ustxtxb_obs_1966_04_29_50_00007-00000_000.pdf

certainly expect to make an aggressive attorney general in this regard.” Reminded that the current attorney general, Waggoner Carr, has filed only one anti-trust action in four years of office, Martin de dined to comment on Carr’s performance. As far as crime is concerned, Martin said, as had Spears, that the state must improve training for lawmen, but he believes that the regional schools Spears has suggested are unnecessary. “The state has conducted training schools through A&M. The officers who received the training were enthusiastic about the results. I’m suggesting that I would help further this along, but most programs along that line are dependent on the wishes of the legislature.” Martin is quick to point out that Spears voted \(as Calhoun did not and Martin of criminal procedure, which many, including Spears, have said to be troublesome to lawmen and prosecutors and, in some sections, unnecessarily vague. “I certainly would specify the parts of the code I find objectionable, and would hope the legislature would make quite a few corrections,” Martin said. To date, he has not specified publicly what corrections he would seek. As part of his work with the legislature, Martin said, he would seek to extend help from the attorney general’s office to suburban communities that cannot receive it because their governments are under homerule charters and separate from county services. “This is where the problems are, mostly in the fast-growing suburbs,” he said. Arid Martin has promised to continue the Attorney General’s Youth Conference on Crime, perhaps, he said, linking it with similar efforts by independent groups, such as the YMCA. THE OBSERVER encountered Spears in an Austin motel room one dawn last week. The senator, who had got three hours of sleep the night before, lay abed in a pair of shorts, dismayed by the governor’s success in cutting off his campaign money. “Crime is it,” Spears said, parrying a question about anti-trust prosecution; last December, a polling company had discovered that crime was a matter that some 70% of the electorate consider important, and Spears has campaigned on the theme relentlessly. “The attorney general very definitely has a valid and logical role in crime prevention,” he explained. “First, there’s the formation of these regional police training . schools. The reason I’ve harped so strongly on the need for better training is that three-fourths of the police forces in the state have a need for formal training. The poorly trained law enforcement officer is the one most apt to violate a person’s rights, or to muff the case for the prosecution.” Spears’ contention about undertrained police is affirmed by a report completed by a special commission, which included Carr, created by the last legislature but left without funds; that report is being withheld from the public as “confidential” so as not to embarrass the cities and counties it names. The A&M courses, Spears said, are good courses, but need to be extended, and he suggested three ways: expansion geographically and numerically of the A&M schools; regional schools operated by counties and junior colleges together; schools to be prescribed by the new law enforcement officers standards commission, whose report was mentioned in the paragraph above. As for the youth conferences on crime, in which Carr has addressed student leaders, Spears said he would retain the program, but alter it. “They should be increased and expanded with greater emphasis on the youth who really need the activity,” he said. “So many of those who participate now are already good citizens. The program does not really reach the disadvantaged youthyouth on the verge of going foul of the law. It’s very possible that some tie-in could be made with the Job Corps or the 0E0 on a cooperative basis so we can cut down on the causes of crime, which are sociological and economic in nature, instead of simply articulating the needs for good citizenship and law and ordera program developed to get to the Spears on Connally: `1 simply never did expect him to be so vehemently opposed to me.’ cause of crime among young people.” Explaining his vote last legislative ession for the new code of criminal procedure, Spears said, “I think it’s about 95% good. There are some points in it we ought to revise.” He enumerated them: “There’s the number of times a man is required to be warned of his rights. This is three times, under one very logical interpretation, which means that the law enforcement officer can’t even question anybody. The code goes even farther than the Supreme Court of the United States has gone in this area. “Second, is the restriction of the code on what information can be given to the press. It’s not clear, and we should either spell it out or remove the section completely. “Next is the amount of time which a convicted person must serve before he is eligible for parole. This was reduced in the code from one-third to one-quarter of his term. This change really means that more basic changes in the entire system of penal rehabilitation are required. We might really consider an indeterminate sentence.” Spears said that he was not on the jurisprudence committee, which handled the new code first, nor the conference committee in which it was altered substantially. He said he voted for it as a basis for needed change, but with no clear idea of the revisions written in. “They moved that thing out of conference and right to a vote. We had no idea of what was in itthat is, no way to adequately cover it. It’s the old evil of that committee system.” Spears added that he felt he could work well with the legislature on the code and other matters and that “to imply otherwise would be an insult to the intelligence of the legislature.” The Observer noted Spears’ “business-asusual” remark about Martin and asked what Spears planned. He said, “The innovation I plan is in the aggressiveness with which the attorney general will be an advocate for improvement and progress in the attitude as well as the performance of the state in effecting better and fairer law enforcement.” Spears said he considers the major question in the race to be the attorney general’s independence of the governor or of anyone else, and he denied the Martin talk that he is a labor lackey, bent on higher office. When the Observer asked Martin if he intended never to seek higher office, he replied, “I wouldn’t shut the door.” Spears said, “I think it would be inappropriate as well as premature for ‘me to speculate on any possibilities other than the 1966 race for attorney general. A prerequisite of any such future plans has always been the successful and competent handling of the present job. “IN THE PAST MONTHS, Crawford has hitched his wagon to John Connally’s star. This rankles people. People say, ‘I like the governor, but he has gone too far in attempting to enforce his selection of candidates on the people.’ “Now, there’s been some criticism of me in my pointing out that I support a large part of the governor’s program, with people saying that I expected him to support me. I never did. I’ve always known I was too much of a national Democrat to have his supportparticularly -in my strong support of Ralph Yarborough. “The statements were always prompted by the fact that I simply never did expect him to be so vehemently opposed to me. I never did understand, and still don’t, why he thinks he’s just got to beat me. This indicates a facet of his personality that heretofore hasn’t been known by the people of Texas.” As to labor takeover of state government, Spears said, “This is so ridiculous and so false that it really doesn’t deserve comment. It’s meant for the public consumption of those who, through ignorance, would be susceptible to this kind of spurio4s and fallacious argument. It’s used to engender hatred. I can’t help but believe that the day when this can be used successfully is gone. I didn’t think it could be used as a gimmick on people today.” And as for the COPE meeting Martin never made, Spears said, “He stayed out because he has yetout of five or six more opportunities and two or three acceptances to appear on the same platform with me. I thought it [his statement defending Johnson against labor] had the hollowest April 29, 1966 7