Green Jobs for All?

On Monday, April 20th, representatives of the governor's office and a number of elected officials gave an overflow crowd an update on the stimulus dollars coming into Ohio from Washington. Nothing turns out a crowd like the waving of some potential greenbacks -- yeah, I was there too.

Much of the money is earmarked for "green" type projects, and the guru of green, Van Jones (whose seminal book The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems is fast becoming the bible of the nascent green movement) was recently tapped by president Obama to oversee this critical aspect of Americas resurgence.

Jones, a Yale graduate and attorney, started the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA over a decade ago to explore ways of lifting people out of poverty and breaking the cycle of family dysfunction that’s creating generation after generation of youth that eventually wind up behind bars.

In his book he writes (I’m paraphrasing since I loaned my copy out to a very slow reader) that as long as the green movement is thought of as a bunch of white guys, all driving a Prius, and attempting to save the polar bear it was not going to go anywhere. It had to become more widespread and egalitarian. To advance that effort he started the organization “Green for All.” http://www.greenforall.org.

His theory is that green jobs can be created and formerly incarcerated people can be employed in this new industry, thus “How One Solution Can Fix Two of Our Biggest Problems.” However, the only problem with Jones’ logic is that in Greater Cleveland too many employers will still use a felony conviction from 10 or even 20 years ago to keep people locked out of employment. They act as if they’ve never heard of the Second Chance Act, which President Bush pushed through Congress last year.

Someone should begin monitoring how the stimulus money is being spent, and make sure that employers are not blocking out some of the people the green jobs movement is supposed to help. If evidence of that kind of recalcitrant discriminatory activity surfaces, someone should alert Van Jones’ office immediately — if not sooner.

Judging the Judges

False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin/ Only a matter of time 'til night comes steppin' in. - Bob Dylan, "Jokerman" (1983)

If I ever were scheduled to appear before Common Pleas Judge Eileen A. Gallagher I know the lawyer I would retain: Jay Schlachet. Why? Because he can spin her like a top. As a for instance, let’s just say you killed both of your parents … Schlachet could convince Judge Gallagher to have mercy on you because …you’re now an orphan.

Here’s the story: Virtually everyone has seen the tags “HEK” and “MAK” spray painted on surfaces around town — be it public or private property — for the last couple of years. The police finally caught the alleged graffiti artists, Matthew Eastburn, 23 of South Euclid, and Mark Skapan, 24 of Cleveland, red-handed. Eastburn was in the act of painting a traffic signal control box, and Skapan was apprehended nearby in a waiting vehicle with cans of spray paint and markers. Their homes contained computers with other evidence of their alleged involvement (sketches, pictures of their handiwork, etc.) but Schlachet convinced Judge Gallagher that the evidence against Eastburn was too weak for a felony conviction and she reduced the charges to misdemeanors, and dropped all charges against Skapan.

Yeah, I know that you just went back and read the above paragraph again, just to make sure you didn’t miss something, but, as mind-boggling as it sounds, those are the facts. And here’s the real kicker: When Ward 13 Councilman Joe Cimperman lead a protest of about 40 irate residents, upset over the lenient treatment, in a protest in front of the Justice Center, Schlachet has the temerity, the unmitigated gall, to show up and lecture Cimperman that the should spend more time in his ward instead of exposing the sweetheart deal he was able to finagle for his client. Bad idea, Schlachet, bad idea. Your action only threw oil onto the fire.

Now he’s made the case, and the judge’s unwise decision, into a cause cèlébre. I know that conventional wisdom tells most elected officials — and especially judges — that the public has a very short memory, and that by the time the next election rolls around all will be forgotten and forgiven; and that’s usually the case. But I do recall that a judge, Patricia Ann Cleary was bounced off the bench about four or five years ago because it was perceived that she put a pregnant woman in prison to prevent the woman from having an abortion. My point is, some cases just strike a nerve, and if you’re as tired of seeing graffiti sprayed on everything as I (and a lot of other citizens) happen to be then this could be a real issue for Judge Gallagher come election time.

When the law is turned into an ass, people are nudged towards vigilantism because they feel they have no recourse. The prosecutor should appeal Gallagher’s ruling in this case if possible, and the public needs to realize how much of an impact judges can have on society on election day.

Also, as promised last week, an update on the Drug Court issue that I’ve been writing about. First allow me to address a couple of responders to my last week’s article: Crack heads stink … and they stink because they don’t bathe … and they don’t bathe because they are too busy getting high. So how does anyone lobby for filthily little dope fiends? The simple fact is, I’m not … I’m lobbying for effective programs that will solve their drug problem, reduce the revolving door, and keep our tax dollars in our wallets. It should be clear to even the biggest “law and order” fool by now that we are never, even going to “police” our way out of our national drug dilemma. All our appetite for illegal drugs is doing is creating Mexican cartels that are threatening the national stability of our neighbors to the south. Just like Prohibition gave us Al Capone.

So my question was, and will continue to be, why did Presiding Judge Nancy McDonnell name her pal, David T. Matia (the worst possible judge in the county for this position) to head the Drug Court? He will make a hash of it, and then blame the people who come before him — as proof that the only way to solve the problem is increasingly punitive measures. That’s just who he is as a judge. He won’t solve the problem; he’ll only make it worse.

However, judges rarely change their minds, even when faced with overwhelming evidence they have made a bad choice (virtually every lawyer in the Justice Center is scratching their head over this one) so it’s going to take a bit more convincing.

I know that on this one I’m tiling at windmills, I have little — if any — chance of getting Judge McDonnell to name the right jurist to the Drug Court, but too many families and lives are at stake here, too many tax dollars will be thrown down the rat hole of bad decision-making by a judge that just doesn’t “get it” for me to abandon my crusade. Cronyism should only go so far, and when it collides with the public good, it should be stopped dead in its tracks. In the name of justice, fair play, and common sense, I press on.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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