My favorite part of a newspaper is the letters to the editor — or, more accurately, perhaps — e-mails to the editor.
Yes, a majority are personal rants of some sort, or perhaps a blast endorsing John Smith for county animal warden when Sam Jones obviously is the candidate who will “represent all the people.”
But every so often, some astute author will actually propose a solution to a problem, not just rail about the problem itself.
I found a couple in recent weeks that deserve amplification, and some additional comment.
For instance, taxpayers in Denver have paid out upwards of $20 million in damages in the last decade to inmates of the city’s jail who claim they have been unjustly punched, pounded on or pummeled by sheriff’s deputies working in the slammer. The governmental solution to this, so far, has been to fire the sheriff, appoint monitors, and form a study committee which will eventually write a report.
But awhile back, a Denver Post reader who lives in Wheat Ridge presented a simple idea. In a show of metropolitan cooperation, Rich Durling noted that Denver taxpayers might save a lot of bucks if they made jail guards responsible for their own conduct. Voila!
Perhaps all law enforcement personnel, he said, should have to buy their own insurance to cover misconduct, thus getting taxpayers off the hook. And, if lawpersons showed a propensity for dishing out physical abuse when it is unwarranted, their rising insurance cost would force them to seek another occupation. In other words, the city would have no problems ridding itself of troublemakers.
In fairness, the city should raise the pay of said law enforcement people to meet the cost of the basic premiums. From there, employees would be responsible for increases. Another advantage would be that insurance company attorneys would be defending any lawsuits, not the city’s lawyers.
But all of this likely makes too much sense.
And, while on the subject of aggression: Remember Ray Rice? He’s the star running back for the Baltimore Ravens who got caught on tape punching out his girlfriend in an elevator.
There was public and media outrage demanding that Rice be banned for life from playing in the NFL. And thus, he is currently on “indefinite suspension.”
But Jay Howard, a Boulder lawyer, explains in the Daily Camera that depriving Rice of $20 million in income this season is the wrong tactic. Untold thousands of spousal abuse cases in the country are not reported and prosecuted each year because the victim doesn’t want to lose the family income.
Rice likely has enough money stashed away that he is financially flush for the rest of his life. But how about the victim, who is now his wife?
Howard notes that if Janay Rice gets bopped again and walks out, she may wind up penniless.
The writer’s idea is that Rice be allowed to play this season and the NFL put his salary in a trust fund for Mrs. Rice. The player could refuse, of course, but that would tell us a lot about him.
Bottom line: Maybe this is a better solution for most abuse victims: paychecks as payback.
Dick Hilker of Arvada (dhilker529@aol.com), is a retired suburban newspaper editor and columnist. He writes twice a month for The Denver Post.
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