issue of the year, we are making plans for 1991. Last year at this time, we were sifting through papers in Sterling Library's archives, contacting alumni, and talking with professors who remembered the 1970 May Day demonstrations at Yale. In a theme issue that came out last February, The New Journal focused on events at Yale during the spring of 1970. TNJ writers profiled Black Panther Bobby Seale, the students who served as the models for Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury characters, and former student activist Kurt Schmoke, now mayor of Baltimore. The May Day issue foliowed a tradition of TNJ theme issues. In the past, we have devoted issues to co-education at Yale, the Vietnam War's impact on the University and AIDS in New Haven. Putting out a theme issue is a special event. Long before we actually start writing, taking pictures or designing, businesspeople sell extra advertisements, editors and writers track down leads, and designers look for cool graphics. A theme issue brings the staff together. Rather than working independently until production weekend, writers, photographers and designers collaborate from the beginning. We are already at work on a theme issue for 1991. We are eager for your input and invite enthusiastic writers, photographers, designers and businesspeople to contribute to the project. Even if you have never worked for a magazine, we welcome your ideas and your interest. To join us, please come to the Branford Common Room on December 4 at 9:00 p.m. If you have any questions, please call Motoko Rich at 436-0827 or Lisa Silverman at 436-1877.
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Emily Bazelon's article, "Making the Mosaic: Non-Traditional Casting at the Dramat," and felt a strong need to comment. I graduated from the Yale School of Drama's Theater Administration program in 1978. Since then I have experienced non-traditional casting in a few different arenas, such as the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Theatre Panel of
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6 The New Journal
the Ohio Arts Council, and the D .C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Recently, I assumed a new position at the Yale School of Drama and the Yale Repertory Theater as Minority Recruitment Officer and Associate Director of Community Affairs. Returning to Yale after twelve years, I became increasingly dismayed as I read
about the non-traditional casting practices at the Yale Dramat in The New Journal. I suppose I always labored under the illusion tha~ Yale would be at the vanguard of change. It also seems to me that non-traditional casting policies would be instituted much more easily by a student theater organization than by a professional regional company. Perhaps David DeRose, Director of Undergraduate Theater Studies, and the Dramat should do a little research. Nqn- . traditional casting is not new, and our audiences are more intelligent than we think. To Tara Murphy's uninformed statement that "No one can answer how to c.a st people of color in a play that is historically white," I can only respond that regional ¡theaters have been providing the answers (in one form or another) for over ten years. Furthermor e, I believe the Yale Dramat should seriously evaluate its own actions. To suggest that ethnic theater groups may segregate the Yale theater community is patently absurd when, by their own records, since "the fall of 1988 ...only eight people of color performed in six mainstage shows." I am not suggesting that the casting situation is ideal. Theaters in this country certainly have a long way to go before the practice becomes routine. And though there are still issues to be resolved, organizations like the NonTraditional Casting Project as well as individuals are working hard to achieve a better understanding. Sincerely, H. Asante Scott November 30, 1990
NewsJournals Yale's Reading Machine For blind students at Yale, looking up a quotation in a textbook can take hours. Instead of flipping pages, they must fast forward and rewind through cassette recordings of the books. "You've got 40 or SO cassettes to deal with every semester," said Matt Weed (SM '93). "They're a huge waste of time." Until now, Weed has depended on cassettes to complete his reading assignments. The Resource Office, which aids disabled students, employs ten people to record class assignments onto the tapes. These readers log up to 200 hours of text per blind student each semester. Two Yale undergraduates have invented a vocalized text scanning system which could make readers and cassettes obsolete. Located in Cross Campus Library's basement, the system is the brainchild of Weed and computing assistant Victor Grigorieff (SM '92). When the two met in October 1989, Weed showed Grigorieff a program called "Outspoken," which uses speech to explain Macintosh graphics. As the cursor lands on words such as "File, Edit, Format,"a voice pronounces the words aloud. The students realized that if a program could vocalize commands, it could also lend voice to other printed words. Last spring Weed and Grigorieff asked the Provost's Office for funds to create the text scanning system. "We had to get promises from <!"omputer companies that the scanner would work in order to justify a $1S,OOO system," said Grigorieff. The Provost's Office approved the project in May, and Weed and Grigorieff began to assemble the system. "Theoretically the system is not very complicated," said Grigorieff. The system hooks up a Hewlett-Packard text scanner to a Macintosh FX II. The scanner, which looks and works like a small, personal Xerox machine, photographs a page of text and, in about 20 seconds, transfers it to the computer screen. Students with limited vision can enlarge November 30, 1990
MaHhew Weed (right) and VIctor GrlgorleH hope their text scanner will improve life for visually disabled students at Yale. the text and read it on the FX II's 19-inch describe graphs nor transcribe handscreen, or like blind students, simply written texts like human readers can. command the computer to read the text But Weed believes the scanner will aloud. They can also copy the material replace readers. "As better software onto a floppy disk and listen to it later comes out, it is our determination to in their rooms. The typical Macintosh eliminate the need for readers at Yale," computer can read the copied text he said. aloud. Resource Office Director Fay The scanning system has a number Hanson believes the system will benefit of advantages over cassettes. Instead of not only blind students but others as fast forwarding, students command the well. Dyslexics, for example, could profcomputer to read text aloud from any- it from learning new material through where in the document simply by hit- more than one mode--aural as well as ting a search key. A floppy disk, which visual. holds 600 pages of text, also takes up The Resource Office plans to hire a less space than cassettes. ''When I have computing coordinator, who will proSO tapes lying around, it's not easy to vide technical assistance and train peopack them up," said Weed. "It's much ple to use the system. Grigorieff estieasier to throw all my books on a hard mates that it would take a blind person disk." Weed can also make notes in the with no computer experience 40 hours margins of his books. "I type my notes to learn how to scan text. Weed, who into the text in italics. When I want them had extensive experience using a read to me, I tell the machine to search Macintosh, learned in about 20 hours. for everything italicized." "The system saves me time and allows Still, the scanner can neither me to perform more like an average stuThe New Journal 7
dent/' he said. He and Grigorieff are not currently seeking a patent for their invention, and said they would share it with other schools if asked. "As far as we know, this machine is the first of its kind," said Grigorieff. Visually d isabled students will be able to use the text scanner early next year. -caitlin Macy
New Haven Greens Serena Spruill grew up in New Haven's Hill neighborhood, where she supports five children, one granddaughter, and one niece. Since 1979, she has belonged to the Inner City Co-op Farm, a fouracre plot where local residents grow
