APnh 06/09 0447 Attorneys General By JAMES L. ENG Associated Press Writer COEUR D'ALENE, I

APnh 06/09 0447 Attorneys General

   By JAMES L. ENG Associated Press Writer

   COEUR  D'ALENE,  Idaho  (AP)  --  The second day of a four-day
summer meeting of the nation's attorneys general  continued  here
today  with  an  agenda  headlined  by  a  closed-door roundtable
discussion with U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

   Meese was to discuss pending  cases  and  current  enforcement
efforts.

   Also  scheduled  was  a  dialogue  led  by Alexander Sukharev,
president of the Association of Soviet Lawyers.

   On Monday, about 10 people marched  in  front  of  the  resort
hotel  where  the  meeting  is  being held, protesting the Soviet
association's presence.

   One demonstrator, William Wolf of the Independent  Task  Force
on  American  Bar  Association-Soviet Relations Inc., said he was
protesting an agreement  between  the  bar  association  and  the
Soviet  organization  that  calls for the mutual promotion of the
rule of law in the world.

   Wolf accused the Soviet group of being a "leading disseminator
of anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic propaganda."

   At Monday's meeting, speakers told colleagues  that  community
grass-roots  efforts  and  civil  legislation  should  be used to
combat race-related and drug crimes.

   Monday's agenda also featured committee meetings on  asbestos,
consumer protection, acid rain and antitrust suits.

   Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon told the criminal
law  and  law  enforcement  committee  his state has used broadly
written criminal and  civil  laws  to  collar  those  who  commit
race-related crimes.

   He  said  the state has also recently passed new laws, such as
one making it a new crime for  a  person  to  damage  or  destroy
religious buildings.

   In  Massachusetts,  Shannon  said,  victims  have  been of all
ethnic   groups,   including   blacks,   Cambodians,   Hispanics,
Vietnamese, whites and Chinese.

   In  most  cases,  he  said,  seeking  a  civil  injunction  --
forbidding a person who is the  object  of  a  complaint  from  a
certain  geographical  area,  for  example -- has proven to be "a
very effective, very speedy" method of preventing further  racial
incidents.

   Maurice  Ellsworth,  U.S.  Attorney  in Idaho, said that state
seemed "the most unlikely place" for race  problems  to  surface.
And  yet, he said, white supremacist groups such as The Order and
the Church of Jesus Christ Christian (Aryan  Nations)  have  used
the  region  as  a  springboard for their attempts to establish a
whites-only homeland.

   "In terms of  the  general  white  supremacist  movement,  I'm
concerned  about  it  being  spread  into the general community,"
Ellsworth said.

   He noted, though, that white supremacists seemed to be preying
on those down on their luck, trying to convince them  that  their
economic  hardships  can  be  blamed on certain racial and ethnic
groups.

   Attorney General John Van de  Kamp  of  California  asked  his
colleagues  to pay attention to what he called a recent "upsurge"
in race-related crimes.

   "We cannot be blind to what's going on," he said.

   He suggested that states explore the establishment  of  county
human  relations  councils to "elevate the problem and put people
to shame."

   Van de Kamp  also  suggested  states  follow  the  example  of
Massachusetts  in pursuing legislation to provide for injunctions
and better ability to prosecute race-related crimes.

   Frances James  of  South  Central  Organizing  Committee  said
grass-roots  organizations could mobilize local participation and
interest, as  well  as  keep  tabs  on  politicians  and  conduct
research.

   Alec Gray, former Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General and
now  a  Boston  attorney  specializing  in  AIDS-related  issues,
advised states to brace for new criminal laws involving  carriers
who knowingly infect people with the deadly virus.

   In   Arizona,   Gray   pointed   out,   a   soldier  is  being
court-martialed for allegedly infecting a  woman  and  man  at  a
military base.

   Whether criminal law can be used as a public health tool, Gray
said, would ultimately be decided by public health officials.

   Legal   issues   involving   the  disease,  Gray  said,  "pose
incredibly difficult problems, analytically and practically."