From: Bill Nash
Columbus
We need to get our priorities straight, both at the Statehouse in Indianapolis and right here at home in Columbus and Bartholomew County.
No more than one-half of 1 percent (0.5%) of Americans identify as “trans.” Even if half of all male-born, trans kids began transitioning to girls while in grades K-12, how many would actually try out for a girls athletic team, meet the standards already set for participation as a trans-athlete, and go on to compete with the best girl athletes in the state? Not many. As the Republican governors of both Indiana and Utah recently pointed out while vetoing trans-athlete bills pushed by their own party’s supermajorities, the “problem” is non-existent in either state, because we are talking about, at most, 1 in 10,000 actual people.
But as our current state representative, Ryan Lauer and his fellow culture warriors in the Indiana Legislature are proud to proclaim in glossy campaign mailers, they plan to override Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of their totally unnecessary legislative expression of right-wing outrage, all based upon the extraordinary success of a single trans athlete in a distant state.
Does Mr. Lauer want the NCAA to leave Indianapolis? Does he want to attract potential employers to Indiana other than the My Pillow Guy or perhaps the Cyber Ninjas? Maybe the reason Ryan Lauer flew to Maricopa County, Arizona, to observe the “audit” that found even more votes for Joe Biden was economic development, and not just the opportunity to make Facebook posts for his fans back home.
Let’s compare the odds of a trans kid (1 of every 200 kids at most) causing a real problem about fairness in girls’ sports (maybe 1 of every 10,000 kids) with the odds of a local Columbus police officer being convicted of a felony for conduct on the job.
During my two decades as prosecutor, I have served with six different chiefs of the Columbus Police. CPD currently has 84 police officers. Assuming a 100% turnover rate (a very generous assumption, since it takes 20 years to earn a pension), that means that I have served with about 174 different CPD officers since 2003. Of those 174 or so police officers, at least five that readily come to mind have been convicted of felonies to date, or 1 in 34.8.
So the actual statistics are that around 3% of CPD officers were convicted of ghost employment, planting evidence, possession and use of massive quantities of illegal drugs or punching a suspect in the face.
If I see what looks like police misconduct, I refer it to a special prosecutor. That has made me very unpopular with CPD as well as other departments whose officers have failed to live up to the standards we should reasonably expect from those paid with our tax dollars to serve and protect us.
If you live in a community where all the cops love the prosecutor, you are not safe.
Editor’s note: This letter is paid political content. It is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
