Welcome to Cincinnati: land of paranoia. A few local politicians looking to make some waves [and I'm sure that it's an election year has nothing to do with it] have come up with the idea of publishing a "likely killers" list. They created a database of criminals who committed a violent crime during the past year in addition to having a prior offense involving guns or drugs. This search yielded over 1500 names. The goal of the list, one of its developers stated, is that these people move out of town. "Let all the knuckleheads move to Covington," he offers.
Yeah, that would solve everything. Most criminals would get confused on how to get back to Ohio. Bridges can be confusing like that.
Now the great debate is whether or not to publish the list. The reality is that the same information is available to any citizen who searches public archives. The motivation of these politicians is to make it easy by compiling it, oh and giving it a catch title. Nothing draws in the reader like "READ THIS LIST BECAUSE SOMEONE ON IT WILL TRY TO KILL YOU."
Look, I'm all for fighting the crime, but not to the extent that we use the Bill of Rights as toilet paper. Sure, there are criminals that are beyond rehabilitation, but we can never be certain who will or won't commit crime again. That might frighten some, but that's a cornerstone of our republic. I'm not sure if sacrificing our liberties is a good exchange for safety. I sympathize with one of the politicians who proposed this, as her husband was murdered last year by someone who would've been on this list. But you can't say that a list like this made public would've prevented this murder.
I know quite a few people who would be in favor of such a list being published; it would make them feel safer. But is this really the solution that we need?
Could it be that now, more than ever, our city needs Jesus?