vegetables. The food Spruill takes home from the garden is an important part of her household's diet. "If I wasn't involved we would have no vegetables to eat because money is tight and has to be stretched as far as it will go," she said. "The garden helps ou t one hell of a lot." In 1978, a group of H ill neighbor hood residen ts who did not have their own backyards petitioned the state for temporary use of a vacant lot between Legion and North Frontage Avenues. The state approved and they founded the Co-op Farm the same year. The federal governmen t put up several tho.u sand dollars to help the co-op get started. At first, the ground could not support vegetation, but after two years of composting, members harvested th eir first crop--3,800 pounds of vegetables. This year 75 families belong to the co-
op, and they share 50,000 pounds of 40 different kinds of herbs and vegetables. A board of directors decides what to grow, and a full-time director manages the co-op's finances. The only requirements for membership in the co-op are residency in New Haven and two hours of work per week. The garden has no individual family plots, and because it is a nonprofit organization, members do not sell their produce to the public. Members divide the harvest among participating families, with larger families taking home greater shares. For families . dependent on food stamps, the co-op provides an important dietary supple- ment. But budget cuts and bureaucratic problems threaten the co-op's future. In the past few years the federal government has cut funding for the program,
Co-op members claim they fenced In their garden to prevent theft, but a city official sees It as an attempt to take possession of public land.
8 The New Journal
November30, 1990
CAP'S
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forcing the garden to operate on a shoestring budget. Last year the co-op worked with a $12,500 budget, with only $4,500 coming from the government, compared to $8,000 the previous year. As government funding dwindles, the co-op hopes foundations will take up the slack. But these foundations also operate on limited budgets. "So many different groups come in to the foundations with proposals now that it's tough for them to meet everyone's needs," said Joe Moye, the co-op's director and longtime Hill resident. He spends much of his time tracking down grant money, and the amount of aid fluctuates. In the meantime, the co-op has found creative and cheap ways to meet its basic needs. Leaves and manure for composting come from the Evergreen Cemetery and the Yale Polo Club, and local farmers donate seeds. But the board has other projects it wants to implement, including satellite gardens throughout New Haven, household composting of food waste and a senior citizen's program. Members also hope to expand their programs to include environmental education for children. The children currently farm one area of the garden, and the co-op wants to offer biology lessons and field trips. "But right now we have a small budget, so we just do what we can," said Sylvia Dorsey, who serves on the co-op's board of directors. Government bureaucracy poses another headache. The state legislature has twice shot down a bill proposing that the state transfer control of the lot to New Haven. So far, the measures have failed because city officials are divided over plans for land usage. Currently, merchants who want a highway leading downtown, housing advocates and the Yale Medical School are vying for control of the land. "The highway option would knock the co-op out," said John McGuertey, executive director of the City Planning November 30, 1990
Commission. According to Jonathan Rosenthal, director· of Municipal Projects for the city, the co-op would not be compatible with housing or medical school plans either. The co-op sits on the largest undeveloped tract in New Haven, a valuable plot of land originally intended for highway construction. The co-op has only temporary use of the property, but any time plans for development arise, Rosenthal's department receives a rash of protest letters. Co-op members have also built a fence around their garden to reduce theft, and Rosenthal sees this as a move to mark the land as their own. "The co-op members are a very crafty bunch of individuals," he said. He considers their desire to stay on the land unrealistic. "They are expecting a large subsidy if they expect the state to give them title. It's like the difference between letting relatives stay for the night in your spare bedroom and asking them to move in." Moye would like the state to recommend that the co-op remain untouched, or that the state sell the land to the co-op for a reduced price. "The entire empty lot stretches over 26 acres, so there's no reason why they couldn't make changes and leave us our share," he said. Rosenthal defines the problem in utilitarian terms. "The question is whether, in such a densely populated city, the co-op is the best use of the land for the most people," he said. Moye believes the co-op is the best use of the land because it is so important to member families. "The members share the common denominator of poverty. The food they bring home is proof that together they can do something about that," he said. "If the city sees that the community is organized to support their garden, they'll think twice about taking the land away."
-Emily Bazelon
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10 The New Journal
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Two years ago, Carletta Thomas made a down payment· on her first house, thanks to a unique .government program called lnfill Housing. A city employee for the past 18 years, Thomas ·never earned enough money to own a home. Rent increases kept her and her daughter on the move. " I never established roots in one place," Thomas said. "I was always just settling down before I had to get up and move again." But. in · 1988, Thomas heard about New Haven's Infill Housing, a city program which allowed her to purchase a duplex house in the Dixwell neighborhood. Today, she lives in that house, and rents out an apartment to another family. Families who qualify for Infill Housing receive mortgages from the state and federal government to buy homes on land the city donates; local non-profit developers build the units at cost. Each new homeowner then leases an apartment to a lower-income family. 'We're selling houses to people earning $20,000 a year. Home ownership would usually not be an option for these people," said Frank Nasti, an advisor to the Corporation for Urban Home Ownership, a non-profit developer. Potential buyers earn less than $34,000, but still must meet strict minimum standards for credit and down payment. Only about a fifth of the families who have inquired about the program qualify. Infill plans to build 271 two-unit houses, but so far only 83 have been completed. The remaining units will be built as additional families have their credit approved. The construction sites November 30, 1990
are in the Hill, Dwight, Dixwell, and Newhallville neighborhoods, predominately African-American and Latino communities to the west and north of the Yale campus. The program originated in 1980 when then-Mayor Biagio DiLieto's administration sought to address two of New Haven' s most pressing problems: the lack of affordable homes for lowincome families and the destructive effects of crime on city neighborhoods. An ad hoc committee recommended that the city convert vacant lots used for drug trafficking into'sites for new housing. New Haven's Office of Housing and Neighborhood Development tested the idea with a pilot program that replaced empty lots with 34 two-family houses. The success of Pilot Infillled to the full-scale program. "We've filled in a lot of comers where drugs and shooting fights were the major activities," said Judy Sklarz, the Infill Project Manager. Construction costs average $132,000 per two-family house, and the state grants buyers mortgages for up to $114,000. If potential homeowners need additional funding, the city will provide a second mortgage drawn from a $5.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The owners can then expect to recoup about $600 a month for mortgage payments by renting the spare apartment in the duplex. The extra income from these rents makes two-family houses more affordable for home buyers than traditional single family units. The purchasing families usually make a down payment of $5,000, a relatively low sum, but nonetheless a significant stake for Infill families. "These are hard working people who are saving as much as they can," said Sklarz. Like Thomas, the typ-
November 30, 1990
~ from banks.
