Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Editorial Roundup
Recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:
The Japan News on United Nations reform and the U.S. and Japan’s contributions to its budget (Sept. 15):
The United Nations faces a mountain of pressing issues it should tackle, including North Korea’s nuclear development program, terrorism perpetrated by extremist groups, conflicts and poverty. The U.N. will not be able to effectively deal with these issues if it continues to operate as a bureaucratic organization.
The 72nd session of the U.N. General Assembly has started. One of the session’s main themes will be U.N. reforms to boost the organization’s transparency and more efficiently use its budget, which is accrued from contributions paid by each nation.
In his opening remarks, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who assumed the post in January, emphasized his desire to improve the international body’s structure, saying, “The United Nations must do even more to adapt and deliver . (and) to strengthen our organization to . produce better results.”
A major focus of this session will be the approach taken by U.S. President Donald Trump in his maiden appearance at the General Assembly.
A high-level meeting on U.N. reforms will be held Monday. A political statement calling for reforms that create a “more efficient organization” and expressing support for Guterres’ efforts is expected to be announced.
Trump has championed an “America first” policy and cast a stern eye toward international institutions. Each member nation’s share of the U.N. regular budget is determined based on their economic strength and ability to pay. Trump has expressed displeasure that the United States contributes the maximum rate of 22 percent of the budget, a figure he described as “unfair.”
The U.N. regular budget has doubled in the past 20 years. Wasteful expenditures must be cut by reviewing unnecessary departments and operations. It also is necessary to cancel out any room for U.N. agencies such as UNESCO to be exploited for political purposes on historical and other issues by fortifying their neutrality.
Push for UNSC expansion It will not be easy to eradicate long-established common practices and internal resistance in pushing ahead with organizational reforms. It seems that Guterres aims to implement reforms also by using the pressure being applied by the United States and other nations as leverage.
The budget for U.N. peacekeeping operations in fiscal 2017 (July 2017 to June 2018) has already been slashed by 14 percent from the previous fiscal year. The efforts of the United States, the largest contributor to this budget, to cooperate with Japan, the third-largest contributor, in strongly calling for more efficiency have been successful.
Japan is the second-largest contributor to the overall U.N. budget after the United States. Japan’s 9.7 percent share means the nation pays about 27 billion annually. It is vital the nation actively participates in running the United Nations and pushes for greater streamlining.
Reforming the U.N. Security Council is also an important issue. Japan has directly played a part as a nonpermanent member of the council in actions such as promoting resolutions for imposing sanctions on North Korea, but the nation’s term on the council will expire at the end of this year. Japan must tenaciously continue moves to expand the Security Council so the nation can secure a permanent seat at the table.
Leaders from around the world, including Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will lay out their nations’ diplomatic and security policies in addresses at the annual general debate that opens on Tuesday. Leaders also will hold bilateral meetings. Given the growing tension over North Korea-related issues, it will be important to confirm at every occasion that the sanctions slapped on Pyongyang will be strictly enforced.
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Los Angeles Times on the bipartisan discussion between Congressional minority leaders and President Donald Trump over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (Sept. 14):
For a few interesting hours, it looked as though the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress had found a path forward for resolving the conundrum of the so-called Dreamers, immigrants who have lived in the U.S. without legal permission since they were children.
After dinner at the White House on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced they had the outline of a deal with President Trump in which the protections that had been promised under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — and then rescinded by Trump — would be reestablished and enshrined into law. As part of the deal, the Democrats would support enhanced border security measures, and the showdown over Trump’s border wall would be pushed off to some future date.
But the bipartisan moment didn’t last long. The White House quickly responded that there had been a discussion, but that no deal had been reached; leading Republicans condemned the idea. Then on Thursday morning Trump seemed to back still farther away when he told reporters that “if there’s not a wall, we’re doing nothing.” He also said that he was not contemplating a path to citizenship for the Dreamers, just temporary protection from deportation. By Thursday afternoon, Trump was talking about maybe a DACA deal first if the Democrats promised not to block the wall later.
It would be outrageous, frankly, if they can’t reach an agreement. Trump’s decision earlier this month to withdraw the DACA protections promised to some 800,000 people — most of whom came to this country as a result of decisions made by their parents — was cruel and unnecessary. But if the protections could be restored to them by Congress as a matter of law (rather than merely presidential executive action), the Dreamers would be in even better shape than they were under Obama. The flurry of “deal-no deal” reports raises some tentative hope that there still might be a resolution.
The original Dream Act that was introduced in Congress year after year would have provided a path to legal status and ultimately to citizenship. But it never passed. That led Obama to create the DACA program in 2012 to provide the Dreamers with some stability and permission to work until Congress could fix the problem.
Trump, though, rode anti-immigrant fervor to the White House; among other things, he promised to deport DACA participants. He softened his stance for a while, telling the Dreamers he was “gonna deal with DACA with heart.” But then he announced this month that the program would be phased out in March 2017 unless Congress acted to give the Dreamers legal status. So the Dreamers are once again — or still — twisting in the wind.
We hope the president and leaders of both parties in Congress can find a way to make this work. Fairness demands it, as do most of the American people.
The Dreamers deserve not just protection from deportation, but a path to true citizenship. These are people, after all, who often have spent little time in the country where they were born, speak only English and have been brought up as Americans. To qualify for DACA protections, they had to be in school or have graduated or to have been in the military.
Trump should set aside his insistence on his silly wall — which even many of his fellow Republicans dismiss as unnecessary and excessively costly — and put the well-being of the Dreamers ahead of his ill-advised campaign promises.
