Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, April 19,2023
FAYETTE VIEWS
A4 Fayette County News
Georgia Police
Reform Needed
I don’t know if there’s any law that can stop that evil that we
saw,"- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan
(Jan. 29, 2023).
Jordan made the above statement concerning police bru
tality in regard to the fatal beating of a young black man by five
Memphis cops. As usual, Jordan is making excuses, letting his
extremist politics get in the way of his common sense.
But Memphis is not unique. It could just as easily have been
Georgia. In fact, earlier this year there was a police fatal shoot
ing in Atlanta of a “Cop City” protester who had his hands up
(https: / /www.npr.org/ 2023/03/11/ 1162843992/cop-city-at-
lanta-activist-autopsy). He was shot 13 times.
I’m from a family of law enforcement folks, and I do not
support violent protesters, but that is
just not right.
As is true with gun control, no gun
law will stop every shooting. And a new
national or Georgia policing law will
not stop every murder by “rotten egg”
police. But that’s not to say that a new
law strengthening background checks
will not prevent a significant number of
fatal shootings.
Facts show fatal shootings de
crease with better laws and enforce
ment. And it’s the same with police reform. Incremental change
at the state or national level will work if given a chance.
Further, polls show that the majority of the American pub
lic (58 percent), especially those younger than 50, believe that
major changes are needed in policing
(https://news.gallup.com/poll/315962/americans-say-poli-
cing-needs-major-changes.aspx). Support is especially high in
the black community (88 percent). Even most whites believe
major change is needed.
Many Republican political figures feel the same way but will
not say so openly. That’s because only 14 percent of the GOP
base, versus 89 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of inde
pendents, want major changes. Almost three fourths of GOP
voters desire only minor incremental modifications in policing.
Per Gallup, overwhelming majorities of Americans support
improved community relations, more accountability for law
enforcement “bad eggs,” removal of repeat offender officers,
and adding social service intervention into appropriate situ
ations.
Little support was indicated for more radical ideas like de
funding police.
Moderate support was given to the abolishment of police
unions (56 percent), ending “stop and frisk” (74 percent), less
emphasis on non-violent crimes (50 percent), and shifting po
lice resources to social programs (47 percent).
Major change was the motivation behind the 2021 national
George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, although it never passed
due to GOP opposition in the Senate
See Bernard, A6
JACK BERNARD
Karma with
a Capital ‘B’
I trust most of you are familiar with what “they” say about
karma.
As the saying goes, it’s absolutely true. Karma can be a
bitch.
And it doesn’t apply only to people like you and me. You
know, people who dread April 15 every year, because it
means finding out how much of our hard-earned money we
still owe to Uncle Sam.
You see, sometimes it even
happens to wealthy people; the kind
who boast of only having to part with
$750 when tax time rolls around, (f
believe we all know who I’m refer
ring to.) Money, in the particular
case I’m referring to, that isn’t nec
essarily hard-earned. Rather, money
that just happened to fall in their
laps.
But this isn’t about money or in
come taxes. Not even close.
This is about true, honest-to-goodness Karma. Karma
with a capital “B.”
***
In 1989, five black and Latino teens were beaten and co
erced by New York’s finest into falsely confessing to the
rape and assault of a white woman jogging in Central Park.
They became known as the Central Park Five (Netflix offers
a chilling film about the event: When They See Us. I highly
recommend it.).
Shortly after the five teens were arrested, and well be
fore they were ever convicted, private citizen Donald J.
Trump spent $85,000 on a full-page ad that ran in all four
of New York’s major newspapers. His hate-filled message
requested the return of the death penalty. More specifically,
it called for the executions of the Central Park Five.
In 2002,13 years later, Matias Reyes, a convicted mur
derer and rapist, admitted to being responsible for the
crime. The five teens were no longer the Central Park Five.
Suddenly, they were the Exonerated Five.
Meanwhile, the man who took out the full-page ads
never so much as offered an apology to the five teens, nor
did he publicly acknowledge their innocence once they were
absolved of the crimes.