~ ~e city is waiting until all of the ~ lnfill homes are sold to evaluate ~
whether the project should continue. Sklarz, along with the non-profit devel¡- opers, worries that the recent recession ~ and rising crime in the affected neigh~ borhoods may dissuade potential buy-
f
llilillllill l
lnflll offers a rare chance for low-Income families to buy homes. ical Infill homeowner has had a long tenure with one of New Haven's stable employers such as Yale or Southern New England Telephone. All of the lnfill buyers are first-time homeowners, most of whom could not get mortgages
invest"Iinthink what people may be are the reluctant biggest purers. to chase of their lives in this uncertain market," said Jim Paley, a developer. To allay fears about crime and publicize lnfill, developers have solicited the help of community groups. The Dixwell Development, Hill Development, and Newhallville Restoration Corporations now advertise the lnfill program and help match neighborhood residents with new homes. The city hopes that these neighborhood groups will become developers themselves. Indeed, some groups have already begun building. The Newhallville Restoration Corporation, for example, is remodeling the old Ivy Street School and turning it into a business and rental housing complex. By all.owing community organizations to direct the course of redevelopment, lnfill administrators hope to give local residents a larger say in housing decisions. "These are disturbed neighborhoods. Most of the people buying Infill houses are from the area," said Nasti. "They're not pushing anyone out, just helping themselves and their own neighborhoods." The city hopes that more Infill homeowners will join Carletta Thomas in reclaiming land once abandoned to drug traffic. -Erik Meers Carletta Thomas is a pseudonym.
The New Journal 11
Pastore-izing the Police Josh Plaut
,, New Haven Chief of Police Nicholas Pastore doesn't mix:tce tough, act tough and crush any problems." words. "We can't just kick ass and lock people up;' he ¡said. Throughout the 80s, the New Haven police department "There's more to this job than that." Since he took over as had a reputation for brutality. "During the Farrell years, the New Haven's top cop nine months ago, Pastore has spoken police saw themselves as an occupying army," said John loud and clear on a host of issues. He supports the city's Williams, a local lawyer specializing in police brutality cases. intravenous needle exchange. He decries what he calls "instiFarrell, Williams says, believed that some excesses were par~ tutional racism." He even gave a much-publicized interview of an officer's job. "When he considered people for promoto High Times -a drug-culture magazine-calling for the tions, Farrell viewed complaints as a positive," Williams said. ¡ decriminalization of marijuana and cocaine. Since last March, Pastore believes Farrell's philosophy even attracted new cops Pastore hasn't missed many opportunities to speak his mind. to New Haven. "Many young officers joined in the past five The message that he is promulgating in no uncertain terms: years because the department had this Miami Vice approach," the New Haven police department is running according to a Pastore said. "They came here because they wanted to kick new set of rules. ass." His ideas about police work may be new, but Pastore is While Farrell's approach lured recruits to New Haven, an old face in town. He graduated from the University of Pastore believes it wasn't solid police work. Officers can be as New Haven and joined t h e - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - tough as they want, Pastore police department in 1962. By says, but brute force isn't 1969, he had risen to the rank of going to make crime go away. deputy chief inspector. Two In fact, brutality may even years later he left the departencourage crime. "We get ment for a year-long stint as a tough, they get tougher. We special assistant to New go in with violence and come Haven's state's attorney. out with more violence," he During the 70s, he continued to said. Under Farrell Pastore rise in the department. By 1981 says, police brutality just he was director of operations, antagonized the New Haven but Pastore left in 1981, shortly community. after Biagio DiLieto was elected mayor. Pastore returned as The new chief wants to mend relations between the chief last March, intent on shaking things up. department and the community. His plan: a program called The new chief has left few traces of his predecessor, Community-Based Policing. In the Fair Haven, Newhallville, William Farrell, who headed the department through the 80s. Hill and Dixwell communities, eleven officers work with local Pastore stopped sting operations, got rid of the police dog residents to improve neighborhoods. Their activities include unit, and moved a number of desk officers back onto patrol. keeping the streets clean, referring drug users to treatment, He even called in local kids to paint over a station house and ensuring that neighborhood parks are properly lit. Pastore mural commissioned by the former chief. Pastore wanted to says this partnership not only benefits neighborhoods, but als<> clean house because he believed Farrell's police philosophy helps officers gain the confidence of the people. He hopes to didn't work. "The department was stuck in a militaristic, re-establish the credibility of the department as protector of arrest-machine mindset," Pastore said. "The idea was to get the peace. When people trust the police, Pastore says, they will
"Many young officers j"oined in the past five years because the department had this Miami Vice approach. They came here beCaUSe they Wanted tO kiCk aSS. "
12 The New Journal
November 30, 1990
Nicholas Pastore's views on drug decriminalization and community-based policing have met with skepticism from other pollee chiefs. November 30, 1990
The New Journal 13
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help local officers keep tabs on their neighborhoods. "If somebody commits a crime, people will go to the officer," .h e said. Though Pastore vaunts community-based policing as the way of the future, others feel more wary. Wallingford Chief of Police Douglas Dortenzio, a former major in the New Haven police department, warns that community policing depends on cooperation. If community members renege on their side of the agreement, the program falls apart. "Many people will say, 'I don' t want to help clean up. I pay my taxes and I want problems to be resolved,"' said Dortenzio. He also points out that the program makes fiscal and administrative demands which a city short on cash may not be able to meet. Pastore wasn't always so concerned about police sensitivity. As a young officer, he helped tap countless telephone conversations throughout the city. The police, according to Williams, were wire-tap crazy from the early 60s to 1970. "They tapped radicals, professors, judges and community organizers," he said. "They even tapped fellow police officers." The illegal tappings
