with a young civilian companion for criminal attack slaying of a 60yr-old grandmother. Another patrolman, Anthony Giordano, apprehended on complaint of 19-yr-old who said Giordano molested him sexually in subway station. Cop Francis McEntree arraigned on felonious assault and morals charges for having "engaged in an indecent act" with an unemployed male stenographer in latter's apartment, then pulled his gun and threatened arrest, "unless you make it worth my while." The police arrested the victim also-naturally. Three other cops charged with suspicion of robbery. Three Brooklyn morals cops charged with illegal wiretapping, falsifying police records and attempted shakedown of gamblers for protection money. Kings County grand jury recommended abolition of morals squad. . . . Cops scored on one count, raiding two top musclemen photo studios in Greenwich Village, seizing (illegally) a mailing list of over 100,000 names, along with thousands of photos of nude men and 7 persons connected with the operations. I wonder if the muscle boys will, as usual, fail to even try to stand up for their rights?
Sideswiping Calif's obscenity statute as "too broad to be enforceable," Oregon Circuit Judge Alfred Goodwin unconstitutionalized Oregon's obscenity law (in Oregon vs. Jackson). Such a statute, to be enforceable, must be limited to denunciation of specific acts as defined in the statute or described by words commonly understood to have uniform meaning, and which, so understood, would not violate a protected right. Court recommended state adoption of relevant section of American Law Institute's Model Penal Code, Draft 6.
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Grove Press, a nemesis of censors, now publishing first complete, authorized,unexpurgated American edition of Lady Chatterly's Lover, which they say, due to local pressures, will not be available for sale in L.A. Local booksellers, still gunshy after Memoirs of Hecate County, even the All-Star Book Center here recently won case after sheriff's vicecops raided them for selling a nudist calendar-with one full-front male nude-such as U. S. Supreme Court had cleared in Sunshine Book Co. vs. Summerfield. Municipal Court Judge Alexander ruled in People vs. Spencer, that full male or female nudes were not obscene per se, that the showing of sexual organs or pubic hair did not make them obscene, unless other elements in the pictures clearly qualified them as obscene. Anyway, Grove's decision not to place L. A. dealers in jeopardy is commendable, but I feel it is an infringement of the citizen's right to read, which ultimately is more important, tho less protected, than the right to publish.
Reversing Police Censor Board (6 women appointed for indefinite terms) restricting film Desire Under the Elms to "Adults Only" in Chicago, Fed. Dist. Judge Philip Sullivan said a film is either obscene or not. Criticizing loosely-worded city obscenity statute referring to harmful impressions which might be created on the "minds of children," Judge Sullivan said, "Under it, a 20year old married serviceman would be prevented from seeing a film that might not be suitable for a girl of 12." Corporation Counsel John Melaniphy proposed to escape the ambiguity of calling persons just-under-21 children by lowering age to 17. Whether that would answer Judge Sullivan's ruling is uncertain,
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