In March 2009, my 13 year old cousin Esme Kenney was out jogging near her home in Cincinnati when she was abducted, raped and murdered by a serial killer named Anthony Kirkland. During the aftermath, my family -- intelligent, thoughtful people from all sides of the political spectrum -- did a lot of thinking, research and activism around issues of criminal justice policy at the state and federal level, and came to some conclusions that we have been pressing for in Ohio and elsewhere. We have a Facebook presence that's 4000 people strong, and I just blasted out a message using the "message all members" feature this morning that is below the fold, and that I could use some help with disseminating more widely.
The interesting thing for this group is, it casts the issue of SB5 as flawed because 1) it's terrible criminal justice policy and 2) because it's terrible fiscal policy, both of which are supposedly core values of Ohio conservatives. This bill is still defeatable, and my people ready to go to bat against it. Are you with us?
Subject: Calling all Esme block captains!
In the year before she died, Esme wrote a letter to the Mayor of Cincinnati expressing her desire to be a block captain because she saw things about the world that needed changing, and felt that she had the power to make that change a reality. This "can do spirit" is what has motivated our family to get involved in public safety policy after Esme was murdered. Please take a moment to read the below, and if you agree with us, express your own Esme-power using the links we've provided.
There are two bills is currently in process in Ohio that involve criminal justice policy. In our opinion, one is worth supporting, and the other is worth opposing.
The first is SB10, from Republican State Sen. Bill Seitz. We support this bill, as it either corrects or mitigates a few of the current system’s flaws.
You can read about it here:
http://www.facebook.com/...
The second is SB5. Whatever you may think of unions, you may not have heard that this bill specifies jail time for workers who participate in strikes. SO at the same time that our jails are overfilled and spilling dangerous offenders like Anthony Kirkland out onto the streets, Gov. Kasich and the Republican-controlled state legislature want to waste taxpayer dollars sending law-abiding citizens to jail for exercising their constitutional right to peaceable assembly.
This is terrible criminal justice policy as well as terrible fiscal policy, and directly contradicts what our family was told by Gov Kasich’s representative, Ohio DRC Director Gary Mohr, at a meeting in Columbus last month. Mohr personally assured us that the Governor was committed to reserving incarceration for truly dangerous offenders. Obviously Gov. Kasich was not serious about this important principle. And if we as a community don’t push back against bad policy as it's being enacted, it may end up putting another family through what we’ve been through, and leave more children in danger from violent offenders who've slipped through the cracks in an already overburdened system.
So please, we ask that you contact your elected representatives using the information below.
Tell Gov. Kasich’s office that you support SB10 and oppose SB5, and that incarceration should be reserved for dangerous criminals here:
http://www.facebook.com/...
Contact your state rep here (SB5 must pass the House before it goes to Kasich to get signed).
http://www.facebook.com/...
And your state senator here, telling them they will be held accountable for their vote on this legislation:
http://www.facebook.com/...
If you email the following address: defeatsenatebill5@ http://www.facebook.com/... you will get an auto-response with a list of all senators and state reps' email addresses, divided by party (no names) – you can then blast email them with the same message. Yes to SB10, no to SB5.
Tell them Esme sent you. And thank you for your desire to make this world a better, safer place.
>>> please follow the links below and RT @bradkenney as you see fit. Thank you. <<
@tedceleste @dtdaniels @timryan @ohiohousegop Save jail for dangerous people YES TO SB10 NO TO SB5 http://on.fb.me/... #esmesentme