were so widespread that some police officers-doubtful of their privacyused public telephones to make personal calls. In 1977, t he New H aven Board of Police Commissioners called a public hearin g aft~r t he now-defun ct New Haven Journal Courier blew the whistle on police wire-tapping. At the hearing, Pastore testified t hat he had tapped phones for then-Police Chief Jim Ahem. When Biagio DiLieto took over as police chief in 1970, Pastore testified, he and fellow officer Vinny DeRosa warned DiLieto to pull the plug on the taps. After the Commissioners hearing, Williams brought a class-action suit against the city on behalf of the wire-tap victims, which resulted in a $2 million settlement. Today, Pastore tries to put the scandal into some historical perspective. "During Vietnam and th e Nixon years, systemic par anoia ran pretty high," he said. He also maintains that he won people's respect at the hearing, if not for his judgement, then at least for his honesty. "When I was called to testi:fy, my candor manifested itself," he said. Still, Pastore's testimony against DiLieto left him on shaky ground at the station house. Shortly after DiLieto was November 30, 1990
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elected mayor in 1981, Pastore left the department. Leaving the police behind, Pastore went into business for himself. For nine years, he ran an ice cream store and dabbled in real estate. But when Mayor John Daniels offered to make him chief, Pastore decided to return to police work. The new mayor wanted a chief familiar with the department but not associated with the DiLieto administration. Pastore fit the bill. Still, his appointment was not a popular one among African Americans and Latinos. "Many members of the black community wanted a black police chief," saia
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"The chief has been responsive to the needs of the black community. Still, there is a feeling that a black person should be police chief." Haywood Hooks, head of the New Haven chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Pastore says he understood their anger. "If the system had shit on my people for 400 years, I too would have wanted my mayor to make one of my people police chief," he said. "They were angry and they were right." To lessen indignation among people of color, Pastore spoke to a variety of school, church and government leaders. "I had to sell myself," he said. '1 had to convince them that I would work to improve the lives of people of color in November 30, 1990
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Jennifer Pitts/The New Journal
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gang leaders during his late-walks. "I need to know nocturnal Haven as well as I know the high population," he said. Using information collected both at night and during the day, Pastore hopes penetrate the major drug suppliers in Haven-the La Cosa Nostra crime 'rg;ilniLzoGuon and a number of drugstreet gangs. "We want to make pificant arrests," he said. While Pastore thinks small-time are bogus, he's not content to let go along their merry ways. The favors what he calls disruption. strategy uses a highly-visible police Pft!!SeJilce to make buyers feel nervous. a drug deal takes more than a minute, the buyer never returns," Pastore said. "I want to bring police officers between the consumer and suppli, The police, Pastore explains, know HV.neJ~ dealers operate. To disrupt business, they only need officers in those places. Pastore's approach to the war on drugs differs from the strategy of most IU~"~;>U<:e chiefs around the country. "I'm a strong proponent of decriminalization," Pastore said. "Drug trafficking has November 30, 1990
already been de facto decriminaliZed. The courts artd jails are overwhelmed." Pastore prefers medical rather than punitive solutions to the dru8 problem; he wants to use police officers to get drug abusers into treatiMnt rather than jail cells. Other police chiefs in Conaecticut are not convinced. They atpe that to stop drugs, officers have to get tough with drug dealers. DanbUry Chief Nelson Macedo thJnb dealers should be put to death. He argues that Mao Zedong smothered nan:olk ue in China by killing all of the dflllen. OIMr ~ chiefs question whether treatment will be effective. Chief Dennis An.lano of Madison argues that people only get treatment because courts force them and that they start doing druss apia\ wheJil treatment ends. Wallinglord Chief Dortenzio worries that decriminalization would send the wrong message. ~ questions the logic of trying to educate kids about the dangers of drugs while making drug laws more lenient. "Education is a much better response than decriminalization," he said. For Pastore, drug ~ucation and decriminalization are part of the same
effort to shrink the demand for drugs. Whether getting addicts into treatment or warning kids about the dangers of crack, the police, Pastore says, must find aew ways to fight the war on drugs. Well-informed officers are crucial to Pastore's approach. "Our officers need to know more than how to spell the word 'drugs,"" he seid. "They must bow where the drugs are, what kind of beluwior they induce, why people do
ttaem.â&#x20AC;˘
By Pastore's admission, changing the New Haven police is a big task. The obstacles that confront him seem daunting: New Haven has no money, New England is economically depressed, and 1990 will go down as the most crimeridden year in American history. Still, the chief asserts that his tenure of office has only just begun. "I've been gestating for the past nine months. Now I'm ready to be born." li1J
Josh Plaut, a senior in Timothy Dwight College, is MllTUJging Editor of TNJ. The New Journal 17
Jennifer Pitts/The New Journal
l
Saying No to Hate Jennifer Pitts
On October 30, vandals spray painted swastikas and Nazi slogans on the walls of Congregation Kol Havarim, a synagogue in Glastonbury. Halfway across Connecticut, members of Congregation Sinai in West Haven finally have reopened their synagogue after a fire destroyed the building two years ago. Police suspect that arsonists started the fire, which caused $750,000 in damage and destroyed classrooms, offices and a chapel, as well as irreplaceable books and records. "It was a very demoralizing experience," said Theodore Shapiro, president of the congregation. "Arson of your house would be bad. But it hurts even more when it is done against a synagogue, which is considered everybody's haven. We went through a period of shock." Although the police never found any suspects, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B' rith, a Jewish civil rights organization, suggests that religious hatred might have motivated the arsonists. The anti-Semitic graffiti and torched synagogue are just two of a rash of recent crimes motivated by religious, racial, and other prejudicial hatred in Connecticut. In a particularly horrid incident, two Hartford high school students brutally beat and killed a gay man, Richard Reihl, in 1988. The students, who gagged their victim with duct tape and bludgeoned him to death with a log, later confessed they killed Reihl because of his sexual orientation. Not all incidents, however, are so explicitly violent, or even uncontestably criminal-as the Yale campus learned this past September, when an anonymous group left racist letters in the mailboxes of ten African-American law students. Hoping to curb pr;judice-based violence, the Connecticut legislature enacted a hate crimes law on October 1. Under the new law, if a prosecutor can prove that bias against a victim's race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation motivated a criminal act, judges can reclassify the crime and mandate a harsher sentence. Previously, the courts treated a crime such as desecration of religious property as vandalism, a misdemeanor punishable by less than a year in prison. Under the new law, bias-related vandalism will be a felony, and criminals can serve up to five years in jail. Similarly, courts will impose stiffer penalties for other hate crimes. "The law shows a sensitivity to the kind of non- physical damage that hate crimes cause," said Robert Leikind, Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League. "It tells people this is a serious crime now." State Assemblyman Miles Rapoport (0-West Hartford) maintains that the stricter punishments will deter potential
