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Monday, 05 March 2012 09:13

According to an arbitrator, corrections officials made a procedural error under the department's labor contract with the guards union and, as a result, he ordered their reinstatement with back pay, a decision that will cost Pennsylvania more than $400,000. We hope the state challenges the ruling.

Harry F. Nicoletti, 61, of Coraopolis was suspended from his job without pay or benefits in January 2011, but it wasn't until nine months later that he was charged with singling out homosexual inmates and those convicted of sex crimes against children for beatings, threats and sexual assaults, among other mistreatment. He is awaiting trial on 89 criminal counts.

Similarly, seven other guards who were investigated were suspended in April 2011. Two were not charged. The remaining five were charged seven months after their suspensions, with two subsequently cleared and three others awaiting trial on charges ranging from oppression to simple assault.

But the ruling applies to all of them. Arbitrator Ron Talerico said the union contract requires corrections officials to provide notice and a hearing before suspending someone without pay. He rejected the state's view that it could not provide the information because the prison block where they worked was the subject of secrecy provisions of a grand jury investigation.

Even if the department was wrong, it took the right steps in getting the guards away from the inmates.

Once the department learned of the serious allegations against the guards, particularly the alleged ring leader, it needed to act and protect inmates under their jurisdiction. If a man accused of rape is released on bond pending a trial, you can be pretty sure a judge will require him to stay away from his alleged victim. Keeping guards accused of mistreating inmates in positions of authority over them would have been wrong.

In hindsight, the officers who were never charged and the two who were cleared may well deserve reinstatement and back pay, provided they violated no terms of their employment.

But the four men awaiting trial, and most particularly Mr. Nicoletti, should not go back to working with inmates until their cases are resolved.

We hope the state prevails in challenging the arbitrator's ruling. If it fails and must pay these men as their cases progress, the corrections department must be certain they are not placed in situations where they will have contact with inmates. Even if it means paying them for nothing.

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Monday, 05 March 2012 09:12

The neighborhood for too long has been the victim of violence, illegal drug trafficking and a glut of abandoned housing. But a week and a half ago 10 elected officials and community leaders stabbed gold-colored shovels into a patch of dirt on Dearborn Street in a gesture that announced Garfield has been moving in the right direction and has plans to keep on going.

The ceremonial kickoff is the start of construction on 45 rental homes. When finished, there will be a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes between North Mathilda and North Atlantic streets, open to households earning less than $35,000 for a family of five, $32,000 for four, $29,000 for three and $26,000 for two-person families.

Already 115 people are on a list to apply for the rentals. The community has added another 45 new homes that were for sale, not rent, and 10 more houses will be renovated.

This effort has been led by the Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., and in the case of the new rentals, in partnership with S&A Homes, which will build and manage the units. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency provided $1.17 million in federal tax credits for private investors, and Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority loaned the project $1.7 million.

The numbers may not sound significant when compared to a suburban housing development, but it's important to put Garfield's plans in context. Bloomfield-Garfield's executive director, Rick Swartz, told the Post-Gazette's Diana Nelson Jones that, 15 years ago, the organization was renovating two to four homes per year only to see 30 to 40 being abandoned.

Even now Garfield has 140 vacant homes and more than 500 vacant lots. But it is situated near two neighborhoods undergoing their own revivals, Lawrenceville and East Liberty, and it is ready to take advantage of the guiding principal of real estate -- location, location, location.

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Monday, 05 March 2012 09:11

The black experience in America is nearly 400 years in the making. The first 246 were dominated by slavery, and the next century by Jim Crow. Despite the past six decades of the civil rights movement, sometimes-subtle forms of discrimination persist.

Still, that experience has been so important and progress toward equality so profound, that future generations must not forget past sacrifices and accomplishments.

Artifacts that trace the road African-Americans traveled from slave quarters to the White House will enrich the $500 million museum. The structure, to be built on the National Mall near a place where slave pens once stood, already has 20,000 items, including slave revolt leader Nat Turner's Bible, Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman's hymnal and a biplane in which the Tuskegee Airmen trained.

Other items range from the historic -- shackles from a slave ship, shards of stained-glass from the church bombing in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four girls -- to the iconic -- Louis Armstrong's trumpet and Bo Diddley's hat.

While this museum is about African-Americans, it would be a mistake to think of it as only for African-Americans. It is important to preserve history, and even more important to teach it. The lessons that will be housed in the Smithsonian's newest addition are worth learning -- and relearning -- by each new generation of Americans.

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Sunday, 04 March 2012 06:00

What is also astonishing is the geographic range of the NYPD's actions in the name of intelligence and counterterrorism. Undercover police officers have been conducting surveillance, with CIA help, of both U.S.-born and foreign Muslims in Connecticut, New Jersey and upstate New York. Their authority to do so outside their city raises a question of jurisdiction.

Another objectionable aspect is the terminology used by police. Officers carrying out such duties are called "rakers" or "mosque crawlers." Imagine the public reaction if police were church or synagogue "crawlers."

There is also the question of the NYPD's assistance from the CIA. The federal intelligence agency is forbidden by law to direct various forms of espionage, including wiretaps and surveillance, against U.S. citizens although there has been some erosion of that prohibition since 9/11 due to the Patriot Act. Keeping this prohibition is important, since other law enforcement bodies, such as the FBI, already have that responsibility.

Since 9/11 New York City has been considered a special case in regard to counterterrorism programs, since its citizens were the principal victims of the 2001 attacks. Even prior, law and order there has always been a high priority for the city administration.

At the same time, none of these "special" aspects can serve as a justification for gross abuse of citizens' civil rights or a basis for New York police to run loose across the East Coast far beyond the city.

President George W. Bush had it right when he declared that Muslim Americans are important allies of all Americans in preventing future 9/11-type attacks. New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has no right to make it otherwise.