The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 13

Z7a CCwsfs FRIDAY June 17, 1983 Section a tut jf mm 'm mm Felon Fleeing llllllr Law in State Ruled Illegal iii 1 At the time of his death, Garner was on probation from a 1974 burglary conviction, and he had been convicted on another burglary charge three years before. GARNER'S PARENTS, Mr. and Mrs. Cleamtee Garner, filled a $2 million lawsuit against the city of Memphis, top-ranking police officials and the officer who shot the youth, patrolman Elton R. Hymon.

Judge Harry W. Wellford, who was then a U.S. District Court judge, dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that Hymon and the Memphis Police Department officials were acting under the authority of the Lee Tucker of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, right, testified against the proposal. Citizens many of them fishing and boating enthusiasts fill Smyrna City Hall to protest a city request that would allow more industrial waste dumping into Stewarts Creek.

Some, including Col. Decision Due Within 40 Days 250 Protest More From STAFF, WIRE REPORTS A Tennessee law allowing police shoot an unarmed, fleeing felony suspect in order to prevent escape was struck down yesterday the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Metro Police Chief Joe Casey said the decision could make the policeman's job "incredibly rough" but Walter Bailey, an attorney involved in the lawsuit, isaid it is a blow for civility. "I HAVE NOT seen the ruling so I'm not sure exactly what it says," Casey said.

"But if it restricts policemen from using their weapons except when someone has got a gun on them or on somebody else, their juu is gumg iu uecuiiie mcreuiuiy rough." Declared unconstitutional was a law permitting police to shoot anyone who ignores orders to halt while fleeing from the scene of a felony THE COURT held that the law did not differentiate between crimes in which the public "was in danger and those in which there was little or no danger, "A state statute or rule that makes no distinction based on the types of offense or the risk of danger to the community if the felon escapes is inherently suspect because it permits an unnecessarily severe and excessive police response that is out of porportion to the danger to the community," the court ruled. The present Metro police policy for the use of deadly force restricts officers from using their weapon unless they catch a suspect in the act of fleeing from a certain crime such a rape, murder of kidnapping and only after exhausting all other means of apprehending the suspect, Casey said. I CASEY SAID Metro's deadly force policy, which he considers strict, will not be altered until he can see the court's ruling. "I thought we had a good policy," Casey said. "If this ruling is as it sounds, it will make things pretty rough all the way around" because the policeman's power to stop a fleeing criminal will be great reduced.

THE APPEALS court decision came in a lawsuit filed on behalf of the parents of a teen-age Memphis boy who was shot to death by police in 1974.. Edward Eugene Garner, 15, died as he was attempting to climb a fence behind a house where a burglary had occurred. Memphis police said they found a purse stolen from the house by the youth's body. Dumping current federal guidelines removal of the fish and aquatic life designation is prohibited. Kutzman said the city could be subject to loss of some federal EPA funds granted for expansion of the water treatment plant if the treatment restrictions are removed.

Representatives from six fishermen's associations, environmental groups, Col. Lee Tucker of the UJS. Corps of Engineers and Metro Councilman Houston Hagar were among those who testified last night against the reclassification. THE CITY HAS allowed at least seven local industries to discharge heavy metals, which were passed through the city's sewage treatment plant at levels state officials say will kill or contaminate fish and wildlife. The Nissan plant here runs wastes through its own $4 million pre-treatment facility in the recently completed $660 million truck plant.

But Nelson said the sometimes run through the sewage treatment plant as many as three times. He said that although the water may meet drinking level standards, it still frequently does not meet many of the restrictions governing heavy metal discharge into the creek. SOME OF THE industrial wastes currently entering the creek and lake include lead, zinc, cadmium, cyanide, arsenic and mercury. A majority of the 34 persons who spoke to the board last night told board members their reasons for opposing the proposed reclassification. Dan Scott, of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said his agency is against liberalizing the restrictions because scientific data shows that more lenient standards could adversely affect an already delicate environmental system.

JIM KUTZMAN, water quality standards coordinator for the EPA, told -the board that under By DEBORAH DIGGONS Tenneteean State Correspondent SMYRNA, Tenn. More than 250 fishermen, boaters and environmentalists jammed into City Hall here last night to protest the city's request to increase limits for dumping industrial waste in Stewarts Creek. The public hearing was conducted by the state Water Quality Control Board to solicit comments on a proposal by Smyrna city officials to liberalize the Stewarts Creek's fish and aquatic life designation, -which strictly limits the amount of heavy metals that can be discharged into the creek. ABOUT 70 local industries presently discharge industrial waste into the the Stewarts Creek Sewage Treatment Plant. Seven of those industries discharge heavy metals that pass through the plant and eventUally empty into Percy Priest Lake via Stewarts Creek.

State officials said a decision on Smyrna's request for leniency will not be made for at least 40 days. Stan Nelson, a consulting engineer for the city, said wastes are in Creek system is not equipped to handle heavy metals, including lead from the plant's paint operation. The Nissan pre-treatment facility was built according to guide lines supplied by Smyrna engineering consultants before state criteria for Stewarts Creek were established. SMYRNA HAS been operating under a state permit based on engineering studies made when the city first sought funds for the treatment plant expansion in 1972. The city was permitted by the state to dump the treated waste into the creek pending the completion of an expansion of the existing Stewarts Creek sewage treatment plant.

