Guarino

GPD/ Criminal Justice Quick Hits

There has been lots of activity recently regarding the GPD, crime, law enforcement and our criminal justice system.  I will discuss briefly:

1. The News and Record reports this morning (apparently unposted) that the City of Greensboro, after more than two long years, has finally relented and granted Randall Brady his retirement benefits.  The city had withheld his hard-earned benefits, even though it was the city that acted wrongly in the matter of the GPD fiasco.

2. Ben Holder reports that the city is providing Jerry Bledsoe with the name of the police officer who performed a search to locate his home without legitimate cause.  Bledsoe later was targeted by organized crime because of his series in the Rhino Times.  It will be interesting to see who the officer is, and what the city does about it.

3. Unless I have missed something, the matter of the sexual assault alleged to have been perpetrated by GPD officer(s) upon a female officer has not yet been resolved, despite the passage of over four months.  If there is no major disciplinary action against at least one of these officers on this matter, citizens will be right to demand accountability from our leaders.

4. A case this week demonstrated how an abuser with a criminal background was released by the magistrate's office instead of being incarcerated after choking a woman; and then proceeded to beat the woman until she lost consciousness.  Doug Clark has been covering the story extensively on his blog.  District Court Judge Susan Bray has offered a series of recommendations to Chief District Court Judge Joe Turner to prevent the recurrence of the magistrate's office acting inappropriately.   Judge Bray's recommendations are thoughtful and well presented.   (I would add that assailants who assault or shoot at police officers need to be considered particularly dangerous and problematic, and that should be taken into consideration by the magistrate's office when it makes decisions about sending folks to jail or setting bond.)

5. The case of the abuser in the last paragraph illustrates how various dynamics can create a revolving-door criminal justice system.  But an article in today's News and Record illustrates another problem.   Judge Turner is interviewed in an article on jail overcrowding:

Although the courts don't keep data on how much bond judges order for different crimes, Guilford County judges say they have let people go free who they would prefer — with more jail space — to keep incarcerated.

"The lower-level crimes and the people who fail to come to court are being released where they might have been held under some higher secure bond were we not in the position we are now," said Joseph E. Turner, Guilford County's chief district court judge. "The available space needs to be held for people who are much more seriously dangerous to our community."

I think Judge Turner is dead wrong when he indicates that judges should decide to keep people out of jail-- who would otherwise need to go there-- if they perceive there is not enough space.  If they need to go to jail, they should be sent there-- and then it is the burden of the county and the Sheriff's Department to determine how best to handle the volume.  The district courts and the magistrate's office should give primacy to the safety of the public, and the control of crime within their respective jurisdictions.

6. The recent incidents during which Greensboro police officers shot and killed one assailant, and tasered another who later had complications, illustrate how our criminal justice system has not been working correctly.  Both individuals had significant past criminal records.  The state of North Carolina has come under recent scrutiny because of the failure of its Division of Community Corrections to properly supervise and monitor those criminals on parole or probation.  The Greensboro Police Department is not doing all it could to control crime.

So we have weakness at nearly every pressure point in the system-- the local police department, the magistrate's office, the courts, the DA's office and the Division of Community Corrections.  It is little wonder that Greensboro is a high-crime area, and that our region is having difficulties in this regard. 

For a long time, there has been little emphasis on crime control because of the political culture we have locally and at the state level.  We are now living with the consequences.

Vote NO Against Guilford County School Bonds

A huge bond issue-- $457 million-- is on the ballot in the upcoming primary for school construction.  One might assume that this bond is primarily for new school construction, but a News and Record analysis demonstrates that it also includes a fair number of expensive alterations to existing schools.

In any event, voters are being asked to entrust this task to a system that has mismanaged it severely in the past.  Of particular concern is the amount expended on new schools and the excessive nature of these facilities. 

Our school system has difficulty containing construction-related costs.   It will spend grandiose amounts on a given project, even if it squeezes out other projects-- and will then ask for another bond issue in a couple of years to complete the previously untackled jobs. 

The school board and the school system have little incentive to contain costs.  They build the facility that has the features to cater to various wants and contingencies.  They represent it is "for the children", but of course that is a gross misstatement.

And the private groups assembled to push the bonds make the same claim-- "for the children".  But what children need is what happens in the classroom-- and this is primarily an exercise of intellect and determination and organization and passion to assure the educational process takes place.  The building is secondary.

A vote for the bonds is a vote to raise county taxes, which are raised nearly every year anyway.  There is not even any pretension on the part of our county commissioners that other economies will be found to prevent a tax increase in the event the bond issue is passed.

And it has been pointed out in the Rhinoceros Times that passing bonds would enable the county to later float more bonds without going to the voters-- for 2/3 the amount of the original bond issue.  This would tend to further aggravate our exposure to future tax increases.