November 30, 1990
offenders. "Most hate crimes are deliberately committed-not spontaneous outbursts, like crimes of passion," he said. "With deliberate crimes people are most likely to weigh out the threat of stiffer penalty." Still, offenders can avoid the harsher penalties if local investigators do not recognize the signs of hate crimes. "The success of the law hinges on two questions," said Leikind. "One, are the local police aware of the laws? Two, how well trained are they in determining whether a crime is motivated by bias?" New Haven's police force has an edge over many local police departments because some of its officers have undergone training about hate crimes, rapes, and domestic violence. "There are no state guidelines," said Sergeant Carol Marci, head of the New Haven Police Department's Sex and Hate Crimes Task Force. "Officers learn to ask the right questions-to investigate with a more sensitive eye." Community cooperation, however, must supplement this heightened sensitivity. Law enforcement efforts are often undermined by resistance from victims. "The average citizen hates cops," said a co-founder of the New Haven AntiViolence Project (AVP), who asked to remain unnamed. "I'm hoping that this new law will increase communication with the police." After two gay men were assaulted outside the Copa Cabana, a New Haven nightclub catering to a gay clientele, local residents founded A VP to work with police and get the word out on the hate crimes law. The A VP meets with Sergeant Marci each month to maintain communication between the police and the gay community. The group also posts fliers in New Haven's gay nightclubs, urging victims to report incidents to the police. "The vast majority of gayrelated hate crimes go unreported," said Robert Bray of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "Gays are afraid to come out of the closet to the police." College students and university officials, on the other hand, have fewer reservations about reporting hate crimes to the police. One third of the crimes reported in Connecticut over the past two years occurred at colleges and universities. The New Haven area-including Yale and Southern Connecticut State University-sustained twelve hate crimes. The University of Connecticut recorded fifteen, at least twice as many as reported by any other community in the state. Law enforcement officials speculate that certain aspects of college life contribute to the higher rate of reported hate crimes. "The mixture of different types of people on a university campus is part of it. In normal society, The New Journal 19
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redraw its line between hate crimes and neighborhoods are probably much more segregated," said Don Williams of freedom of speech." Recent events at the Yale Law Connecticut Police Crimes Analysis. "But the level of awareness of hate School have also challenged the crimes is certainly higher at universities boundaries between hate crimes and free speech. On September 17, an than in normal society." Several of these incidents have anonymous group calling itself "Yale highlighted the ambiguous nature of Students for Racism" sent letters to ten hate crimes. Last year the University of African-American law students. In the Connecticut disciplined Nina Wu, a letters, written in a threatening tone, the authors used racial epithets and blamed junior there, who posted anti-gay messages on her door. She took the the black community for an assault on a case to a state court, which forced the white law student.' ' university to modify its hate crimes Law School Dean Guido Calabresi launched an investigation involving the policy in her favor. "For expression to be a hate crime, it has to be indting · Yale Police, the New Haven Police and_ violence. This writing was not," the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but Williams said. "The · had to so far none of them has turned any ~~
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The students, who gagged their victim and bludgeoned him to death, confessed they killed him because of his sexual orientation. information that has led to an arrest. Yal e President Benno Schmidt, Jr. condemned the incident: "The broadest protection for freedom of expression, in cluding offensive and anonymous expression, does not extend to threats." University policy may allow for some disciplinary action. If investigators can prove that the authors of the letters were students, the letter-writers will be expelled from the law school. Never theless, the victims have little recourse under the new Connecticut law. The hate crimes law does not apply to non-criminal acts, even if the perpetrators are motivated by bias. In the state legislature, the issu e was not what to protect but rather who should be protected under a hate crimes law. "The hate crimes law brought out serious bigotry in the legislature, in the same people w ho always oppose civil rights legislation," said Steve Gavron of the Connecticut Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights. Last spring, some lawmakers supported an amendment to the hate crimes bill excluding sexual o r ientation as a protected category. "Sexual orientation is not a status, it's a n activity. Someon e chooses to be homosexual. Being. born black i s a comp letely different thing," said State Assem blyman William Wollenburg (RFar min gton), who drafted t he November 30, 1990
amendment. "I don't thlnk we should be making special laws for special groups lik e that, when state laws already cover the crimes we're talking about." Wollenburg feared that o nce gay rights groups won protection from hate crimes, they would use this victory as a springboard to other civil righ ts, such as protection from job and housing discrimination. "Such a law would put an excessive burden on employers and landlords," he said. "This law is just the tip of the iceberg." The !lmendment was defeated last spr ing, and the legislature passed the hate crimes law with the sexual orientation clause intact. Connecticut Gov~rnor William O'Neill came close to vetoing the bill because he opposed this · clause. For tunately for supporters of the bill, the h ate crimes law gained strong enough support in the legislature to override whatever veto plans O'Neill considered. This wide support for a hate cr imes law, however, is the except ion rather than the rule. Only nine states currently have hate crimes laws th at include sexual orientation, a n d 29 have none at all. Despite aggr essive campaigns, legislators in other states-New York is a notable example-have been unable to pass hate cri mes bills. Most civil rights grou ps believe federal lawmakers will not legislate against bias-related crimes any time soon. As civil rights groups praise Connecticut's new legislation, the courts await a test case. The anti-Semitic graffiti incident in Glastonbury could be th at case. But even if the police do apprehend the vandals, B'nai B'rith's Leikend points out that state courts will have to hand down a stiff sentence on this and other hate crimes before the new law will deter future perpetrators.
