Harris’ Treatment After Death Could Spur Anti-Death Forces

Three for the record.

* The common wisdom has been that the videotape made of Robert Alton Harris’ execution will not bolster the ACLU claim that the gas chamber is a cruel and unusual method of execution.

Harris, after all, did not thrash and scream.

Yes, but those familiar with the tape say the treatment of Harris’ body after he was pronounced dead may prove more shocking than his death throes.

The tape is said to show the lifeless body, still strapped in the chair, being blasted with water from a high-pressure hose to get rid of any lingering lethal gas.

And then a broom being rammed into the chest to expel any fumes left in the lungs.

A spokesman at San Quentin won’t discuss any hosing and thumping. Details of how Harris’ body was treated are “confidential, not public information,” he said.

Maybe the Padres’ new reliever, Randy Myers, isn’t such a misanthrope after all.

He spent 10 minutes this week in an impromptu mock game of pitch-and-catch with a young fan sitting near the bullpen, 2-year-old Chase Tucker, son of publicist Kerry Tucker.

Myers ended up by lobbing a (real) ball to the boy. Who promptly threw it back.

* Not in the cards.

Assistant Police Chief Cal Krosch says he’ll meet soon with City Manager Jack McGrory to restate the Police Department’s opposition to San Diego card rooms being allowed to band together to build a mega-card room, like those that flourish outside Los Angeles.

Krosch said police feel the move would mean more crime. He notes recent felony arrests at card rooms.

Proprietors have wanted for several years to combine their operations, which would require city approval.

The current reheating of the idea has aroused the interest of ex-mayor Roger Hedgecock, who contacted city officials to discuss the issue.

Hedgecock, as part of his consulting business, has lobbied the Chula Vista City Council on behalf of a card room license holder in Chula Vista who wanted to build an oversized card room.

But, in this case, Hedgecock says he’s not representing any San Diego card rooms, just inquiring.

Out of This World

Around the city.

* Hello Earth, give me rewrite.

Ludmila Bryzgalina, reporter for the Daily News (Krasnoye Zanamya) of Vladivostok, is one of several Russian journalists visiting in San Diego as part of the sister-city contingent.

Her beat is unusual by American standards but not by Russian: Sports, religion, recipes and UFOs.

Russians are big on UFOs. “Many contacts,” she said.

* A hairstyling parlor in Solana Beach bills itself as “The Best Little Hair House.”

* Bumper sticker, on a car going 80 m.p.h. and weaving on Interstate 5 in San Diego: “Don’t Blame Me. I’m a Liberal.”

* Draka bummer.

Insurance and licensing problems have scuttled the Russian vs. American “free sparring” competition that had been scheduled for tonight at the Convention Center.

* From across the seas.

Interest in the America’s Cup competition may be mild in San Diego, but in Italy millions are staying up long past midnight to watch Il Moro di Venezia on TV.

The Associated Press reports from Rome: “A front-page (newspaper) commentary even said the unthinkable: describing the America’s Cup as more important than soccer.”

Losing Its Oomph

The death of communism has taken the old oomph out of May Day in Moscow.

Instead of military parades and Leninist banners, an American foundation is set (with Russian cooperation) to unfurl banners today in Red Square--”Freedom Works” and “Free Press, Free Speech, Free Spirit”--and hoist billboards advertising Western vacations.

But anyone looking for the old-style May Day dirge (dour attitudes, heavy on slams on Western decadence) need look no further than downtown San Diego.

The Peace and Freedom Party of San Diego County plans to picket the federal courthouse at noontime decrying all manner of oppression that the party feels is rampant in the U.S.A.

Among its slogans: “Wage Slaves of the World Must Be Freed.”