OPINION
Expanding
the police
state at the
risk of liberty
Record-Courier
Tuesday
August 26, 2014
Page A4
Cagle cartoon syndicate
EDITORIAL BOARD
DAVID E. DIX, Publisher
ROGER J. Di PAOLO, Editor
HEATHER CONDLEY RAINONE,
Managing Editor
CHAD MURPHY, News Editor
Serving Portage County since 1830
Rolling
out the
welcome
mat in Kent
nn Making KSU students feel at
home benefits community, too
K
ent’s newest residents
— the incoming class at Kent
State University — received a
great welcome Saturday, thanks to the efforts of the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce, the Central Portage County Visitors & Convention Bureau and KSU’s
Office of Student Success Programs.
Thousands of
new students made
their way downtown
aboard trolley to
take part in Discover
Downtown, an event
welcoming them to
the community and the downtown retail district.
The students were greeted by members
of the business community and city leaders, given gift bags by Main Street Kent
that included coupons, menus and information from retailers and invited to explore the downtown area. Many enjoyed
hot dogs and beverages as they listened
to bands and visited information booths
along Main Street, which was closed to
vehicular traffic.
Mayor Jerry Fiala, who took part in the
welcome and helped at the food booth,
said Discover Downtown is “by far the
best opportunity for Kent to shine and
for the students to be introduced to their
new home.”
He’s right. Rolling out the welcome mat
for the students is a great way of making them feel at home. Kent’s downtown
area has so much to offer students, both
day and night, that an introduction during their first weekend in town can do a
great deal to encourage them to explore
the city and help dispel the temptation
to “go home” when classes end on Friday. Helping them discover a new home
in Kent can do a great deal to ease their
transition into college life, and having
them feel at home in the community also
enriches Kent, too.
Discover Downtown was a success —
the weather was perfect and the crowds of
students seemed to enjoy themselves. It’s
becoming a new tradition for both Kent
State and Kent, and all involved in making it so are to be commended.
OUR VIEW
Ice bucket
sensation
The Ironton Tribune
A viral fundraising campaign — the Ice
Bucket Challenge — is, ironically, the hottest thing on social media right now. People from all over the country have taken
the challenge to dump buckets of ice water over themselves to raise money and
awareness for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain
and the spinal cord.
It’s a simple concept: Donate $100
to the ALS Association or film yourself
dumping a bucket of ice cold water over
your head. Then, publicly challenge others to do the same.
Some have asked, “How is ice water going to cure ALS?” Well, it’s not going to
cure anything. But it has brought the disease into the forefront again and thankfully, most of those participating in the
challenge are also donating money that
will go toward finding a cure. In fact, according to the ALS Association, almost
$16 million was raised between July 29
and Aug. 18.
The Ice Bucket Challenge may seem
strange to some, but this viral sensation
has the potential to do a lot of good for
many worthy charities all over the world.
Remembering Jason Bitsko
The sudden death of Kent State University’s own Jason Bitsko has left holes
in the hearts of those he touched wider
than the gaps he plugged as a lineman
for the Golden Flashes.
But now members of the community can help honor Bitsko’s memory through a memorial fund set up in
his name.
Bitsko, a 21-year old Huber Heights
native who was set to start at center
for KSU this season as a redshirt junior,
was found dead in the bedroom of his
off-campus apartment by a roommate
last Wednesday morning after he failed
to show up for practice. Police believe
he died in his sleep from an undetermined medical issue.
Jason’s parents, Randy and Pam Bitsko, have requested that in lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the
Jason Bitsko Memorial Fund to support the Kent State University Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Checks should include “Jason Bitsko
Memorial Fund” in the memo line and
be mailed to the Coalition for Christian
Outreach, 5912 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh,
Pa., 15206.
Donations can also be made online at https://secured.ccojubilee.org/
donate/602-Jason-Bitsko-MemorialFund.
Bike racks are art, too
What do trains, trees and music all
have in common? They reflect the personality of Kent’s heritage, but are also
among the winning designs for the city’s
new artsy bike racks.
City engineers invited designers, artists and the public to participate in a
competition to design and create bike
racks to be installed throughout downtown that offer more aesthetics than
traditional, uninspired racks.
The city paid to have the winning
designs installed last month as part of
a redevelopment project intended to
make the downtown more friendly for
cyclists and pedestrians with enhanced
features including benches and trash/
recycling receptacles.
Keep your eyes peeled for the many
winning designs that, among others,
include colorful silhouettes of famous
Kent architecture including the Main
Street bridge, the Star of the West Mill
and the train depot that now houses
The Pufferbelly Ltd. (all located outside Panini’s on South Water Street); a
music note (located outside Troy Grille
on East Main Street); a red jack (located outside the Off the Wagon toy and
gift shop on East Main Street); a decorative tree (located outside Scribbles
letters
Police: Watch out for
school traffic in Kent
Kent State University
students have returned
and Kent City Schools
start Wednesday, Aug. 27.
I would like to offer a few
reminders to drivers in
the Kent area to help ensure a safe start to the
school year.
n School zones will become active again. Kent
police officers strictly enforce speed in the school
zones, which are 20 mph
when flashing.
ALONG THE
WAY
Jeremy Nobile
Coffee Co. on North Water Street); and
locomotive wheels (located outside the
Pufferbelly Ltd. on Franklin Avenue).
Don’t be shy. They may look like
works of art — because they are — but
no one will scold you for hitching your
bike to them.