Even with the expansion, which was funded in part by a grant from the federal Enivronmental Protection Agency, the city has been unable to comply with state regulations, which follow EPA guidelines. ty and staff, to educational institutions of other states and to business and industry, simply because we are falling even -lower on the competitive pay scale. "The university is facing the most dismal year since I first beccame involved in the university's fiscal affairs" in 1958," he said. But the UT system's "chronic fiscal problems" can be alleviated by the passage of the Better Schools program, which calls for doubling the university's state appropriation over a five-year period, Boling said. "WE SHOULD do all we can to help bring to fruition the most progressive program in education in this state's recent history," he said.

The trustees unanimously approved a resolution endorsing the program, most of which was deferred by the legislature this year. Although the new budget contains virtually no increases over last year's budget, student tuition and fees will not be" raised for the 1983-84 school year, Norman said. 1 law. Wellford, who is now a member of the 6th Circuit Court, ruled in 1981 that the city was immune from suit because of the state law. YESTERDAY'S decision sent the lawsuit back to the district court for trial with the city as defendant Memphis City Attorney Clifford Pierce declined to comment on the ruling because he had not seen the court's decision, but he said the Memphis Pplice Department, in 1974 as well as now, operates under a firearms policy that is more restrictive than the state law.

The policy permits officers to use deadly force only after exhausting all other "reasonable" means to apprehend individuals suspected of participating in a "dangerous" felony. BAILEY SAID the city's restrictions are still too lenient. "They still would allow for an unarmed juvenile to be killed," Bailey said. Ray Maples, president of the Memphis police union, said police and private citizens alike should be upset by the ruling. He said the court's ruling leaves police, without valid guidelines on use of their weapons.

MAPLES SAID he was advising his members "not to shoot anybody right now unless it is in self-defense." He said the public will suffer because of the ruling. "The ones that will be hurt the most are the citizens of this state," Maples said. "It will lead to criminals just getting away." State Sen. Avon N. Williams, D-Nashville, who has tried repeatedly to modify the state law, said he would try again next year.

"I hope that the legislature will now see fit to give more attention to the bill which we introduced seeking to set constitutional safeguards for deadly force," Williams said. employees and our employees need to have direct communication with us without a third party. The plant will not be organized. Our employees do not want to be organized." UNITED AUTO Workers president Owen Bieber vowed in a statement that a union will be established at the plant "Mr. Runyon's attitudes toward unions are not imported they are uniquely American," Bieber said.

"The Nissan workers will eventually be organized. But the resolve for collective action will come, not from the UAW, but from Mr. Runyon and his anti-labor friends." Bieber took exception to an earlier statement from Runyon that conditions for workers at Smyrna "absolutely cannot be improved on" and therefore a union is not needed at the plant "IN GOOD TIME, we are confident that Nissan workers will, discover the basic truth that workers everywhere eventually discover: that there is a major difference between benefits which are given and benefits which are enjoyed as a matter of right; further, there is no substitute for the dignity and democracy on the job that only a union can assure," Bieber said. (Turn to Page 2, Column 1) Boling Sees Dismal Money Year at UT Cheers Greet First Smyrna-Built Truck i By CATHERINE HANCOCK The University of Tennessee's Board of Trustees approved a $381.8 million budget yesterday as President Edward J. Boling warned the school faces its most dismal year in more than two decades.

The budget contains no increases for professional personnel and an average raise of only 3 for clerical and support workers. "IT IS A continuation budget," Doug Norman, director of UT's information services, said after yesterday's annual trustees meeting. Before the approval of the budget, Boling said UT's immediate future looks bleak but that "brighter days" lie ahead if Gov. Lamar Alexander's Better Schools program, and its accompanying increases in higher education funding, is passed. "The 1983 legislative session, in which no funds were allocated for salary increases and only a continuation budget was approved, has left UT to operate under a growing disadvantage," Boling said.

"WE FACE the possibility of losing key personnel, both facul By DAVID JARRARD As Nissan's first vehicle fully assembled in America rolled off the Smyrna production line yesterday, company officials continued their debate with union leaders who have vowed to organize the plant. Amid cheers and applause of 1,400 employees, Job 1, a standard white pickup truck completed at 11:20 a.m., was driven off the line by Nissan USA president Marvin Runyon. Runyon sent the truck through a giant blue banner that noted the occasion before stopping, jumping out and giv-. ing the workers the thumbs-up sign. "TODAY PROVES that Americans, when given the resources and freedom, can compete in the international marketplace of today," he said.

Job 1, the first truck to come off the assembly line, will be placed in the Tennessee State Museum here after the plant's October gr and opening. At a news conference yesterday, Runyon repeated his opposition to unionization at the giant manufacturing plant "Our one single objective is to produce the best pickup truck in North America," he said. "To do this, we need to have direct communication with our 1 Staff photo by Dan Loftin Nissan USA president Marvin Runyon gives the thumbs-up sign to the cheers and applauso of Nissan employees after driving Job 1, Nissan's first light pickup truck fuliy assembled in America, off the Smyrna production line. A 1.