Justin Jeffre: The REAL Talk about Safety

Every campaign season, voters are led to believe that "safety" is the biggest issue facing our region. But the manner with which the corporate press and the corporate politicians discuss safety is highly limited, and also misleading.

This next week we will experience a red alert as campaign rhetoric hits a frenzied pitch. The imaginary boogeyman of the dangerous criminal getting early released will be used to scare voters into supporting a regressive jail tax. And "safety" will be framed in that context.

But how can we talk about "safety," without talking about Hamilton County's infant mortality rate, which parallels the third world? How can we talk about safety when so many of our children won't make it to morning?

How can we talk about "safety," without talking about those who live day to day with no food security?

How can we talk about "safety," when so many are left without having their basic needs met?

The corporate politicians and the corporate media work together to create more criminals, like through David Pepper and Cecil Thomas' Draconian anti-marijuana ordinanance that is enforced in a racially biased manner.

Our so-called leaders make things like homelessness a crime. The politicians threaten to cut human services, threaten to shut swimming pools, threaten to take away programs to benefit the least among us -- and in doing so, how are they working towards safety?

The real crime is the corporate crime and fraud enacted on the citizens of Cincinnati while no one's looking. It might be great to see a Graeter's on Fountain Square, and to see people hanging out during certain times of the week, but at what cost? The Square is still not complete, which should teach us about 3CDC's management. These are the same people gentrifying Over-The-Rhine, buying properties only if landlords evict tenants first -- displacing the poor while technically not evicting citizens directly. But it's like no one cares about the effect 3CDC has on the poor, or about how they manage their funds, or change the face of OTR -- just so long as someone feels good watching a movie on the big screen over Macy's.

These are dangerous games, and they show our City's inverted priorities. We need to put people first, not things like bus-stop benches and curb appeal.

The politicos talk and talk about crime, but their only solution is more police, more laws, more jail beds, more patrols, and more taxes for the politicians to spend.

It's like no one realizes that building jails is a big business, and someone is going to make a lot of money doing it. Just like no one realizes how the favored few are always getting sweetheart deals from City Hall, at the expense of the average Cincinnatian. And while our dollars get spent lining the pockets of these bigwigs, those who need help the most get left behind.

We need to get real about working towards social justice.

As the old saying goes, "No Justice, No Peace!"