The pro-bonds organizations claim that good schools are needed to attract employers to our area.  But real estate is not our primary problem.  Our problem is with respect to misguided policies pursued by the schools system, the failure to maintain discipline and order, the emphasis on racial bean-counting, the failure to set high expectations, and of course parental disengagement.

Real estate will not fix those problems.  In fact, it can be argued that the higher county taxes caused by the bonds will have the effect of chasing away some prospective employers.  Remember, our combined local-state taxes are already quite high compared with much of the rest of the southeastern United States. 

Unfortunately, our Board of County Commissioners has not held the school board and the school system accountable for its overspending on school construction.  It merely chose to pass the bond proposal on to the voters. 

There has been some discussion of the county taking over the function of school construction from the school system.  That might be a good idea.  But even better-- let's privatize that function with generous incentives built in for true cost containment.  And let's attract more charter schools to ameliorate the demand for school construction.

One argument in favor of the bonds is that our county is growing, and needs the additional permanent classroom space.  Perhaps.  But that should not make voters relinquish their right to demand better accountability for school construction dollars.

One of the current school board candidates sits on the board of Greensboro Academy-- an excellent local charter school serving grades K-8-- and points out how that school was built eight years ago for only $5 million.   We need to disabuse ourselves of the perception being created that we have no choice but to pass this bond issue.

Cops in Black and White, Part LI

The Jerry Bledsoe series continues in the Rhino Times today with an installment about Randy Gerringer.  The following represents a summary.

Randy Gerringer is a Police Department retiree who became a private investigator.  He was hired back by David Wray on a part-time basis to handle intelligence and security concerns related to certain Truth and Reconciliation process activities and events.  When those tasks were over, he assisted Special Intelligence with other matters.  He had previously worked in that division during his GPD career.

He was asked to assist with the surveillance of Project Help, a home started up by James Hinson ostensibly to assist reforming prostitutes.  He did not find any untoward activity.

He then was asked to monitor James Hinson because Tim Bellamy had found Hinson driving a police vehicle in a questionable area during off-duty hours; because Hinson also had been working off-duty jobs while on duty; and because Hinson's phone number had been found on the cell phone of a drug dealer.

Gerringer went to Hinson's home and placed a bird-dog tracker on his vehicle.  Later, he switched it to a GPS device when the car was parked at the Grande Theater.  Hinson discovered it, and shortly thereafter went public with his accusations.  This happened during early June, 2005.

RMA was called in to investigate by Mitchell Johnson.  Gerringer was to meet with RMA on November 23, 2005 for what turned out to be a confrontational interrogation.  He had heard from Scott Sanders that RMA was rough, that its people were confused and did not have their facts straight.  But Gerringer was not apprehensive because he had done nothing wrong.

RMA tried to get him to implicate Wray.  They later hounded him on the matter of the accusations made by James Hinson's wife, Beverly.  It was alleged that she had been wrongfully monitored, but this charge was later completely debunked. 

The explanation?  Art League, another private investigator, had been surveilling a domestic case in Beverly Hinson's neighborhood.  RMA persisted on the matter nonetheless during Gerringer's interrogation; and this made him a bit upset.  He offered to take a polygraph; or to call in Art League, and have him take a polygraph. 

But RMA continued to believe that Beverly Hinson had been monitored.  They seized on the fact that League had at another time been asked to help check Wray's office for listening devices, suggesting there was collusion.  Interestingly, however, League was never questioned by RMA.

Bledsoe wrote of Gerringer's thoughts about the process:

"(RMA's investigators) weren't searching for truth... They were looking only for information to back up foregone conclusions."

Of Gerringer, Wray and Sanders, he added: "All were in agreement that RMA had taken the black officers' complaints as fact and were unwilling to accept any explanations to the contrary.  The RMA investigators also appeared to have shown no interest in police documents available to them that showed the investigations of black officers not only were justified but couldn't have been ignored."

Gerringer's admiration of David Wray increased because he found that with Wray "it was about the truth, what's right and what's wrong".   And of the criminal charges against Scott Sanders and Tom Fox, Bledsoe wrote:

"Gerringer said he knows of nothing they did that was illegal or wrong, and believes the charges are without merit and were brought because of political pressure.  Trial dates for Sanders and Fox have yet to be set."

My note: Sanders and Fox were supposed to be tried this month; but April now has nearly passed, and there is no word of any trial.

Fred Smith for Governor

I decided over the last week that I was going to vote for Fred Smith in the GOP gubernatorial primary.  And last night, I had the opportunity to attend a rally held in Greensboro on his behalf, and meet him briefly.

Right now, it appears that the GOP gubernatorial primary is essentially a two-man race.  And of those two men, I think Senator Smith is the better candidate to represent conservative Republican ideals.