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Chicago Tribune on a recent speech by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos about college campus sexual assault allegations (Sept. 18):
For much of this decade, Americans have debated how college administrators should handle allegations of campus sexual assaults. How to balance the rights of the victim and the accused. How to punish perpetrators and deter predators. How to make campuses safer.
The Obama administration urged colleges in a notorious 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter to get tougher on sexual assault allegations or possibly forfeit millions in federal funding. The 19-page guideline reminded officials they should use a low burden of proof, “preponderance of evidence,” when weighing an accused student’s guilt or innocence. It also prompted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to open many more inquiries into colleges for their allegedly slipshod handling of sexual violence allegations.
But the crackdown also generated an intense backlash among accused students and their families, who claimed their rights were trampled by inept campus judicial systems too heavily tilted in favor of alleged victims.
Now Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has signaled that the Trump administration soon will send the “Dear Colleague” letter to the shredder. “Through intimidation and coercion, the failed system has clearly pushed schools to overreach,” DeVos said in a recent speech. “With the heavy hand of Washington tipping the balance of her scale, the sad reality is that Lady Justice is not blind on campuses today.”
She added: “It’s no wonder so many call these proceedings ‘kangaroo courts.’ “
So how will DeVos change federal policy? Unclear. She says she’s still soliciting ideas. In her speech, however, DeVos mentioned several proposals from lawyers’ groups that would raise evidence standards or set up independent panels to handle complaints, possibly on a regional basis.
We have a better idea, Secretary DeVos: Don’t create an elaborate new system. Let the criminal justice system in place — local prosecutors and police — handle these cases. That’s what they’re equipped to do in ways that college tribunals and well-intentioned administrators are not.
Law enforcement authorities have plenty of experience because sexual assault is not, regrettably, an isolated crime or one limited to colleges. It is alarmingly widespread, on campus and off. More than 20 percent of female undergrads at various colleges said they were victims of sexual assault and misconduct, according to a 2015 survey by the Association of American Universities. Yet young women who skip college have an even higher chance of being sexually assaulted than their college peers, according to federal figures released in 2014.
Why shove aside college administrators, faculty members and security forces in these cases? Because they lack the expertise and the resources of local authorities to investigate allegations, to process evidence, to interview witnesses and ferret out the truth.
For years, college authorities have mishandled campus sexual assault cases. One reason: Some college officials are more concerned about their schools’ reputations (and, possibly, their jobs) than with helping police and prosecutors aggressively pursue allegations. Law enforcement authorities can approach a heater case without fretting over a university’s reputation or ranking.
Campus administrators also are ill-prepared to parse ambiguities and difficult judgments that can make these cases challenging. Prosecutions often pivot on he-said she-said accounts of whether sexual contact was consensual. Alcohol or drugs often are involved. Some victims decline to pursue charges. But civil authorities are accustomed to navigating those treacherous waters; college administrators aren’t.
“Washington has burdened schools with increasingly elaborate and confusing guidelines that even lawyers find difficult to understand and navigate,” DeVos says. “Where does that leave institutions, which are forced to be judge and jury? Where does that leave parents? Where does that leave students?”
That’s the right question. Washington has a vital role here: Smaller. The next Dear Colleague letter doesn’t need to be 19 pages. It can be a brisk paragraph. It should instruct campus officials to get out of the way of cops and prosecutors. Hand over these sensitive cases to the professionals. Let them do their jobs.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch on protests after former police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted in the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith (Sept. 16):
The understandable sense of outrage over Friday’s not-guilty verdict in the Jason Stockley trial culminated in a frenzy of nighttime violence that defies logic. Particularly confusing was the decision of protesters to attack Mayor Lyda Krewson’s home and a public library branch.
The St. Louis Police Department handled Friday’s mostly peaceful daytime protests deftly, in sharp contrast to the harsh military-style responses the 2014 police-shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. This time, protesters got ample room to march, yell and vent their anger over former Officer Jason Stockley’s acquittal for the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith.
When bricks and water bottles were hurled, officers employed pepper spray and made arrests.
Anticipating that protesters would take to the highways, police blocked ramps at strategic locations while generally avoiding overt confrontation. Where police correctly drew the line was when the protests turned violent.
Some protesters have said they plan to attack symbols of commerce and inflict discomfort on the comfortable. Even if they rationalize property destruction as legitimate protest, why attack the mayor’s house?
Krewson was only elected mayor in April and had nothing to do with the trial or the way police and prosecutors handled the too-long investigation into Smith’s death. Her first act in office was to oust Police Chief Sam Dotson.
On Friday, she stated that she was “appalled by what happened” to Smith and was “sobered by the outcome” of Stockley’s trial. She clearly shared protesters’ incredulity over the verdict, as did other politicians.
Krewson has suffered more than her share of “discomfort.” She entered public service as an alderman after the 1995 shooting death of her husband during an attempted carjacking outside their home. Krewson and her children were present. In what twisted sense does attacking her home serve as retribution for Stockley’s acquittal?
Equally absurd is the attack on a Central West End library branch, where windows were broken and the interior trashed. What’s the message here, that books and knowledge are bad? Attacking a public library only underscores the ignorance of the vandals themselves.
No one should rest comfortably after hearing the verdict and knowing the multiple ways that Stockley violated police procedures in his hot pursuit of Smith, a suspected drug dealer who was fleeing arrest.
Stockley got his day in court, but he denied Smith the same right by appearing, in the eyes of many, to serve as judge, jury and executioner at the scene of the shooting. Stockley’s recorded statement of an intent to kill Smith seconds before doing so was one of many disturbing elements in this case.
No matter how much property is destroyed, neither Stockley’s actions nor the verdict can be undone. Inflicting more injustice will never get protesters the justice they seek.