1A1 SPORTS PAGE 7 LIFE&ARTS PAGE 12 Horns bounce back to beat OSU Red lips, bright eyes are signature looks for spring season NEWS PAGE 9 Student tries to detoxify TOMORROW’S WEATHER High Low THE DAILY TEXAN 48 45 Tuesday, February 2, 2010 Serving the University of Texas at Austin community since 1900 www.dailytexanonline.com Iconic house Copwatch polices the police embodies black history to Wesley H. Passon, a black ed- Initially scheduled ucator who strove to preserve ar- for demolition, home tifacts of African-American histo- ry. One of his most notable contri- now celebrates legacy butions was to produce a summa- ry of the history of Austin’s black By Shamoyita DasGupta population in 1907. Daily Texan Staff The W.H. Passion Historical So- The walls of the house are ciety, which aims to promote the adorned with antique relics of a preservation of black history, is proud and controversial past. Im- holding an open house through ages and newspaper clippings Saturday to commemorate the be- chroni- ginning of Black History Month. cle sig- The house wouldn’t be the local nificant ON THE WEB: icon it is today if it weren’t for UT events psychology professor Duane Al- Read more about and noted brecht. the Southgate- f i g u r e s . “The house was scheduled for Lewis house Some il- demolition,” Albrecht said. “It @dailytexanonline.com lustrate was a big mess, but I could see the ac- the potential, so I bought it and Sara Young | Daily Texan Staff tions of fixed it up and presented it to t h e K u the city, who zoned it as a land- Copwatch member Torey Cloud, right, advises Catheryn Solorzano whose friend was arrested for public intoxication Saturday Klux Klan. In the backyard, a mark.” night on East Sixth Street. By recording and observing police activity, Copwatch aims to increase police accountability. schoolhouse still stands on a pris- After several years of living in tine lawn, where children on small the house, Albrecht, who was an wooden stools were once taught active board member of the Her- Austin residents unite to monitor local officers’ performance Spanish. itage Society of Austin, decided Built in 1888, the Southgate- to donate it. Albrecht was partial- By Bobby Longoria we do care,” said Eric Win- In an effort to revitalize the ticed an officer arresting a Lewis house, which resides on Daily Texan Staff cott, Austin Copwatch mem- Copwatch philosophy and woman charged with pub- East 12th Street, was once home HOME continues on page 2 Breath escapes like smoke ber. “I want the cop to do his community, Wincott, an Aus- lic intoxication. The members from a group patrolling down- job right. It has become a ne- tin resident for seven months, said they felt there was an ex- town on a freezing Saturday cessity for us to come out and began posting flyers across cessive use of force in twisting night. Equipped with cameras, watch these cops because they campus and the city in the fall. the girl’s arm as she was being notepads and pens, they vow can’t police themselves.” Soon after, he recruited one- cuffed and that a female officer to serve and protect the com- Wincott lived in Houston year resident Eric Ellison, five- should have handled her. munity — by policing the po- until he was 18, at which point year resident Torey Cloud and At 2:14 a.m., officers did not lice. he enrolled in an art and design 23-year resident “Carter.” immediately arrest or handle Copwatch is a group of com- school in Denver, Colo., and “The citizen has every right with excessive force a drunken munity residents that works to- became involved with a Cop- to watch and record as long as citizen passed out on the side- ward increasing public partici- watch chapter there for more [he or she is] not interfering or walk who was shouting ex- pation in police accountabili- than four years. Residents es- interrupting the officer in the pletives at officers as they at- ty and oversight. Members of tablished the first Copwatch performance of their duty,” tempted to assist him off the Copwatch walk the streets ob- organization in 1990 in Berke- said Wayne Vincent, Austin sidewalk. serving and recording police ley, Calif., and began respond- Police Association president. “When we are dealing with activity in an effort to deter po- ing to police brutality against “I wouldn’t anticipate Cop- the public, there isn’t anything lice misconduct and ensure of- the homeless. Since then, the watch changing anything that that we do that isn’t open to ficer accountability. philosophy has disseminat- the police officers do.” public scrutiny,” said APD Sgt. “This is the best way of go- ed across the nation, includ- The four Copwatch mem- Earl Bolls, who oversaw the ing