HUMPHREY PINCH-HITS FOR JOHNSON ON "RIOT PANEL" REPORT
The current scandal in Washington is the reception given by Johnson to the report of his "National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders" which was made public February 29. The commission, appointed by Johnson himself last July 27, was an agglomeration of very respectable figures. The White House obviously counted on it for favorable comment on what the administration is doing to ease the ghetto crisis in the United States.
The commission brought in a report of some 700 pages. Actually it presented no facts that were not already quite well known and proposed no new remedies that had not already been urged on the government. But the report created a sensation because of its admission that the guilt for the disorders that have repeatedly broken out in the black ghettos lies squarely with "white racisn."
In a summary of its report, the commission said: "Segregation and poverty
have created in the racial ghetto a de-
structive environment totally unknown to
most white Americans. What white Ameri-
cans have never fully understood -- but
what the Negro can never forget -- is
that the white society is deeply impli-
cated in the ghetto. White institutions
created it, white institutions maintain
it, and white society condones it."
The commission said quite frankly,
"This is our basic conclusion: Our nation
is moving toward two societies, one black,
one white -- separate and unequal."
The police were accused of precipi-
tating "riots." "'Prior' incidents, which
increased tensions and ultimately led to
violence, were police actions in almost
half the cases; police actions were 'fi-
nal' incidents before the outbreak of
violence in 12 of the 24 surveyed dis-
orders."
The commission also warned about
the current policies of the authorities in this respect: "The commission believes there is a grave danger that some communities may resort to the indiscriminate and excessive use of force. The harmful effects of overreaction are incalculable. The commission condemns moves to equip police with mass destruction weapons, such as automatic rifles, machine guns and tanks. Weapons which are designed to destroy, not to control, have no place in densely populated urban communities."
Assessing the choices, the commission could see only disaster in the present course. "To continue present policies is to make permanent the division of our country into two societies; one, largely Negro and poor, located in the central cities; the other, predominantly white and affluent, located in the suburbs and in outlying areas."
The commission's recommendations included a big program of welfare, housing, education, and jobs, the cost of which would run into billions of dollars.
Johnson appears to have been enraged at the report. The thing was absolutely useless as a source of material for his reelection campaign. In fact it was positively damaging. And where is money to be found for the commission's recommendations when the bottom of the barrel is being scraped for the $30 to $40 billion a year going into the war in Vietnam?
The entire White House staff was visibly embarrassed. As Max Frankel of The New York Times reported from Washington March 5: "No day passes at the White House without someone asking for President Johnson's reaction to the grave warnings and far-reaching recommendations of his National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. But Mr. Johnson sits silent and his official spokesmen keep weaving, ducking and dodging."
An example of the fast footwork was provided by Vice-President