ProgressOhio

Power is as intoxicating as it is fleeting.

Whether it’s just being power tipsy in a subtle way such as playing office games with meeting invites to freeze out an unfavored subordinate, or as power drunk as using a government position to steer a check to your favorite local charity – somehow powertripping seems to be part of the trappings of democracy regardless of political party. It’s in the DNA of bureaucracy. (And to be sure I’ve heard of both examples in the current administration in recent months.)

You would think that out of any government authority the presence of a badge and a gavel empowers a Judge or law enforcement officer with such a level of power over a citizen’s civil liberties and rights that there would be an immediate, visceral and protective reaction from government watchdogs.

And yet over the past week Ohio has been littered with stories of some outlandish behavior.

*A public defender’s office accused of refusing to routinely ask the court to waive poor offender’s fines instead sending them to jail.

*A lawsuit filed when three teenage girls caught fighting were ordered to take a tour of a juvenile jail only to be strip searched and mistreated on their “Felon’s Gone Wilde” tour.

*A Columbus Police Officer reassigned over a YouTube video in which she disparages blacks, Jews, Cubans and illegal immigrants.

*A Cleveland Police Officer arrested on a cocaine ring charge by federal agents.

*The law director of the City of Kent charging a man who placed an “Impeach Bush” sign in a public with littering.

*The City of Kent settling a lawsuit against perfectly peaceful protesters arrested during an anti-war rally in 2003.

*A Portage County Judge arresting and fining a young public defender for contempt for not being prepared to try a case he had not received until the previous day.

*And the same Portage County Judge assigning a lady convicted on disorderly conduct and a misdemeanor assault charge to 60 hours of community services as an unpaid staff member in the Judge’s chamber.

Is it any wonder that newspapers also reported this week that Ohioans bought a record $673 million in hard liquor last year?

Earlier this summer, the Iraq Summer college kids in Central Ohio did a protest with members of the Upper Arlington Progressive Action group. The goal was to go door to door in Rep. Deborah Pryce’s neighborhood and distribute yard signs that said “Support the Troops **End the War.”

They met at a local McDonald’s early one Saturday morning after a ProgressOhio email inviting residents to attend.

And the seven volunteers who showed up to go door to door were met by seven Upper Arlington Police Cars – seven! And a car followed them as they went door to door every step of the way – even with media filming.

And then most curious of all, the volunteers who had seen no photographers on the street, no counter protestors, found pictures of their activity cited in a letter that Rep. Pryce’s [then] campaign sent to her volunteers. The Pryce campaign knew the license plates of the protesters and their states, they knew enough about registrations that they did opp. research on the background of drivers that day who were going door-to-door (even wrongly accusing one volunteer of being a paid field worker for Iraq Summer.) In her letter to volunteers Pryce’s campaign wrote:

“In fact, the leaders of these shadowy groups are from Minnesota, California and Florida. Not only have they not thought to change their license plates, but they also have not removed their Al Franken for U.S. Senate (Minnesota) bumper stickers. Don’t believe me? See for yourself in the pics below from a “rally” of 7 protestors (5 from out of state) in Upper Arlington a couple of weeks ago.”

Yet curiously the only presence that could have likely provided the Pryce Campaign that information and those pictures would be the Upper Arlington Police Department.

If you live in Upper Arlington, you ought to be outraged. Seven patrol cars for seven door-to-door volunteers acting perfectly within their constitutional rights. A police escort. Likely taxpayer funded collaboration – not with the Congresswoman as an officeholder or citizen– but with her political campaign.

Now that’s tarnish on the badge folks. That’s a powertrip.

Then last Tuesday during the Take A Stand rally at the Statehouse, one of the volunteers outside the Statehouse was holding an End the War sign directing attendees to the Statehouse Atrium doors. They complained that a patrol officer radioed in a question about their right to hold a cardboard sign up directing traffic, and he said he heard the response on the other end of the radio include --- “Is it for the War or Against the War.” When the superior was told by radio it was a sign “Against the War” the volunteer was told he could not hold the sign on the Statehouse property – that’s right outside, on the sidewalk of the “people’s house.”

There is no reason to ask such a question unless that law enforcement officer was on a powertrip over his own beliefs.

And then there are this week’s headlines.

• The Public Defenders Who Let Poor Clients Go To Jail

In Hamilton County the 6th U.S. Circuit Court upheld the right of a plaintiff to file a class action suit against the Hamilton County Public Defender for routinely refusing to ask Judges to waive the fines of indigent (poor) defendants – instead sending them to jail. The Circuit Court did send the case back for a possible trial.

The offense in this case warranted a sentence of probation and a $250 fine in Municipal Court. Yet the State wound up paying to jail this person for a misdemeanor $250 offense that he could not afford to pay – and that his legal counsel refuse to ask be waived.

Let’s see pay an indigent fee of $250 or instead house a prisoner at great expense – and have your own lawyer do that to you to boot. That’s a powertrip – an expensive one at that.

Scared Straight Program Devolves to Strip Searching Teenage Girls

So now we go up to Stark County where there is a multi-county Juvenile Detention Center. Three girls 14, 15, and 16 agreed to take a 15-minute walk through the facility and perform 20 hours of community service according to AP to avoid going to court on trespassing charges filed after a fight.

According to a lawsuit filed by the girl’s families, on May 18 the girls were strip-searched, forced by guards to remove their clothes, squat, lift their breasts and open their mouths. Afterward they were given dirty inmate uniforms to wear. The article said the teens had passed through metal detectors and were patted down when they entered the building so there was no need for such a search – and that they would have never agreed to the sentence if they knew this would happen.

C’mon. Scared straight is one thing. Getting powertrip jolly’s out of strip-searching these teens that weren’t even inmates borders on the ridiculous.