out and passively observ- ing Austin, where a Copwatch bers were on foot Saturday downtown area command on Bruno Morlan | Daily Texan Staff ing the police and making sure group is said to have existed night, observing police activ- Saturday. “Whether we have Bertram Allen, president of the W.H. Passon Historical Society, stands they are not violating peo- 10 years ago but has since fall- ity from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. By outside the Southgate-Lewis House on East 12th Street on Monday ple’s rights and showing them en out of public view. 1:13 a.m., the group had no- COPWATCH continues on page 5 morning. Texting ban incites mixed reactions President Powers reaches Karishma Hossain Naveed Khanjee, natural sci- misdemeanor and a possible fine dle was texting when he lost con- UT community with blog Daily Texan Staff ences freshman, said she saw no of up to $500, said Steven Bak- trol of the car. The new ban on texting while problem with the new law be- er, an Austin Police Department More than a dozen of the 129 By Shabab Siddiqui “There are things that drive driving within Austin’s city limits cause she doesn’t personally text commander. serious car crashes in Austin last Daily Texan Staff traffic to the site,” Leavenworth went into effect after the 30-day and drive. Business senior Sabina Moham- year were caused by drivers who More than a month after its said. “The president sent out a grace period expired Monday. “I do not think the law will be med realizes the risk of texting were texting, Baker said. Texting launch, President William Pow- letter [Thursday] that had a link The law prohibits the writing, effective because there is no def- while driving. She said it slows while driving increases chanc- ers, Jr.’s blog has received near- to the site, so that caused an in- sending or reading of text mes- inite way for cops to detect or reaction time and could make the es of getting into an accident by ly 14,000 visitors and 34,000 page crease. Some people subscribe to sages, instant messages and e- catch violators of the law,” Khan- road hazardous for drivers, pas- 23 percent, he said. Austin joins views. it by RSS, so it may create some mails, and prohibits cell phone jee said. sengers and pedestrians. a laundry list of cities and states The Office of the President additional page views.” users from visiting the Internet Police officers will be on the In June 2009, UT linebacker Ser- that have already passed similar launched Tower Talk on Dec. 20 Anyone who visits the blog is or accessing application software lookout for erratic driving be- gio Kindle drove off the road and laws. In October, President Ba- to give the president a platform allowed to leave a comment at on cell phones or any portable havior and issue tickets accord- crashed his car into an apartment rack Obama banned all 4.5 mil- to discuss all University-relat- the bottom. Comments are not electronic devices. The ban was ingly in hopes of preventing ac- wall, suffering a concussion. His lion federal employes, including ed issues, including budget cuts, responded to by Powers or his passed by the Austin City Coun- cidents. Anyone caught violating lawyer, Brian Roark, told the Aus- military personnel, from texting football and faculty dinners. office, but other visitors are al- cil in December. the law will be issued a Class C tin American-Statesman that Kin- while driving. “The UT community is large lowed to post their own replies. and extends to almost every corner Leavenworth said the com- of the world,” Powers wrote in his ments section is not censored, first blog entry. “Tower Talk is an- and posts appear on the page other way for us to stay in touch.” immediately. He said the only Professor aims to create most powerful laser Geoff Leavenworth, special exceptions are posts that contain assistant to the president, said profanity or spam, which the By Gerald Rich CD players, subsequent higher- Powers’ goal is to comment on it blogging service automatically Daily Texan Staff powered lasers have been ap- once or twice a week. bounces back to the president’s Though UT is already home to plied to everything from man- Leavenworth said blog visitors office. Kathleen Skinner, senior the world’s most powerful laser, ufacturing to the medical field. are not consistent but are instead physics professor Todd Ditmire Although Ditmire speculated characterized by occasional spikes. wants more. that any practical applications BLOG continues on page 2 He plans to create an exawatt of laser physics take about five laser, which will be 1,000 times to 10 years, petawatt technolo- more powerful than UT’s peta- gy is already being researched watt.