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Jennifer Pitts, a junior in Calhoun College, is Photography Editor of TNJ.
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Hidden Obsessions Janina Palmisano By November of her first year at Yale, Janet had lost control. ''I purged after every meal," Janet, now a senior, recalls. "Breakfast I'd throw up. Lunch I'd throw up. Dinner I'd throw up. Afterwards, I'd think, 'Great, I got rid of that bloated feeling,' and then I'd be able to re-focus and do work, be productive. But a few hours later, I'd do it all over again."
Janet is not alone. Each day, dozens of Yale students, suffering from an eating disorder knoum as bulimia, overeat and force themselves to vomit. Others, suffering from anorexia, rt!fuse to eat and exercise compulsively. Dr. Jane Rasmussen, Chief of Undergraduate Medicine at l!nive.r s.i ty Health Services (UHS), estimates that between 15 and 25 percent of all students at Yale have problems with eating, exer_cise and body image. While some students arrive at Yale with a history of eating problems, others find that the sudden freedom and new responsibilities of the college environment push them into the cycle of an eating disorder. Here, three women tell their stories. "At home, my mother, who is very weight-conscious and so tiny-about 110 pounds-would always watch exactly what we ate at meals," Janet says. "My brother would just ignore her and eat what he wanted, and he was fine. But I would remember what she said~ and feel like she was trying to deprive me of something that I should be able to have. Even when she wasn't there, I'd feel guilty that I wasn't good like her. When I came to Yale, and she wasn't watching me closely anymore, I just kept eating and eating. I knew that I was being bad, and that I would gain weight unless I got it under control, and that's when I started throwing up. I remember hearing about bulimia in high school, and thinking 'How could anyone do anything so gross?' But when I got here, I started to think 'What a cool idea, what a great way to eat all you want, and not gain weight.' ''There was always so much in the dining hall, so much to eat," Janet says. "I didn't even enjoy or want most of it. Compared to food at home, it was so greasy and fatty. I'd be starving and would put two bites of food into my mouth and feel full, but I'd keep eating and eating and after about thirty minutes I'd say to myself, 'Why are you doing this? You were full half an hour ago.' But I still couldn't stop. I never did. I'd eat until I was sick, and then I'd have to throw up to feel better. ''When I met my boyfriend, I knew inside that he would be my means of getting help. I knew he would understand, and so I didn't try to hide my throwing up from him. And he would get so upset, but not like my brother did; my brother would see me throwing up at home and would say, 'You are
22 The New Journal
November 30, 1990
..
so gross' and would leave me alone. But my boyfriend would look like he was about to cry. He was really sad. With him, it was different than with my friends. They'd say, 'Oh, that's really bad, don't do it.' But with my boyfriend, I could see that I was really affecting him, that I was hurting him. It was deeper. Even though I still am fat, I want to stop. "You don't see me without clothes," says Janet, leaning her thin arms on the table. "I'm disgusting. My stomach is just huge, and my arms are getting bigger. The other morning, I woke up and saw how big my legs were, and it made me sick. I tell my boyfriend all the time, 'Look at this stomach! Doesn't this make you sick?' He tells me that I'm nice and soft. But I don't want to be nice and soft; I want to be tough and mean and muscular."
.....
Like Janet, Andrea felt overwhelmed by food. At every meal in the dining hall, she obsessively watched her peers' eating habits, comparing her eating behavior with theirs. What no one saw, however, was what happened to Andrea at night, when she was alone. After her roommates set off for the libraries, Andrea would mull over what she did not allow herself to eat during the day's meals. As she grew angrier and angrier over how she had deprived herself, anxiety would build and soon Andrea found herself gorging on junk food. By the end of her sophomore year, Andrea would binge up to three times a day. She managed to attend most classes, but completed little, if any, reading; she was passing through Yale on a bare minimum of work. She devoted most of her energy to hiding her binges from her roommates. '1 was always very careful with w hat I ate in my dining hall," Andrea, a junior and recovering bulimic, says. "I felt that people were watd\ing what I put on my tray as carefully as I watched what they put on theirs. My roommates last year were always amazed at how I could remember exactly what they had had for lunch or dinner the day before, right down to what they left on their plates. They thought it was very funny and cute, my schtik. They had no idea that they were setting boundaries for me. In the dining hall, I'd never take or eat more than the person I was eating with. They were my control, like in an experiment." She shakes her head and smiles. "When my roommate would go and get some ice cream or pie, I'd think, 'Now I can have some, too. And if anyone calls me a pig for eating it, I can just say that she's eating it, too, so leave me alone!' "When I'd binge, I was always in a complete panic. I'd worry about how horrible I'd look that summer in a bathing SUit. I'd think about how my mother would say that I'd gained
November 30, 1990
The New Journal 23
weight. I'd panic that I would bump into someone I knew while carrying a pizza or bags of cookies. 'What will I say if I see someone?' I'd think, and make up these ridiculous lies about a friend in another college who was sick an d had missed dinner, or say that I was having people over. I'd spend so much energy plotting these lies, just like in the dining hall, where I'd be ready .to point the finger at my room mate if anyone were to question the ice cream on my tray. "I thought that everything was just fine, and that no one had any idea," Andrea says, looking away. "But one of my roommates had been clued in for a while, and she watched me. She became suspicious that something was strange after sh e noticed that I was never in the room at night, even when I claimed to be and was actually out on a binge, and that I always disappeared after meals. She purposely came home early one night and heard me throwing up in the shower. When she approached me I tried to be laid back about it, and lied that I'd felt sick all day. But the next night she caught me throwing up again, and this time there were bags and wrappers all over the room, so I didn't even bother denying it. She looked at me like I was some kind of a monster, and I remember thinking, 'Oh, just give me a break. What are you looking at?' "But when I stood up and went to the sink to rinse my mouth, I saw myself in the mirror and was shocked. My eyes were bloodshot and swollen and tearing, my whole face was red, there was mucus falling from my mouth and my hand. All I could think was that I looked like someone had been beating me. I looked like one of those women from the domestic violence commercials. And when I got back to our room, my roommate was already on the phone with my mother."
