Men’s laws for women’s bodies

Zina Saunders did this piece to accompany an article in The Nation magazine. Ordinarily, it would carry her byline but I do not want attribute to her my own thoughts on this issue. My thoughts, such as they are, are unformed and unsophisticated, incoherent even. Try this:

Isn’t it time we men stop manifesting our anxieties about our mothers’, daughters’, wives’, and sisters’ sexuality by passing laws to govern what they can and cannot do with their own bodies, their own lives?

I don’t have an answer. I just know that man’s laws and decrees, especially when they try to govern what women do with their bodies, wreck lives instead.

HEARING-IMPAIRED CAN CONTACT POLICE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 26, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Just in time to comply with a federal law that takes effect today, borough police on Friday installed a device that will enable people with speech and hearing impairments to contact police headquarters.

“This is long overdue,” Detective Michael Burns said Saturday. “It opens a whole new world of communication for people.”

The legislation, called the Americans With Disabilities Act, was signed into law in July 1990. Under one of its provisions, police must be equipped with a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf, or TDD.

New Milford is one of more than a dozen Bergen County police departments that either recently purchased such a device or, like Allendale, have been using one for a number of years. But spokesmen for more than 40 other Bergen departments contacted Saturday said they still lack the equipment.

Most models of the machine are about the size of a small console telephone, with a typewriter keyboard and a display screen.

To contact police, users need a matching device at home. They type their message and it is carried through phone lines to police headquarters, where it is displayed on a screen and copied on a printer. The home units also can receive messages.

Lee Brody, a pioneer in the development of the TDD and now a vendor of the devices, said about 6,000 families across the state have one in their homes, most of them in Bergen and Middlesex counties. However, many people with impairments do not have the devices, he said.

Burns said he first became aware of the law’s requirement in October, when a company wrote him a letter trying to sell the department a TDD. After researching the law with the federal Justice Department, he solicited prices and found they ranged from $300 to $4,000. Burns said he opted for one that cost $625.

“It’s a state-of-the-art unit which allows us to handle any type of call,” he said.

The law mandating the equipment is a far-reaching measure requiring that any place serving the public be made accessible to the disabled.

FLORIO SEEKS NEW WIRETAP LAWS CITES ELECTRONIC USE IN CRIME

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Against a din of voices protesting his policies, Governor Florio on Wednesday proposed updating state wiretap laws to enable law enforcement officials to intercept communications on electronic devices such as beepers and fax machines.

“It is time we stop fighting crime with one hand tied behind our back,” Florio said in front of city police headquarters as he proposed the amendment, which Assemblymen Byron M. Baer, D-Englewood, and D. Bennett Mazur, D-Fort Lee, said they would introduce in the Assembly next month.

The amendment would target drug dealers and organized drug activities, Florio said, and would allow police to get court orders to intercept communications on beepers, faxes, and cellular telephones, which they are not allowed to do under current law.

“If there is anything we’ve learned about dealing with drug dealers, it’s that they are very sophisticated. They keep up with the times. They are right in there using all the high technology to further their bad business. Today they communicate with beepers, computers, fax machines, whatever,” he said.

Current laws allow law enforcement officials to get court orders to wiretap traditional telephones when they suspect criminal activities are taking place. New Jersey failed to update its laws in this area in 1988, as required in a 1986 law updating federal wiretap laws, the governor said.

Hackensack Police Chief William C. Iurato said any tool that assists police in fighting drugs is appreciated, particularly in the areas delineated in Florio’s proposed legislation.

Lt. Ron Natale, commander of the department’s detective bureau, said the proposed amendment would enable police to remove drugs from the streets as well as conduct other investigations.

Natale mentioned a search in June for Kelly Gonzalez, a 4-year-old Hackensack girl kidnapped from her home because her father was allegedly involved in a dispute over drugs. Kelly was returned to her mother after eight days in captivity.

“He, the victim’s father, had beeper contact with numerous people, and had we had legislation of this nature at that time, it may have led to a more speedy recovery of the victim,” Natale said.

Baer said he would work to get the bill passed quickly.

“Without these tools, even the legendary Elliot Ness and Joe Friday would be left behind by modern criminals who use beepers, radios, computers, fax machines, ultramodern automatic weapons, and cop-killer bullets,” Baer said.

A group of about 30 placard-carrying protesters waited for Florio, heckled him during his 10-minute speech, then booed when he finished. An amused smile playing on his face, he weathered cries of “Florio, go home” and other shouts from passing motorists.

“It’s the political season, after all,” Florio said.

Keywords: FLORIO; NEW JERSEY; LAW; ELECTRONIC; HACKENSACK; POLICE; CRIME

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – Governor Florio on the steps of police headquarters in Hackensack on Wednesday calling for updated state laws on the use of wiretaps.

