Editorials

In sex assault cases, don’t let prosecution become mob rule

“That it is better 100 guilty persons should escape, than that one innocent person should suffer.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) The hardest decision a government prosecutor may ever face is also one of the most important tests of the rule of law: What do you do when you believe a crime occurred, and you believe you know who committed it, but you do not believe you can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty? The temptation is obvious. A prosecutor is a public official. The alleged victim wants justice. The public demands accountability. The alleged ...

Beginning of the end or end of beginning?

I’m allowing myself to believe that sane people may be in charge of Congress starting next Jan. 20. I know, I know: Polls have gotten our hopes up before only to have them dashed on the rocky shores of political reality. But this time it does seem as if congressional Republicans will finally get their comeuppance for their blind loyalty to Trump. The sense of relief in the land is palpable. We may soon witness the beginning of the end of this daymare — unless Trump goes full-throttled dictator and prevents votes for Democrats in the Senate and House from being ...

Those who shout ‘genocide’ loudest are hypocrites

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas killers slaughtered 1,200 people, more than two-thirds of them civilians, inside Israel. For the ensuing three weeks, they refused Israel’s demands to turn over the 251 hostages and to surrender the architects of the massacre. No matter — within a day of the attacks, when Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli troops on Israeli soil, the American Left was already screaming “Genocide!” What was most surreal about the charges of “genocide” against Israel was that they so often came from elite first- and second-generation Middle Eastern immigrants to ...

Friday editorial cartoon

Guardrails are needed for plate-reading technology

Ohio Rep. Karen Brownlee is right. Lawmakers MUST make changes to put in place safeguards against the abuse of automatic license plate readers and other surveillance technologies. Brownlee, D-Symmes Township, is asking for an indefinite pause on the use of Flock cameras in the state following the indictment of Sharonville Police Lt. Walter Cordes on charges of unauthorized use of a computer or telecommunication property. He is alleged to have searched the department’s Flock camera system 29 times to track someone he knew for personal reasons, according to a report by ...

Child welfare system cratering in Ohio

Though the case has faded from the headlines, it has been only a little more than three months since 16 children were removed from the Siders’ home in Hamden. While that case makes its way through the system, Job and Family Services workers are sounding the alarm that part of that system is significantly broken. “I have been a county director since 1999, yet I have not seen such a challenging time in the child welfare system as I do today,” Jody Walker, head of South Central Ohio Job and Family Services, told lawmakers, according to a report in The Guardian, “specifically in ...