This would be the man who called for them to be found
guilty before they even had their day in court; the man who
would one day be President of the United States, where ev
eryone is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.
***
In 2023, 34 years after the Central Park Five were fin
gerprinted, photographed for mug shots, and read their Mi
randa warnings, the same fate fell on the man who never
said he was sorry or admitted he was wrong.
So now, here’s where Karma demonstrates what she’s
capable of:
For the first time in the 247-year history of our coun-
See Ludwig, A6
SCOTT LUDWIG
With Pandemic Over, Focus Must
Shift from Physical to Fiscal Health
O n April 10, President Joe Biden
signed a bill officially ending
the three-year national emer
gency for COVID-19. The White
House intends to continue the “pub
lic health emergency” until May 11.
Perhaps then, we can consider
the pandemic officially over.
For too many in Washington, the
perpetuation of this once very real
crisis had the motivation of John Be-
lushi’s charac
ter Bluto in the
1970s film
“Animal
House” with
his famous
lines of, “Over?
Did you say
‘over’? Nothing
is over until we
decide it is!
Was it over
when the Germans bombed Pearl
Harbor?...”
This is, of course, fitting as the
epilogue slides at the movie’s end
noted that John “Bluto” Blutarsky
had become a U.S. Senator.
Three years later, the human
costs of the pandemic are now very
real statistics, with very real and
personal meanings to most of us.
The focus of this piece, however, is
the economic consequences of where
we are, and the financial challenges
we as a nation must face going for
ward.
Federal government expendi
tures for Fiscal Year 2019, the year
before the pandemic began, totaled
just over $4.4 trillion. The emer
gency spending that coincided with
the spring 2020 economic shutdown
saw spending swell to $6.6 trillion,
increasing to $7.2 trillion for FY
2021. 2022 saw federal spending re
duced to $6.4 trillion, with the CBO
estimating current year spending of
$6.2 trillion.
The federal government will
spend about as much this year as it
did during the initial response to
covid, which included the massive
healthcare mobilization and stimu
lus relief programs for individuals
and businesses. This represents a 40
percent increase over pre-covid ex
penses.
For those who wanted to increase
the size and cost of government, this
is a crisis that did not go to waste.
The number of fiscal problems
here grow deeper the more we look
into what lies ahead of us. With in
terest rates continuing to increase,
deficit spending creates even larger
deficits. The Federal Reserve kept
interest rates near zero for almost
two years, hiding the cost of govern
ment borrowing. Most federal debt
owed is in short term treasury bills,
so the cost of ballooning obligations
caused little initial pain.
According to the Peter G. Peter
son Foundation, interest on the debt
a decade from now will total 14 per
cent of all U.S. government spending
- an amount more than we will
spend on national defense or on
Medicaid. We borrowed our way
through the pandemic, but the bills
are coming due.
The direct cost of the pandemic
has already reached consumers in
the form of stubbornly high infla
tion. While the rate of inflation is
down from its peak last summer,
this does not mean costs are coming
down. Prices are still rising, just not
as fast.
Cruel to this scenario is that the
cost of government goes up with in
flation. Many programs have cost of
living adjustments, such as Social
Security. Other programs just be
come more expensive as the cost of
labor and raw materials increase for
the government just like they do for
the rest of us. As the government
tries to contain costs, we’ll likely pay
even more, yet receive less in gov
ernment services.
The government response to our
See Haper, A6
When a
Jury
Cannot
Decide
F or every criminal charge that is
brought against a defendant in a
jury trial, there are one of three
possible outcomes.
First, a jury can find the defendant
guilty of the charge. At this point, the
judge would be responsible for deter
mining the defendant's sentence.
Second, a jury can find the defen
dant not guilty
of the charge,
which means
that same
charge cannot
ever be brought
again. Many of
you have heard
this described
as "double jeop
ardy."
Third, a
jury can fail to reach a resolution at all.
