Editorial Roundup: Ohio

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from Ohio newspapers:

What will it take to reduce violence in Akron?

Akron Beacon Journal

Aug. 9

A week ago, gunfire interrupted the evening on Fifth Avenue in Akron. Multiple shots hit two residences, leaving two adults wounded and a 20-month-old baby boy dead.

The episode added to the grim toll, June and July, in particular, among the city’s deadliest months in recent years, the Akron Police Department responding to 17 homicides.

By last week, the city already saw 30 murders this year, compared to 33 in all of 2019 and 32 in 2018.

What can the city do to slow gun violence?

The need hardly could be more imperative. Mayor Dan Horrigan has big plans for adding residents to the city as part of improving the local economy and quality of life. People won’t come - or stay - if they see the city struggling to keep gun crime in check.

Akron isn’t alone. Other cities, larger and smaller, have experienced similar recent surges. The Akron police see a cause. In a statement issued last week, the department explained that efforts to contain the novel coronavirus have resulted in Summit County jailing fewer people charged with weapons violations. Many suspects are simply issued a court summons and soon return to the streets.

Summit County officials in charge of the jail operation are right to focus on keeping the virus out of the facility, leading to a reduction in the jail population from roughly 700 to 400. The challenge involves ensuring the worst offenders are detained, something the county insists it does.

We appreciate both points made here and urge city and county leaders to work together and avoid casting blame. We all know arrests alone are not the solution.

The coronavirus has a way of exposing inequities and weaknesses in communities, most evident in the higher infection and death rates among minorities.

Something similar applies to gun violence. The city’s increase didn’t start with the arrival of the virus. The police reported 186 gun-related crimes in the first half of 2018. A year later, the number climbed to 247, and then to 317 in the first half of this year. That is an alarming rise.

While police will surely continue to put pressure on illegal activity of all types, it’s also clear they need help from citizens.

City Councilwoman Tara Samples makes a good point in stressing the importance of residents coming forward with information they may have about gun crimes.

Yet in doing so, Samples also highlights how progress won’t come easily. The problem of gun violence requires sustained, long-term approaches. That includes building a diverse and better-trained police force, city officials remaining committed to developing the trust that leads residents to see officers as true allies. In the past, the city has let such efforts slip.

It matters that Mayor Horrigan has launched an effort to intervene in the lives of 18- to 24-year-olds and present alternative paths. He can do more to tap community leaders with the credibility to make a difference. This points to another key element, the city keeping its pledge to end the exclusion of so many African Americans from economic opportunity.

Akron also could use an assist from the state in the shape of legislation designed to curb gun violence. A year has passed since the slaughter in Dayton, a gunman killing nine and injuring 27 people. Gov. Mike DeWine responded with a package of proposals, including improved background checks. Unfortunately, his fellow Republicans in the legislature have balked again at modest reform, touting gun rights at the expense of public safety.

Such opposition makes necessary seeking a statewide ballot issue to achieve universal background checks in Ohio. It is an initiative the governor would do well to endorse as one of many efforts to help Akron and other communities get the upper hand against gun violence.

Online: https://bit.ly/2DFwo8U

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Police reform should start with redefining roles

Columbus Dispatch

Aug. 11

As violence between police and protesters continues in Portland and Seattle, central Ohioans can be thankful that nothing like it has taken hold here. But despite the relative calm, desire for change in policing, especially of Black and brown communities, is strong among all involved in the debate.

Dispatch readers can see the emotions spilling over in letters to the editor, from those who demand change as well as those who defend the Division of Police. A remarkable display on Wednesday highlighted just how charged the issue is when two former Columbus police chiefs plus another retired top official held a news conference at an Easton hotel to criticize the city’s political leaders and express solidarity with police.

Former Chief Kim Jacobs, who retired in February 2019, said morale is low among officers who told her they can’t do their jobs while being second-guessed by City Hall and the public. Jacobs, former Chief Walter Distelzweig and retired Deputy Chief John Rockwell objected to Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s statements that the Division of Police is plagued by systemic racism and that officers aren’t held accountable.

“It feels like a bunch of people jumped on a bandwagon of ‘hate the police’ right now,” Jacobs said.

That’s an extraordinary statement from someone of Jacobs’ rank. Condemnation of police brutality and racism is justified but does not negate the hard work of most police officers.

Ethical police officers are honored by ridding their ranks of racism and brutality. And those who want to see better policing certainly value a constructive relationship with officers who take the time to know their communities’ needs.

The aftermath of George Floyd’s May 25 killing by a Minneapolis police officer has profoundly shaken up relations nationwide between police and their communities, especially Black and brown citizens - relations that already were fraught. The shakeup is good, a necessary prelude to needed change.

We hope that going forward, righteous anger and defensiveness can be channeled into improvements on the ground.

For reform to be successful, both sides have to approach the table with some humility - enough to acknowledge that neither understands the other completely and neither has the perfect blueprint. Obviously, in the past, power over policing has belonged almost exclusively to the police themselves, with some oversight by City Hall.

That has to change, and the city’s move toward a citizens’ review board is a step in the right direction. We noted with approval quick actions taken by Columbus City Council to restrict abuse-prone practices and equipment.

But the change most people want requires deeper structural reform. The most frequently mentioned example is simply less “policing” and more helping. Many of the people involved in incidents for which we currently call police - someone having a mental-health crisis, a homeless person in distress, a drug addict needing medical attention - would be better served by counselors, doctors and social workers rather than people with guns.

Police officers are trained primarily to meet resistance with force, and the need for that will never go away, especially in a society awash in guns. Nor should police officers be used only as muscle. Their training still should include building positive relationships with all the people they are required to serve.

We hope the conversation about changing policing in Columbus will move quickly to redefine what should happen when someone dials 911.