Smith has a varied list of policy positions on his website, and is a consistent conservative.  He is pro-life and pro-family.  He wants to hold the line on spending by our state government, and reorder its priorities.  He advocates stopping the raid of the state Highway Trust Fund, and promoting charter schools.  He champions tort reform and market-driven, consumer-directed health care.  He talks about constitutional amendments on eminent domain and the definition of marriage.  He espouses traditional conservative Republican approaches to job creation and crime control.

His chief opponent, Pat McCrory, has chosen to focus on fewer issues.  It is unclear, therefore, at this point where he stands on some important matters.   I hope that will become more clear as the campaign progresses.

McCrory has strengths as a candidate.  He is good on the stump, and does well on TV.  He has certain leadership qualities.  Fred Smith also possesses many of these strengths, but there is somewhat of a cultural difference.  McCrory appears to be at least a notch or two more moderate in his views than Smith.  McCrory may appeal more to urban areas; whereas Smith's appeal may be more to small town/rural North Carolina.  McCrory's manner of speech is fairly generic and neutral; but Smith exhibits a distinctive country/southern twang.

Some have argued that McCrory may be better positioned to prevail in the general election because of his moderate views.  But Smith disagrees.  He points to the success of people like Richard Burr, Elizabeth Dole, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Jesse Helms in statewide campaigns here in North Carolina.  He says that when Republicans run as strong conservatives statewide, they have a good chance to win.

Statewide polling previously reported on the web showed McCrory ahead, but the latest internal polling may not necessarily confirm these results.  And John Hood points out that Smith merely needs to keep McCrory from exceeding 40% of the vote to force a runoff.  And of course, if Smith gets more than 40% on May 6, he wins.  Hood emphasizes Smith's instincts as a manager, demanding accountability for tax dollars spent.  And in fact, the senator does have a fairly impressive life story that demonstrates his capacity for leadership.

Postscript: I had a chance to spend some time with Tony Wilkins at the function last night, met some nice folks for the first time, and had the chance to reconnect with a handful of others.  Lee Greenwood sang a set for attendees; and I happened to have asked him in the lounge area for directions to the rest room earlier in the evening, momentarily unaware of who he was.  It was great to see everyone.

 

House Democrats, Insurance Companies Try to Undermine HSA's

Health Savings Accounts (HSA's) are a great idea. They couple high-deductible health insurance with a tax-advantaged savings account to be used for health-related expenses. 

There are numerous benefits associated with this innovation adopted several years ago-- decreased insurance premiums; tax benefits; increased cost awareness among health care consumers; a tendency to reduce premium increases;  the fostering of price competition in the health care system; restoring insurance to its proper role-- the coverage of catastrophic expenses; and the provision of an insurance alternative that would help preserve the viability of private insurance rather than government-sponsored health care.

Given all these benefits, it stands to reason that the national Democrats would seek to undermine this insurance alternative.  They fought for years the introduction of this type of innovation because it would hinder their inexorable march toward national health insurance and universal health care.

We learn this week that the congressional Democrats are attempting to tie the program up in knots by introducing onerous new requirements that would cause many participants to bail out.   (Hat tip:  Red Clay Citizen).  The objective seems to be to kill HSA's via regulation.

But we also have forces right here in North Carolina that are undermining the HSA program-- in fact, two of our largest regional health insurers.  Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBS) and United Healthcare (UHC) both offer this type of insurance product to their customers.  And both handle HSA claims as they do other health insurance claims-- i.e., they hold physicians and other providers to a reimbursement schedule, and thereby limit what they can charge.

This may seem favorable to consumers because it protects them from being overcharged.  But unfortunately, it also undermines one of the chief benefits of HSA-type insurance.  Because there is a fee schedule, there will be much less of a perceived need for the health care consumer to engage in comparison pricing and shopping.   This would also tend to undermine the potential for achieving some of the key benefits of HSA's-- reduced premiums, reduced health care prices and also a reduction in the rate of annual increases in premiums.

So health care consumers from North Carolina with HSA plans from BCBS and UHC face the risk of continued annual double-digit increases in premiums, even though this type of plan would seem to promise otherwise.

The national Democrats and insurance companies all have an interest in seeing to it that HSA's fail.  I hope they do not succeed in achieving that objective.  I hope that Senate Republicans remain steadfast against any mischief that arises from the House.

But I also hope that North Carolina consumers and leaders figure out what is happening with their local insurers' HSA offerings, and somehow prevail upon them to clean up their policies.

Simkins Endorsement in GOP County Commissioners' Primary

It is reported at Tony Wilkins' blog that Rudy Binder is the recipient of the Simkins machine endorsement for the upcoming GOP primary in the at-large County Commissioner race.

