Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
April 28
The Anniston (Ala.) Star on tortured logic on U.S. torture:
Over the weekend, Sarah Palin, the former vice presidential candidate, managed to deliver a shocking one-liner, which is quite a feat considering her post-elected office career is built on shock value.
Speaking at a gathering of National Rifle Association members over the weekend, she had this to say of terrorists: “Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”
Really? One week after one of Christendom’s most holy weeks, and Palin trivializes the sacrament of baptism.
Her audience loved it, however. They aren’t alone, either.
In years past, Americans generally considered torture un-American. That’s what the other guys do, we boasted, even if we didn’t always live up to those lofty ideals.
Several presidents and members of Congress agreed on several points concerning the use of torture. Torture puts the United States on weak moral footing. Torture puts U.S. prisoners of war in jeopardy, as enemy nations would justify torture of Americans by simply reasoning that they were only doing what we were doing.
As a tool for discovering intelligence from enemies, torture doesn’t work. That’s because a prisoner will reach a certain point of pain where he will admit to virtually anything, even things he didn’t do.
After the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration set out to alter this way of thinking. It OK’d the use of techniques understood to be torture. The difference is it called them by the Orwellian phrase “enhanced interrogation.”
The Obama administration failed to thoroughly probe the actions of the previous White House. We can clearly see the political calculations involved by Team Obama in not derailing its agenda by looking to the past. A robust official investigation into torture in post-9/11 America would have widened the rift between Americans on the left and the right.
However, by not making an official accounting of practices that betray both our laws and our ethics, the Obama administration has left a void in Americans’ understanding of what’s being done in our name.
Online:
https://www.annistonstar.com
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April 29
Dothan (Ala.) Eagle on abused child:
A recent incident in which a woman smashed a young girl’s face into a dinner plate reveals multiple failures on the part of the courts and the Department of Human Resources to protect this particular child, and raises alarming questions about the ability of those entities to adequately protect children from dangerous people in the home.
Last week, Dothan police arrested Camille Dorit Fields, 29, of Robindale Avenue, on a charge of felony child abuse torture for allegedly ramming the child’s face into a plate, resulting in the youngster’s chipped tooth and cut lip.
Had the system worked properly, this incident could not have happened. Last May, Fields was arrested on a similar felony charge - torture, willful abuse or cruelty after biting a 7-year-old girl in the face. She was released on a $50,000 bond then and remained out on bail until her arrest last week - almost a year later - in a household with child.
What’s more chilling - if that’s possible - is that Fields was arrested in 2009 in Memphis, Tenn., after throwing a baby strapped in a car seat at a Wal-Mart security guard who approached her about shoplifting. The child landed face-down and was knocked unconscious.
On her most recent charge, Fields is being held on $250,000 bond. On charges of felony child abuse and torture, there should be no bond. Cases should not be allowed to languish, and DHR should be thoroughly involved to ensure that, in the unlikely event that an accused child abuser be turned loose pending trial, that there are no children wherever they live.
DHR and the courts have failed this child so far. It must not happen again.
Online:
https://www.dothaneagle.com
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April 27
Decatur (Ga.) Daily on new clemency process:
President Barack Obama doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to issuing commutations or pardons. But as he approaches the midway point of his second term, his administration is showing signs of improvement.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced a new clemency process that could allow thousands of low-level felons, mostly non-violent drug offenders, to seek clemency. This is part of a new administration effort to ease prison overcrowding while addressing past disparities in sentencing.
The disparities arose in the 1980s, when Congress passed tough mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving crack cocaine. More blacks than whites were incarcerated during that time.
While the president has been on the sidelines, others on both the left and right have been doing much of the heavy lifting for sentencing reform. Many of the key players are conservative Republicans. Maybe in the same way only President Richard Nixon could go to China, only conservatives can pass criminal justice reform.
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced that racial disparity and eliminated a five-year mandatory minimum for first-time possession of crack cocaine. One of the law’s architects was Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, no one’s idea of a softie on crime.
One of the most vocal proponents of sentencing reform has been Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a likely 2016 Republican presidential contender, who earlier this month penned a Washington Times column on the subject. And earlier this month, the Koch brothers, the progressives’ favorite targets for derision, hosted a panel discussion on sentencing reform. This is an area where the conservative and libertarian right is arguably ahead of the left on what traditionally has been a progressive issue.
The president is a latecomer. Reason magazine’s Jacob Sullum cites P.S. Ruckman Jr., a professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill. According to Ruckman, only three presidents used their powers of clemency and pardon less often than Obama has to date. One of them was George Washington. The other two were James A. Garfield, who was assassinated four months into his presidency, and William Henry Harrison, who died a month into his term.
With his administration’s new push to offer clemency, perhaps Obama is making up for lost time. Perhaps he’s just following the political winds. Given his evolving views on gay marriage, this wouldn’t be the first time the president has shifted course after the country already had shifted in the same direction.
Still, it’s a start. And given the conservatives backing it in Washington, it’s something Republicans in the Alabama Legislature should be willing to embrace.
Online:
https://www.decaturdaily.com
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