their eating habits, Melissa maintained too much control. She could go for days eating next to nothing and exercised to the point of exhaustion. Her weight plummeted dangerously low, and still she wouldn't eat. Not until she could barely function did Melissa realize she might have an eating disorder. In the spring of her first year at Yale, Melissa sought professional help.
"I was literally never in the dining halls. I would find any excuse possible not to be there," Melissa remembers. "Lunch with a professor, working late, not feeling well. I'd say anything to my roommates, and then spend the time running or doing -aerobics. I wouldn't even get close to the dining hall if I ¡ could help it. I could live on almost nothing. An apple, a salad, that's all I would let myself eat for days. I
remember standing up and feeling so light-headed and weak, and thinking, 'Good, I'm losing weight. This is really working.' That was when I was about 90 pounds, and I'm 5'7". "No matter how tired or shaky I felt physically, with every missed meal and every mile run, I would almost get a high. I thought I was so much better th an every person walking into that dining hall. Everyone else was so undisciplined, in my opinion, and I was strong. "When I hit 90 pounds, though, I could barely funotion. Even walking was extremely difficult. That's w hen I acknowleged that all of this was not as much fun or as innocent as when I was lit tle and would purposely d r ive my mother crazy by ¡refusing to eat. This had definitely gotten beyond that. And
......
While Janet and Andrea could not restrain
24 The New Journal
Any spread set out by the Yale University Dining Halls becomes a nightmare for the victims of eating disorders. November 30, 1990
EVERYSATURDAY ANDSUNDAY
after alm9st two years of therapy, I'm still not completely okay."
....... Many anorexics and bulimics enroll in therapy programs or begin seeing private psychiatrists, although doctors stress that psychiatry is not the only prescription for health. "There are a million different ways to achieve salvation, and psychiatrists are not necessarily the only way," says UHS's Dr. Rasmussen. The problem, however, extends beyond the mental and emotional realm. Getting help for a student with an eating disorder can become a matter of life and death. Between five and fifteen percent of all anorexics die as a result of the disorder, and bulimics suffer from complications such as ruptured stomachs. At Yale, UHS can help only when a victim asks for it. "The bottom line is that if someone wants our help, they have to get here first," says Dr. Rasmussen. "There are some individuals out there that none of us are helping, because they don't get here. They either have to be willing to be helped or be in bad enough shape for me to declare them incompetent to care for themselves, and place them in a hospital." For the thousands of people suffering from eating disorders nationwide, the first step toward recovery is identifying the problem. "My weight goes between 110 and 111 pounds," Janet says, though she does not look more than 100 pounds. She now weighs the same as her mother, whose extreme thinness she envies. Janet cups her face in her hands and slowly shakes her head. "It doesn't matter what the scale says," s he whispers. 1S11
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Afterthought/TOny Reese
Changsha Christmas
26 The New Journal
November 30, 1990
Christmas comes much too close for comfort to the end of the Yale term. For four years, papers and exams made me resent Christmas for interfering with my academic life, and I resented Yale for making me resent Christmas. It would have taken a visit from Scrooge's ghosts to keep the reality of Christinas Present from turning me into a Grinch. I enjoyed my first post-Yale Christmas, teaching in China for the Yale-China Association, little more than the previous four. I had enough time to celebrate but no one to celebrate with. As the only American at my school, I found myself culturally alone in a land of a billion people. I threw a Christmas party for my students, but the culture shock of my first four months had kept us from getting to know each other well e n ough to celebrate with much enthusiasm. By the next year, I coul d have hoped for a more pleasant Christmas.