It is doubtful how much effect the Simkins endorsement will have in the GOP primary.  It is doubtful that many African-American voters on the Simkins mailing list will be voting as Republicans.

It has been reported elsewhere that Mr. Binder is a developer.  Area Republicans are free to draw their own conclusions; but they should consider the fact that he obtained this endorsement when they decide for whom to vote.  I am of the opinion that local candidates should not be pursuing this endorsement-- especially Republicans.

Mr. Binder's principal opponents are Wendell Sawyer and Larry Proctor. 

Wendell is a longtime commenter at this blog.  A former state senator, he has pledged to try to cut property taxes, and has demonstrated in his many comments here that he is guided by right-thinking principles.  In addition, he has high name recognition. 

Mr. Proctor has chaired the county planning board.  It should be an interesting primary.

 

The Paschal Shooting

Ben Holder has been providing great coverage of the recent shooting of a young man, James Paschal, Jr., by Greensboro police.   He reports today regarding the young man's criminal record, including what sounds like at least two instances of assaulting a police officer.

This is yet another example of our revolving door criminal justice system doing harm.  It appears that this young man should have been imprisoned for a very long time based on his multiple offenses.  And the instances of assaulting a police officer should have been treated as dispositive evidence of a major problem from which society needed to be protected. 

But he was out on the streets, instead of having been put away in prison for a prolonged sentence; and paradoxically it cost him his life.

Pope Confronts Wayward Americans, Catholic Universities

I had the opportunity this afternoon to watch on television Pope Benedict's Mass at Yankee Stadium.  He included in his homily a call to obedience, using gentle but frank language:

"Authority" … "obedience". To be frank, these are not easy words to speak nowadays. Words like these represent a "stumbling stone" for many of our contemporaries, especially in a society which rightly places a high value on personal freedom. Yet, in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ - "the way and the truth and the life" - we come to see the fullest meaning, value, and indeed beauty, of those words. The Gospel teaches us that true freedom, the freedom of the children of God, is found only in the self-surrender which is part of the mystery of love. Only by losing ourselves, the Lord tells us, do we truly find ourselves (cf. Lk 17:33). True freedom blossoms when we turn away from the burden of sin, which clouds our perceptions and weakens our resolve, and find the source of our ultimate happiness in him who is infinite love, infinite freedom, infinite life. "In his will is our peace".

Real freedom, then, is God's gracious gift, the fruit of conversion to his truth, the truth which makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32). And this freedom in truth brings in its wake a new and liberating way of seeing reality. When we put on "the mind of Christ" (cf. Phil 2:5), new horizons open before us! In the light of faith, within the communion of the Church, we also find the inspiration and strength to become a leaven of the Gospel in the world. We become the light of the world, the salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14), entrusted with the "apostolate" of making our own lives, and the world in which we live, conform ever more fully to God's saving plan.

This visit to America was remarkable in several respects; and it was heavily covered by the news media. But one speech he gave was particularly noteworthy.  He spoke earlier this week to educators at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.  This particular speech did not receive much media attention.

Concern has been expressed in some quarters regarding the changing character of Catholic colleges and universities-- that they are becoming too secular, that they are not sufficiently inculcating the faith among students, that they are not setting high enough standards for student behavior. 

This is not a uniquely Catholic problem.  In fact, many of our nation's great colleges and universities were founded by Protestant denominations; and similar discussions and debates take place within those denominations regarding how far astray their schools of higher learning have gone.   

Part of this happens because of a desire to conform to modernity to broaden appeal and marketability to prospective students.

But Pope Benedict thinks this trend should be opposed.  This is of significance because the Catholic Church is a hierarchical institution, and at least theoretically, his word should prevail.  Said Pope Benedict:

In regard to faculty members at Catholic colleges universities, I wish to reaffirm the great value of academic freedom. In virtue of this freedom you are called to search for the truth wherever careful analysis of evidence leads you. Yet it is also the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission; a mission at the heart of the Church's munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.

Teachers and administrators, whether in universities or schools, have the duty and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine and practice. This requires that public witness to the way of Christ, as found in the Gospel and upheld by the Church's Magisterium, shapes all aspects of an institution's life, both inside and outside the classroom. Divergence from this vision weakens Catholic identity and, far from advancing freedom, inevitably leads to confusion, whether moral, intellectual or spiritual.

Given the state of American higher education, this is a momentous stand being taken, if he follows through on what he is advocating.  It is a stand that, for the most part, has not been taken in many Protestant traditions.

Postscript: The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has identified 50 American colleges and universities that meet its chief criteria: academic excellence; adherence to a traditional core curriculum that emphasizes a broad introduction to the liberal arts; and maintenance of a good campus atmosphere for student life.  What was the only college in North Carolina that met its criteria?  Belmont Abbey, a Catholic institution located in  Belmont, NC.