A "hung" jury will result in the judge
declaring a mistrial as to that charge.
A mistrial does not implicate "double
jeopardy" and allows the state, if it so
desires, to try the case again to a dif
ferent jury.
Defendants often face more than
one charge at a trial. In this situation,
a jury may have reached a unanimous
verdict on some, but not all the
charges. Before the judge declares a
mistrial, he or she will often encourage
the jury to continue deliberating to try
to reach a verdict.
In fact, there is special instruction
that is given to the jury to encourage
them to reach a final result. This
"Allen" charge is named after the case
where it first arose and is read in every
case where the jury indicates to the
court that they have not been able to
reach a verdict on some, or all, of the
See Broder, A6
CHARLIE HARPER
MARIE BRODER
It? A Racist Democrat!
Dare I Say
I f I may quote from a prophetic
movie, “I’m mad as hell and not
going to take it anymore.”
Who among the body politic are
most responsible for the racial divide,
cancel culture, and other ideological
idiocies? Who are the cui bono? Is it
AOC and her confederates; is it
Maxine Waters; is it Don Lemon; is it
The View?
Well, these
are all the usual
suspects, but
the real winner
of the award for
racial epithet is
Hakeem Jef
feries, D-NY,
Democrat Mi
nority Leader.
This master
of race-baiting
flummery has, of late, been spewing
hate learned at his Alma Mater, Bing
hamton University. His editorial in the
college newspaper limned black con
servatives such as Supreme Court Jus
tice Clarence Thomas, former
Secretary of State Colin Powell,
Thomas Sowell, et al as “House Ne
groes.”
The title of this bigoted hack’s
sophomoric piece was “Rise of the
Black Conservative.”
When pressed about his “House
Negroes” comment, Jefferies bloviated
that the rise in black conservatives
(CNN aired this) ultimately oppresses
the black masses and cites Judge
Thomas as an example of a “House
Negro.” On a roll now, Jefferies could
not resist giving a more damning pre
cis to the bifurcated “Negro” role in
white America.
According to Jefferies, a "Field
Negro" and a "House Negro" differ.
Jeffries claimed the "Field Negro la
bored from dusk 'till dawn and had
nothing but contempt for his white
master, while the House Negros were
domestic servants and sought to emu
late the white master."
In one article labeled "White
Media," Jeffries specifically targeted
Shelby Steele, an (African American)
author and senior fellow at Stanford
University's Hoover Institution. Steele
opposes affirmative action, which he
considers to be an unsuccessful cam
paign to promote equal opportunity,
but instead discourages self-agency
and personal responsibility in minor
ities.
Jefferies asks the most revelatory
question that gaslights the ugly nature
of his bitter racism with gems like this:
“I find it suspect when the white power
structure and their propaganda emis
saries tell us who our leaders should
be. Do you think that ruling elite
would promote individuals who seek
to dismantle their vice-like grip on
power? Of course not."
Jefferies concludes his racist
screed by claiming that “the House
Negro and the black conservative are
two sides of the same coin, both inter
ested in securing some measure of
happiness for themselves within the
existing social order, while the social
order has blacks occupying the lowest
societal echelon.”
Isn’t it just too rich when, if we
dare criticize, say, Critical Race Theory
or Diverse Equity Inclusion as being
divisive, we are excoriated as racists
when Pete Buttigieg, our current sec
retary of transportation, can condemn
a certain road construction as racist?
This urged during his push for the for
mation of the “Reconnecting Com
munities Program.”
It is a shameless faux coup de
foudre by this dolt of a racist windbag
to condemn anyone of racism when, I
expect, he is at his cultural best when
he is within hollering distance of a bar
tender, or in his phony baronial pose,
screeching on about racism being the
bastard child of the Supreme Court.
And you thought Pelosi was the su
preme political harridan? You ain’t
seen nothin’ yet.
Pelosi was bad; Jefferies is not only
worse, but also dangerous.
JAMES
STUDDARD