Changes for Kent Stater
As print news across the country
struggles for viability in a media landscape revolutionized by the Internet,
another local publication is scaling back
its commitment to paper and ink.
The Daily Kent Stater, Kent State
University’s student newspaper, has
dropped the “Daily” from its name plate
beginning this semester as it focuses
more on the web and mobile news and
reduces print publications from five to
just three days a week.
The first issue of the revamped “Kent
Stater” filled signature blue kiosks on
campus Monday. The Stater will continue to publish hard copies only on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
— similar to the three-day-print model
recently adopted by the Cleveland Plain
Dealer — according to a story posted on
kentwired.com, the dedicated website
for the student media group.
The website will be refreshed continually with daily content, though, so
check it often for university news and
happenings.
In recent years, the summer edition
of the Stater cut out weekly publications to focus solely on the web. At other times in the past, because of budget
constraints largely created by dwindling ad revenue — an issue every newspaper in the country battles — the paper trimmed publication to four days
a week.
However, this will be the first time
the paper will officially drop the “Daily” since taking the DKS name.
While the reduction in print is simply a sign of the industry’s tumultuous
times, it means new opportunities for
media, especially at the college level, to
reinvent themselves.
The change also means the RecordCourier truly is Portage County’s only
daily newspaper. But don’t worry about
us. We’re not going anywhere.
n Stop for yellow
school buses loading or
discharging students
with their lights activated upon approaching from either direction.
(On roads with four or
more lanes, stopping is
only necessary when approaching in the same direction the bus is headed)
n Pedestrians have
the right of way in crosswalks, however, no pedestrian shall suddenly leave
a curb or other place of
safety and walk or run
into the path of a vehicle.
Dropping off and picking up children from
schools can be hectic.
Please leave plenty of
time to accomplish this
task and have patience.
There will be an increase in vehicular and
pedestrian traffic as the
school year begins. Some
new KSU students are
not from the area (many
are not even from the
United States.) Allow for
extra time when traveling through Kent. Be very
careful about increased
pedestrians in the campus area and the areas
around Kent City Schools.
Thank you for contributing to a safe school year.
Lieutenant Jim Prusha,
Kent Police Department
Ebola and education
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer
The news in America was joyful. Two
brave American health professionals,
Dr. Keith Brantly and Nancy Writebol,
flown to the United States after they fell
ill with the deadly Ebola virus in Africa,
walked out of the hospital last week.
However, a lack of information about
QUOTE
OF THE
DAY
the deadly disease, spread by close contact with blood, vomit and other secretions, is deadly at ground zero in West
Africa.
Health officials there must do a better job educating people about Ebola
and the world must help these suffering countries get medical supplies and
recruit volunteer health professionals.
This moment contains all moments..”
C.S. Lewis
A m e r i c a’ s
attention recently turned
away from the
violence in
Iraq and Gaza
toward the violence in FerRON PAUL
guson, Mo.,
following the
shooting of Michael Brown.
While all the facts surrounding the shooing have yet to
come to light, the shock of
seeing police using tear gas
(a substance banned in warfare), and other military-style
weapons against American
citizens, including journalists
exercising their First Amendment rights, has started a
much-needed debate on police militarization.
The increasing use of military equipment by local police is a symptom of growing authoritarianism, not
the cause. The cause is policies that encourage police to
see Americans as enemies to
subjugate, rather than as citizens to “protect and serve.”
This attitude is on display
not only in Ferguson, but in
the police lockdown following the Boston Marathon
bombing and in the Americans killed and injured in
“no-knock” raids conducted
by militarized SWAT teams.
One particularly tragic victim of police militarization
and the war on drugs is “baby
Bounkham.” This infant was
severely burned and put in a
coma by a flash-burn grenade
thrown into his crib by a SWAT
team member who burst into
the infant’s room looking for
methamphetamine.
As shocking as the case of
baby Bounkham is, no one
should be surprised that
empowering police to stop
consensual (though perhaps
harmful and immoral) activities has led to a growth
of authoritarian attitudes
and behaviors among government officials and politicians. Those wondering why
the local police increasingly
look and act like an occupying military force should consider that the drug war was
the justification for the Defense Department’s “1033
program,” which last year
gave local police departments almost $450 million
worth of “surplus “ military
equipment. This included armored vehicles and grenades
like those that were used to
maim baby Bounkham.
Today, the war on drugs
has been eclipsed by the
war on terror as an all-purpose excuse for expanding
the police state. We are all
familiar with how the federal government increased police power after September
11 via the Patriot Act, TSA,
and other Homeland Security programs. Not as widely known is how the war on
terror has been used to justify the increased militarization of local police departments to the detriment of
our liberty. Since 2002, the
Department of Homeland
Security has provided over
$35 billion in grants to local
governments for the purchase of tactical gear, military-style armor, and mineresistant vehicles.
The threat of terrorism is
used to justify these grants.
However, the small towns
that receive tanks and other
military weapons do not just
put them into storage until a
real terrorist threat emerges.
Instead, the military equipment is used for routine law
enforcement.
Reversing the dangerous
trend of the militarization
of local police can start with
ending all federal involvement
in local law enforcement. Fortunately, all that requires is for
Congress to begin following
the Constitution, which forbids the federal government
from controlling or funding
local law enforcement. There
is also no justification for federal drug laws or for using the
threat of terrorism as an excuse to treat all people as potential criminals.