• The Case of the Racist Cop on YouTube

Back in the Capitol City, Columbus police officer Susan Purtee opted for her own 15-minutes of YouTube fame with a shocking and clearly offensive and bigoted tirade blaming blacks, Jews, Cubans and illegal immigrants for just about any societal woes.

Mayor Michael Coleman ordered an investigation, and Officer Purtee was re-assigned to a desk job – hopefully without being in view of her non-Aryan brothers and sisters she loves so much.

You’d think we’re making this stuff up. But my question is are we really supposed to believe that the racist belief’s did not erupt until a YouTube video emerged. It’s not only a powertrip for Officer Purtee to make the video, it’s absolutely a powertrip when fellow officers see glimpses of this behavior and do nothing.

• The Case of the Feds Arresting a Cop on Cocaine Charges

And now to Cleveland, my beloved town– we have Officer Zvonko Sarlog – arrested in a federal cocaine ring.

You got it – not in some Medellin police force, Sarlog is an Officer of the house that Elliott Ness built. And he is arrested in a cocaine ring. On the one hand it’s shameful – on the other it makes you feel for those Officers who know what that badge symbolizes. I worked in Cleveland when a courageous officer gave his life for that City. It makes Officer Sarlog’s arrest even more glaringly an abuse of that power and sacrifice.

But then again, was there no-one in the CPD that could see some type of strange behavior from Officer Sarlog along the way. Are we to believe this Officer had some closet personality and this issue couldn’t have been nipped in the bud internally. Does it really take the Fed’s to somehow figure this out and clean up men in blue who tarnish the badge? Do fellow officers look the other way – and if so isn’t that abuse of power.

• The Case of the Yard Sign Arrest

Finally, there is Portage County, the place where I grew up with people I know very well – and because I know them personally – it makes it even harder to write about my disappointment in the abuse of power chronicled in newspapers this week.

The Kent Law Director, Jim Silver, who I consider a friend and worked for some years back, filed a trespassing charge against an anti-war activist who put a yard sign in a public park. Rather than just remove the sign – they filed trespassing signs in a public park. C’mon – no selective enforcement over personal beliefs there – no powertrip there.

Given Kent’s history with over-reaction to public protest (May 4 ring a bell) wouldn’t you think locals there would see this as a tad bit over-zealous.

• The Case of the Kent State Peaceful Protest met by 200 Riot Police

Then again -- not when you consider the City of Kent just settled a 2003 lawsuit over anti-war activists. According to the Plain Dealer eleven people will split a $65,000 award from U.S. District Court. According to the article the protestors were participating in the 33rd anniversary of the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings. The Kent State Anti-War Committee planned a rally the same day and was denied a permit.

The crowd of about 150 people moved off campus and to their surprise faced – 200 police officers in riot gear (makes Upper Arlington seem like Mayberry – folks.) The Plain Dealer reports that protestors were told to stay on sidewalks and off the streets and complied where they chanted and yelled – only to find themselves being arrested. Incidentally the newspaper indicates the group had done many peaceful events prior to this and there was no reason for this reaction.

Have we learned anything after four days in OH—HI—O. Yeesh, as a Portage Countian May 4 is embedded in your mind – 200 riot police in 2003 – is it really not eerily similar to the Rhodesian powertrips heard round the world in 1970. This is hardly a re-assurance that May 4 to some is no longer a lesson in history – but only a history book whose cold empty words mean little to those claiming to remember.

• The Judge who Jails a Public Defender for Being Unprepared on One Days Notice

And finally there is Municipal Judge John Plough. An assistant public defender, just four months out of law school was found in contempt and ordered arrested. The indigent lawyer’s offense – well the lawyer got assigned the case on August 15 and said he could not be prepared for a trial one day later on August 16. The Plain Dealer indicates this is part of a continuing “skirmish between Plough and Public Defenders.”

Is the public really served by vendettas like these? What kind of powertrip makes a man with a gavel go to these lengths to make a point?

• The Judge Who Assigns a Convict to Work for Him as Community Service

And then there is another Plain Dealer article about Judge Plough who had taken a sentence against a lady convicted of misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct and ordered her to 60 hours of community service working for Judge Plough in his chambers.

Does this not reek of the stench of abuse of power? If anything, why not assign her to some other Judge – after all as the sentencing authority, Judge Plough creates obvious conflicts on the rights of those convicted.

Somewhere in the human mind, Judges, juvenile correction guards, police officers and even public defenders somehow lose sight of not just those basic rights of human dignity, respect of the law they uphold, and force commensurate with actions.

We have Courts and grievance boards, disciplinary review panels and even peer review panels, and an ever eager legislature to pass new tougher laws. Yet none seem to react at an appropriate pace to deal with powertripping officials.

Yet we all know a “Powertrip” when we see it. And quite frankly government review is too slow to react -- whether seven police cars for seven protestors in Upper Arlington, or 200 riot police for a peaceful demonstration in Kent, or three girls strip-searched on a juvenile detention tour or Judge’s run amok.

Government is failing its citizens when those already granted extraordinary public powers over our rights and liberties, can push way past the limits of the power we confer on Judges, law enforcement officers and even bureaucrats.

It shouldn’t take a brazen YouTube video to see a racist with a badge for what they are – these aren’t the days of Bull Connor. Or why should it take a newspaper to point out a Judge’s powertrips for the excess it is. Or even to hear stories about that government official who somehow sees his power of authority as license to benefit through state money the cause they like, or to banish the yard sign or placard they dislike.

And most of all – for a state that lived through Kent State – these headlines make me wonder -have we really learned from our own Ohio history full of adrenaline powertrips gone badly.