Palm Beach pass laws for repeal

Press, 12 October 1985, Page 10

Palm Beach pass laws for repeal

NZPA-AP Tallahassee, Florida While hundreds of thousands of Americans demostrate against apartheid, in the wealthy resort of Palm Beach the blue-collar workers experience a bit of South African apartheid themselves.

They are compelled to carry special identification papers, register; with the police, be photographed and fingerprinted, and carry identification cards. They are subject to stops and searches by the police at anytime. The 27-year-old by-law affects such workers as waiters, store clerks, landscapers, newspaper carriers, and cabbies.

Now, a panel of state lawmakers has voted to recommend junking such re-

quirements, which were lampooned in the “Doonesbury” comic strip. The House Community Affairs Committee voted 102 yesterday to write a state law overturning the regulation. Some members said that it reminded them of apartheid, but in this case to protect the wealthy from contact with the humble. The regulation is the target of a lawsuit against the City of Palm Beach by the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’re hearing a lot of talk and a lot of baloney and a lot of everything about South Africa and we ... find some of South Africa here,” said a Democratic representative, Sid Martin. Earlier this year, the cartoonist, Garry Trudeau,

drew a series of strips about the law in the resort town, known for its Rolls Royces, exclusive boutiques, and wealthy residents. “My loyalties are with constitutional civil rights,” said Eleanor Weinstock, a Palm Beach Democrat, who voted for the bill. “It’s a delicate kind of thing. I think there was a great deal of embarrassment by the ‘Doonesbury’ cartoons. The fact of the great wealth makes for special problems.”

The Senate President, Mr Harry Johnston, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, said that he would not oppose a similar bill if a Senate committee proposed one. “What I know about the ordinance is what I read in ‘Doonesbury,’ ” he said.