Akron Beacon Journal, 06Jun1999

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL

Sunday, June 6, 1999
Section: EDITORIAL
Edition: 1 STAR
Page: B2\
Memo: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR / VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

I'd like to thank former Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor, now Ohio lieutenant governor, for making our criminal-justice system more unjust than ever before. Thank you for making convictions, not justice, the key priority in Summit County.

Thank you for allowing prosecutors to run the charges wild in order to drum up more convictions. Thank you for defending the actions of zealot prosecutors who railroad insignificant offenders by over-inflating petty crimes.

Thank you for defending the immunity of prosecutors, so that the wrongfully accused and mal-prosecuted cannot sue for damages. Apparently, requiring assistant prosecutors to take responsibility for their own actions would probably hinder your ability to make money in the lucrative business of "protecting the public."

Thank you for helping to fill up our already crowded prisons with people who have committed victimless crimes, as roughly 75 percent of all crimes are committed against the state only.

Thank you for outlining Gov. Bob Taft's crime manifesto to include even more tax money spent on building and running prisons that are only 5 percent to 25 percent effective as a crime deterrent.

Thank you for pretending to care about victims, when, in practice, lawyers answer only to other lawyers. Your public-relations oratory no doubt works wonders to help assuage the true needs of the public, and also warms our hearts.

Thank you for turning justice into a bargaining game, where justice is dispensed only to those who can afford it. Some folk are just more equal before the law than others.

Thank you for helping to make the government a bigger threat and enemy of the public than criminals could ever hope to be.

David Anderson

Stow