Readers Write: Mary Moriarty, Uvalde report, Gaza resolution, child care

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The opinion piece by Deputy Hennepin County Attorney Sarah Davis, defending the Moriarty administration’s actions in the Husayn Braveheart case, opens by declaring the administration’s concern for victims’ families (”It’s time to rethink what’s just, what keeps us safe,” Opinion Exchange, Jan. 19). She writes: “To avoid adding to their pain, we at the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office have kept relatively silent about the case.” How patronizing, how disingenuous. This essay is at least the second from that office to appear in the Star Tribune about this case; it would never have been written if not for the widespread public criticism it has faced (see “Moriarty’s vision, not critics’ fears, has been fulfilled,” Opinion Exchange, Oct. 25). The administration appears to be trying hard to fend off a Moriarty recall effort.

However, Davis offers a much stronger defense. She helps clarify the closely mingled (or tangled) threads of justice, public safety and rehabilitation. She emphasizes Braveheart’s painful history of childhood abuse and neglect, the potential for rehabilitation, its value for public safety and the likelihood of no such outcome from an ordinary prison term. (Of course, there is no mention of the capital punishment inflicted on murder victims by the offenders. For these victims, there is no rehab option available.)

Davis paints a picture of a Minnesota justice system at war with itself. I am sure prison officials will be somewhat taken aback by her repeated dismissal of their sector as “muscle memory.” Ironically, a piece by Star Tribune columnist Jennifer Brooks, which appeared on the same day, merely amplifies this appearance of departmental disconnect. While Davis, in the name of “public safety,” defends steps taken by Moriarty to keep young offenders out of jail at all costs, Brooks describes a successful program of rehabilitation within the Lino Lakes prison (”Helping inmates learn to help,” Jan. 19). Inmates are provided close guidance in their effort to renounce drug/alcohol addiction, as a step toward achieving well-being and moral responsibility in their lives as a whole.

Justice involves the imposition of a penalty — consequences — for crime. This cannot be obviated by prognoses about rehabilitation or general public safety. We do not want a two-tiered system of humane rehabilitation vs. “muscle memory.” When justice is tempered by mercy and wisdom — when the opportunity for moral reckoning and rehabilitation is offered within the parameters of a fair penalty, including incarceration, for grievous crimes — only then will we be able to say we have a decent justice system. It is always a difficult work in progress, to put it mildly. We have a long way to go.

Henry Gould, Minneapolis

The governor and other elected state officials hold themselves out to be law-and-order-oriented. In this case, it seems there was a lot of law (multiple law enforcement agencies) but very little order.

It brought to mind a sarcastic military command from years ago. The command is “Mill around, mill.” It means doing nothing constructive or a situation just screaming disorganization. That command seems to fit this tragic situation perfectly.

Perhaps the governor needs to address the pressing issues in his own state instead of trying to take over the federal responsibility of immigration and border security. There is absolutely no question those issues need to be solved; however, until there is political will to act together at the federal level, nothing will be accomplished. Both parties are content to use it as an issue to bash each other in order to retain or regain power.

Ron Bender, Richfield

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At the Uvalde school there were nearly 400 good guys with guns. It still took an hour to take down the shooter. They were worried that their bulletproof vests were not safe from an assault rifle.

Are the good guys with guns wrong? Or maybe they shouldn’t have to face a weapon of war in a school.

At least we have the politicians’ “thoughts and prayers.”

Lee Gilbert, Cologne, Minn.

I wish I could agree with the so-called pragmatic Minneapolis elected officials that the city’s challenges would be solved if the City Council stopped working on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. As they say, we should leave that to the federal government — and apparently the Hastings City Council (”Hastings City Council calls for Gaza cease-fire with resolution,” Jan. 18).

Ben Frank, Minneapolis

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With all due respect to Vetaw, which is very little based on the stunning ignorance of her comments, a resolution in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza is the least our city can do. Maybe if she read a book or newspaper that wasn’t the Star Tribune, she would know that Gazans specifically have stood in solidarity (sometimes quite literally, on American soil) with activists at Standing Rock to our very own uprising after the murder of George Floyd by a Police Department she has shown no courage or leadership in meaningfully reforming. Ward 4 deserves better.

Adam Schuster, Minneapolis

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Hanna Hill, Plymouth

I wholeheartedly agree with Evan Ramstad’s observation in his recent column that if we are to address the issues in our child care system, we must address the shortage of capacity and not just give families subsidies to chase that insufficient number of slots (”Iowa, N.Y. offer supply-side object lessons for affordable child care,” Jan. 14; see also Ramstad’s “We’ve got to stop dismissing state-funded child care,” Jan. 17). However, I was confused by his proposed solution based on Iowa’s model. It seems to have an obvious flaw. If we incentivize businesses to build their own child care centers, what happens to the countless parents who don’t work for a business that is big enough to do so? Are the employees of large firms somehow more deserving of public assistance than those at small firms? Throwing money at businesses in the hopes that they will do what should be the people’s work done through public institutions has never been good public policy, nor is it now.

What we really need is the German model. German states provide much better access to affordable child care than any American state does. First, they declare that every child has a right to child care should their family want it, just like we do for K-12 education. Then, they task localities to figure out how to provide adequate child care capacity. That could mean public provision through local schools or partnerships to help existing private programs scale up. Each community picks what’s best for them, and they are given the funding to ensure they can accomplish it. What a commonsense contrast to the disjointed and dysfunctional system we have.