Online: https://bit.ly/33JN7Tk

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Efforts to bridge Cuyahoga County’s ‘digital divide’ are much needed, commendable

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Aug. 9

One in five of Cuyahoga County’s households – 20 percent – lacks internet access, although ours is an era and society that depend more and more on electronic networks for work, pleasure and help.

Moreover, the coronavirus afflicting humankind is making it increasingly likely that, for now, schooling for many children, perhaps most, will be provided online rather than in person. And the pandemic is speeding the expansion of telemedicine services, already underway before COVID-19 struck.

That’s why the recently announced Greater Cleveland Digital Equity Fund is such good news for so many, including Clevelanders age 65 and older, and people in Cleveland households with annual incomes of less than $20,000. More than half the people in each of those groups lack computers or internet access. That fences off those men, women and children from swathes of contemporary life.

Cuyahoga County, the Cleveland Foundation and T-Mobile U.S. Inc. are making $3 million in commitments to create the fund. The George Gund Foundation is providing an additional $1 million in laptops, and hotspot and Wi-Fi technology, to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

Meanwhile. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced Friday that schools can apply for a new $50 million Broadband Ohio Connectivity Grant starting Monday. The grants will help provide students with hotspots and internet-enabled devices, according to a news release.

County Executive Armond Budish is among those lauding the local initiative. “We do not want any family left behind because they don’t have access to a computer or (the) Internet,” he said in a written statement. County Council member Shontel Brown, also in a written statement, said the Digital Equity Fund could help reverse the “digital abandonment of the most vulnerable members of our community.”

Among other items, T-Mobile will contribute 7,500 data hotspots and an additional $1 million in in-kind donations. Two nonprofit organizations, PCs for People and RET3 Job Corp., will provide schools with up to 10,000 computers. And as the Digital Equity Coalition grows, cleveland.com’s Peter Krouse reported, the coalition said its Equity Fund will help “support a strategy” for K-12 pupils not just in Cleveland but also in “East Cleveland, Euclid, Warrensville Heights and additional inner-ring suburbs that have high need.”

This constructive undertaking offers opportunities to Greater Clevelanders who were up to now bypassed by the digital stream that helps empower so many others. The Equity Fund’s formation is welcome news.

Online: https://bit.ly/3izmYLd

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Housing help vital

Toledo Blade

Aug. 11

In May Toledo officials announced the city would use $2 million in federal coronavirus-relief aid to provide emergency housing assistance. This is both necessary and wise.

But the program initially was not available to current residents of public housing. The recent announcement that public-housing residents can now access the housing assistance program is a small victory in the fight to ensure housing stability in Toledo through the pandemic.

It is distressing that a large portion of people who have applied for help may not get it because they did not correctly fill out their applications. The agencies managing the program said of the 705 applications, 402 were incomplete.

City officials, program managers, and housing advocates must put their heads together to solve this problem. Whether it is following up with phone calls, offering help with the applications, or simplifying the paperwork, officials must remove the barriers that threaten to make this much needed help inaccessible.

The city’s efforts to fund this urgently needed program risk being wasted if the people who need it do not get the housing assistance it provides.

Toledo has a unique mix of issues that makes the city vulnerable to a serious housing crisis in the wake the pandemic’s effect on the economy. This is a city where nearly one in six people live below the poverty line. More than half the city’s residences are occupied by renters and, of those, many are spending more than the recommended 30 percent of their income on rent.

The housing assistance program is necessary to keep people whole right now. It is equally critical that the people who need it can access the help that is available.

Online: https://bit.ly/2PI14Jd

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Leaders must decide

Sandusky Register

Aug. 8

Leaders of local school districts that might be balking at a recommendation from the Erie County health board should be mindful of what they do know, and what they don’t know, when pondering the decision whether now is the time to open school building doors.

What they do (or should) know: We are in the midst of a pandemic. It is not under control; it is not diminishing in its impact. Children can become ill with the coronavirus; they can spread the coronavirus. Some students, teachers and staff will become infected if in-person classes resume too soon; soon; family and friends will become infected. And yes, there is a real possibility that deaths from COVID-19 will occur.

What they don’t know: Will children be able to keep safe distances, wear masks and not get crowded in school? Can school districts develop and maintain methods to meet the safety mandates from federal, state and local public health agencies? What will the overall impact be if schools reopen too soon and cannot adequately observe the safety precautions? How many people will become infected because in-person education resumes? Of those who become infected, will their illness be mild, severe or end death?

In this mid-pandemic world in which we live, we are all burdened by false information politicians and political campaigns push. We are all burdened by false speculation, photoshopped images and tin foil hat conspiracies at social chatter sites. We are all burdened by fair and balanced news that is neither - from the left and the right - a variety of sources across the globe. We are drowning in a sea of doubt brought about by the clamor of senseless arguing at a volume that leaves no sane person much choice other than tuning out.

True leaders - school board members, in particular - cannot tune out at this moment in history. In the days ahead, board members in each school district and at private schools must choose to follow the recommendations of the health board and hold off opening schools, or not follow it. The board cannot hide from it, and they must take a stand and vote.

We’re disturbed by the level of disinformation we see, every day, about matters that are important to the public welfare and safety. In this pandemic, the doubt this has created has become more pronounced, with respected scientists and medical professionals sharing their views from their perspective, and others, with no expertise, sharing opposing views with no expertise and no substantiation.

But what we all know is the fact that Erie County is at a code red level 3 on the pandemic danger scale.

That means “very high potential for exposure and spread.” It means residents should “limit activities as much as possible.” It means we should “decrease in-person interactions with others; consider necessary travel only; and limit attending gatherings of any number.”

School leaders, we hope, will vote based on what they know.

Online: https://bit.ly/3ktvkpr

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