November 30, 1990
Having already spent one holiday in China, I knew what to expect. And
I did not spend the last hour of class on December 23 talking about restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, but rather read aloud A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
having transferred to another school, I worked with other Yale-China teachers and felt more at home. In fact, we had recently celebrated Thanksgiving quite successfully, which boded well for a festive Christmas. The dinner, though two days late since Thanksgiving is not a Chinese school holiday, had been as authentic as we could manage. Chicken and duck substituted for unavailable turkey, but we had everything else: dressing, yarns with marshmallows, mashed potatoes, wild rice, noodles, homemade rolls, and two pumpkin pies, one courtesy of ingenuity and a fresh local pumpkin and the other thanks to a mother's willingness to spend $25 to airmail $1.50 worth of canned pumpkin and condensed milk to China. Still, the approach of Christmas worried me. Not only had I celebrated 21 of the previous 22 holidays with parents and grandparents, but also The New Journal 27
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In China, ~~Jingle Bells" is as likely to play over the public address system in an unbearably hot train car in mid-July as in a department store in December. since high school, and who, every few weeks, cooked us the best Chinese food we'd ever eaten. The absence of the h oliday commercialism we had all railed against in the U.S aggravated our damp ened enthusiasm. Without it, getting into the holiday spirit was even harder than it had been at Yale. No TV specials. No reminders of how few shopping days were left. It couldn't really be the 28 The New Journal
season to be jolly. But our calendars read "December," and we teacherambassadors of American culture felt obligated to display at least some Christmas cheer and trimmings for our students' sake. This was, after all, the
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first chance for most of them to see how Americans celebrated this holiday they had heard so much about, the closest thing we seemed to have to their Lunar New Year. So we hung some leftover decorations-a printed wreath, an advent calendar, last year's Ch ristmas cards, and so on-in our office. We found a n ursery, bought a fir tree, and took it hom e-by bike, of course. We h ad n o ornaments and put little creativity into improvising, but the tree still made the holiday seem more real. And it certainly intrigued our students. None of us realized at first just how intrigued they were. I had spent a lot of time that term with a class of 25 doctors and research scientists w h o were improving their English before going abroad to study with the World Health Organization. Friendly and eager to learn, they worked well together, and I enjoyed being with them. And they, it turned out, enjoyed the idea of Christmas. Most of them, aged 25 to 45, wer e spending the semester away from their families and homes just as we were. Perhaps they were lonely and bored, maybe just curious. Perhaps they realized that as November 30, 1990
English students they had an converged again when we went Americans was wandering around unimpeachably legitimate excuse to _ caroling on Christmas Eve. The accents campus in the cold of night singing offhave a ball celebrating a Western were certainly different than when I key in a foreign tongue. But many holiday-an otherwise politically went caroling in sixth grade, and most appreciated it. A chemistry teacher questionable act. Whatever the reason, of the singers had some trouble who had often helped the Yale-China they were determined to celebrate their remembering the words (especially teachers stood with her ailing husband first Noel in style. beyond the fifth day of Christmas), but at their fourth floor window smiling Foregoing the expense of a tree, the songs were the same, as was the and listening. For the undergraduates, they gathered construction paper, whole idea of sharing the holiday with we broke the monotony of another aluminum foil, streamers, and cotton our neighbors. evening studying in cold, unheated balls, and decorated an entire classroom Our neighbors, of course, had no lecture halls. The library wasn't open in wall with a Christmas scene, complete idea why this odd group of Chinese and the evening, and their dorm rooms with snowman and tree. They insisted could not comfortably hold all eight on learning Christmas 5ongs, so the best residents studying at the same time_ singer among us repeated many rounds f:' They packed the balconies at the front of "Deck the Halls" and other favorites. ~ of the main classroom building to watch As the day approached, the ~and some even deduced that our students' enthusiasm grew like that of ~ performance had something to do with children, even without the promise of 8 Christinas_ Santa Claus or presents. Some planned On December 25 the incongruity of to attend services at one of Changsha's Christmas in China hit with full force_ two Christian churches, but I declined Although we officially had the day off, I the invitation to accompany them. A taught four hours of make-up classes so Yale-China teacher who had gone the my students could take New Year's Day year before found so many curious off. (To the university's administrators, observers that the Chinese Christians 'holiday' meant moving work hours to could barely even hear the ceremonyanother time, not canceling them Never having been to a church in the entirely.) Riding across campus to class, U.S. on Christmas, I wouldn't have felt I was struck as I had been a year before right joining the curious in China, by the utterly disconcerting fact that though I was indeed curious to see how this was, for everyone around me, a the few Chinese who celebrated the perfectly ordinary day. The absence of holiday did so. the Christmas morning hush that quiets Instead, I joined my students in entire streets, entire neighborhoods and well-remembered American holiday entire cities made the noise of everyone rituals transformed by Chinese culture_ going about their daily routines seem much louder than usual_ I did not spend the last hour of class on December 23 standing at the board We teachers did spend time with talking about restrictive and nonour own ghosts that day, but we also restrictive clauses, but rather sat celebrated together. Having turned down Dr. Liu's dinner invitation, we perched on the front of my desk reading made spaghetti with pesto_ Not exactly A Charlie Brown Christmas and The a traditional Christmas meal, but distant Grinch Who Stole Christmas aloud to a enough from our daily Chinese fare to roomful of doctors. Ordinarily too seem celebratory. afraid of losing face to show any We celebrated with our students, interest in a children's book, they too. My students had a party, and I crowded around eager to understand spent the evening trying to learn to twothe English and, even more importantly, step under the tutelage of a patient to see the pictures. By the end of The young pharmacologist from Kunming_ Grinch, it was beginning to feel a little I had no more success learning the steps like Christmas. than my students on the sidelines had The familiar and the bizarre November 30, 1990
The New Journal 29
.91. support group is forming for women wfto are survivors ofsekJ,laf assault and/ or a6use. Yl.notfier group wi[[ 6e forming f or significant otfiers ofsurvivors.
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432-2427 • 9 p .m. to 12 a.m. • 7 days a week_ concealing their l aughter a t my awkwardness on the dance floor. Eventually the part y, and our Christmas, ended. But at least it had happened. Being in China hadn't kept Christmas from coming. It came. Somehow or other, it came just the same. I may neve; ,celebrate an odder Christmas, and I cannot recall whether. or not I enjoyed it a t the time. (I know I have repressed the darker side: cold, grime, depression, no hot water) But 1 expect that this year, when I look at my
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I spent the evening. trying to learn to twostep under the tutelage of a pharmacologist from Kunming.
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tree decorated with Chinese baubles and trinkets, the onl y ghosts of Ch ristmas Past whom I expect will come to call are my students, thrilled at celebrating their first Christmas, and my colleagues and I, unexpected ly getting caught up in their excitement. And I hope that at some poin t on December 25 at least a few doctors in Changsha and Chengdu and Wuhan realize that it's Christmas again. Tony Reese (BR '86) was Managing Editor and Publisher of TN] before teaching in China from 1986 to 1988. He now works for The Yale-China Association in New Haven . November 30, 1990
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