Chuck Don't Get It
At the latest Public Safety Committee meeting, Clowncilman Windbag proposed treating every Cincinnati liquor permit holder like the worst of the worst. He acknowledged his desire for prohibition in the already Constitutionally challenged city. I am guessing the Taliban really inspires him.
He proposes making every liquor permit holder submit safety plans to the city or police. He wants to "tweak" the matrix thingie concocted by ex-councilwoman Cole to make it a one strike & you're out proposition. While Officer Jahnke explained that the matrix evaluation system was set up precisely to avoid a 1 strike rule & Councilman Thomas explained that the system had actually worked from the city standpoint, Chas didn't get it. He went on to holler & rail in a short rancorous performance piece about (other) councilmembers "showboating". With his suggestion that shots fired that miss the intended victim should be graded at a lesser value that shots fired that kill their intended victim, officer Jahnke seemed kinda uncomfortable in having to explain the immoral aspect of even trying to murder a person to the ex-pastor.
In the last liquor license review hearing an officer explained that a very few establishments rose to the occasion of getting a police recommendation of license rejection. Of Cincinnati's 52 neighborhoods only about a half dozen had problem license holders. In one neighborhood only 2 out of almost 90 were cited.
It was proposed that the police be the sole arbiters of who should & shouldn't be nominated for rejection & that "the community" should be left out of the equation.
Ms Cole questioned the logic of the police in previous years & came up with this matrix evaluation so more objective information could be used in decision making in relationship to, essentially, shutting down businesses, eliminating jobs and leaving more abandoned buildings in the city. She questioned why incidents outside a liquor establishment when the establishment wasn't even opened counted against the place. The police tended to hem & haw and never seem to be able to give an answer.
The fact is, the law enforcement arm of the city needs to be kept in check by the representatives of the city. Mr Winburn's proposed Talibanish bureaucratic police state is short sighted, wrongheaded & un-American.