MANSFIELD: The Prosecutor’s Race and Other Stuff

The Prosecutor’s Race and Other Stuff

But first, the other “stuff”: The City of Cleveland is putting an issue on the ballot for the March 6 primary election that deserves your attention… that is if you reside in Cleveland. They’re asking voters to approve a change in the City Charter that would give city residents an additional five points on their score when taking the civil service test, either for an entry-level job or a promotion. Personally, I’m going to enthusiastically vote “yes” on the change… but the only question I have is why it took so long for this to get on the ballot.

When Republicans in the State Legislature made the city’s residency requirement illegal a few years ago I suggested in a column then that City Hall explore some way to maintain a semblance of home rule on this issue… it’s just taken a number of years for officials to act. For those of us who live in Cleveland, it’s simply a matter of fairness: If city employees want to live somewhere else, fine — then let them work somewhere else too… like the city in which they want to live. I’m damn tired of the City of Cleveland being pimped by those parasites who look down their noses at living in Cleveland but want a paycheck from us.

No doubt some union will file suit if the Charter is changed, so if I were in charge I’d really give them something to file suit over: Instead of just a five point advantage, I’d make it 10, or even 25… why the hell not? In a little, in a lot. Of course all of this is moot if the Civil Service Commission folks don’t do their job and verify residency.

 

Corky & Lenny’s

Since, in spite of the fact corned beef is simply that, corned beef, and many restaurants around town know how to make a great Reuben, why did Corky & Lenny’s get the nod as the first eatery to win a coveted spot in the new Horseshoe Casino; what set them apart from all the others? It just might be fairness.

The owners of the new casino have made it known they firmly believe in fairness, and if they visited restaurants before making a decision which establishment to allow in, here’s what they saw: In virtually any other corned beef restaurant they visited (and many other restaurants of all types around Cleveland), the only minorities they saw working were either bussing tables, cooking, or mopping the floor… but this was not the case at Cory & Lenny’s, where minorities have been hired for other positions for as long as anyone can remember.

The long tradition of racial exclusion at other Cleveland eateries probably took the casino folks by surprise, and they’re not alone. Having myself lived in other parts of the country (and meeting many folks who come to Cleveland from other locales), the degree of racism that still exists hereabouts is truly astounding to folks not accustomed to it. Corky & Lenny’s has proven that fairness pays dividends and other Cleveland restaurateurs, still stuck in the ugly past, should take note… but most probably won’t since the owners of those establishments are probably not smart enough to realize that simple fairness is good for business.

 

The Great Race

And now, down to real business. I caught a bit of flack from some acquaintances (both Black and White) for writing last week that former judge Tim McGinty isn’t a racist… a conclusion I continue to stand firmly behind. He’s a prick maybe… but not a racist. The confusion, I think, lies in the fact all racists are pricks, but not all pricks are racists.

I caught similar flack some years ago by writing that Bill Mason also isn’t a racist — that indeed he was far more dangerous: he was an ambitious politician… one that was not above sending as many people to prison as possible if he felt it would help him become Ohio Attorney General and allow him to eventually occupy the Governor’s Mansion. But Mason certainly was not the first politician in the land to try winning higher office by posturing as “tough on crime” and locking up far more people than necessary on petty charges. Bill Clinton was the real master of this style of posturing politics.

But McGinty and Mason do share a negative characteristic: They both are legal bullies, and that’s probably what makes some minorities think they are racists. They’re both so hell-bent on winning at any and all costs… and the Devil take the hindmost — fairness be damned. Taking a deep look at the records both have amassed over the years and it’s clear they both are hypocrites — demanding that others obey the law while flaunting the law themselves. They are, in fact, serial abusers of the law… not humble respecters of it and the truth.

This is why extreme care has to be taken in regards to who we as citizens entrust the overwhelming power of the prosecutor’s office to next. It has to be someone who is big: huge in personal stature and integrity, with a deep, abiding love of and respect for the entire body of law… and not just in love with the power the prosecutor’s office affords them to indict. Power, when entrusted to those not truly “big” enough to possess and wield it with sternness tempered by fairness and possessing a sincere desire uphold the spirit as well as the letter of the law, usually ends up with said power being abused, and sometimes abused badly.

The question of this prosecutor’s race is indeed more philosophical than political in construct. Will we invest the power of the office in the candidate who can raise the most money and best manipulate the levers of politics, or will we seek out and support the wisest and most philosophically mature candidate?

The only check on prosecutorial misconduct and overreaching is the U.S. Department of Justice, and do you, gentle reader, have any idea how many prosecutors have been indicted in this country in the last 100 or so years? Only one that I am aware of… for possession of child porn. In other words, if the citizenry makes a mistake in who they elect they have to live with it until the next election… and usually by then the incumbent has burrowed in too deep to easily eject from office.

The electorate cannot simply look at the person they would vote for as they appear on Election Day, but try to look to see what that person might become in years two, three and four. Will they change the county for the better, or will having inordinate power and control in their hands change them? Will they turn into a true servant and protector of the public and commonweal, or will they turn into no more than a tinhorn dictator, drunk on the power the office confers on them? It’s happened before, many times over.

The eventual winner of the race will say much more about us than it does about them. Will we continue, in knee-jerk fashion, to make this a referendum on Irish surname popularity, or will we look deeper and elect someone who reflects back to us the kind of community we want and need to become… not the county we historically have been? In simpler terms, will we regress back to the Stone-Age politics that have held us captive for so long… and thereby shout to the entire world we here in Cuyahoga County do indeed deserve the oft-quoted moniker of backward-facing losers?

While the entire world may not be watching, some folks who are considering investing in our region certainly are… and they want a progressive, even-handed individual holding the reigns of prosecutorial power… and electing an anachronistic throwback to the 1950s type of justice administration certainly won’t inspire investor confidence. Power has been known to badly corrupt… we need to vote wisely.

 

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.

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