NEW LAW ON SWEATSHOPS CALLED WEAK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, June 23, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

The strain of trying to regulate the apparel industry in the state and put an end to sweatshops became clear in an unguarded moment Friday, when state Labor Commissioner Raymond Bramucci admitted that even an expected new law isn’t strong enough.
Before retracting that statement, made at a news conference, he added that he did not have enough inspectors to enforce the current law, which expires June 30.
“We have very, very poor means to police this industry,” Bramucci said. “We are trying to make it much more difficult to operate here. It is not easy. . . . We try to do a job with the tools given to us. It took us a whole lot of arguing to get this [the new law] through, and I don’t think it is strong enough.”
Someone asked how many people would be needed to inspect the thousands of sweatshops in the state. He declined to say.
“I want to work this out first,” he said. “I’m sorry I said that. Scratch it. I want to try to enforce this law first, vigorously.
“We have enough people to give a powerful signal. We don’t have to hit every factory, every minute of every day. But if we have means like we’re going to have with this new law, which gives us the right to seize goods and close down factories after repeated violations, we will have the beginning of the tool to have a reasonable control of the industry.”
Bramucci had invited the journalists along for raids Friday by federal and labor officials on two sweatshops. Since the crackdown started on Monday, 23 shops have been cited for violations of the state Apparel Registration Act, and for various federal and state wage, hour, child labor, home work, and records infractions.
Legislation awaiting Governor Florio’s signature would establish an Apparel Industry Unit, which would investigate violations of state laws and exploitation of workers. Starting this fall, the Labor Department will train industry workers at regional technical and vocational schools, Bramucci said.
At the first stop on Friday, state, federal, and city inspectors followed by about 25 journalists entered a garage with red roofing shingles for siding behind 4002 Palisade Ave., Union City. The shop was about 70 feet by 25 feet. Inside was an operation known as Lucy Fashion, with 11 sewing machines and, on several clotheslines, hundreds of blouses and skirts tagged “Made in USA.”
Lucy Fashion was one of the worst examples of the shops inspectors visited in Hudson and Essex counties last week, Bramucci said. A Union City fire inspector also cited the shop for building and fire code violations.
Bramucci said the shop would probably be long gone before the state could make it comply with regulations. Fly-by-night operations are rampant in the industry, making it difficult to keep count of the sweatshops. He estimated that about 10,000 people work in North Jersey sweatshops.
Bramucci blamed the conditions on New York garment manufacturers who farm out work to contractors without paying them enough to adequately compensate workers.
The renewed enforcement would help combat one of the plagues that the legitimate apparel industry faces: low labor costs in the sweatshops, said Aleta Hernandez, assistant political education director in New Jersey for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
The low labor costs in foreign countries drove the jobs in the industry underground, and made doing business legally difficult for local companies that often have to pay at least minimum wage, health insurance, and other benefits, Hernandez said.
Hernandez also blames greed on the part of the manufacturers because the low costs do not necessarily translate to low prices for consumers. All profits go into the pockets of manufacturers, she said.
Labor lawyer Craig Livingston said he sees at least another culprit in what he called an assault on the American worker: the U.S. government.
“The United States is probably unique in the world in not protecting its basic industries from cheap imports,” Livingston said. “Our basic industries are being crucified on the cross of free trade.”

Keywords: CLOTHING; EMPLOYMENT; LAW; STORE; VIOLATION; NEW JERSEY; UNION CITY

N.J. CUTS ALCOHOL BUREAU

By Patricia Alex and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, March 7, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A09

The “backbone” of the state bureau enforcing liquor laws will be gutted under a cost-cutting plan that calls for 32 of the 72 enforcement agents to lose their jobs by the end of the month, inspectors said Wednesday.
The agents, who work for the New Jersey State Police Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau, said they feared the layoffs were the first step toward total elimination of the unit.
But Chris Florentz, spokesman for the state Division of Law and Public Safety, which ordered the cuts, said he was aware of no such plan.
Many areas of the division are facing similar cuts, as are departments throughout state government. “We decided these cuts could be made without seriously affecting the ability of the agency to monitor and regulate the alcoholic beverage industry,” said Florentz.
The bureau is charged with enforcing laws that affect the more than 1,200 legal liquor purveyors in the state, including statutes that prohibit the sale of liquor to minors. The agency also ferrets out illegal establishments and investigate liquor license applications.
“I find it very hard to believe that the state can lay off half our force and still believe that we can work as effectively,” said Edward Corrales, a senior inspector.
Corrales said the unit’s investigations often lead to fines that offset its operating costs.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; ALCOHOL; GOVERNMENT; LAW; FINANCE; COST; LICENSE