Good Tuesday afternoon. Here’s a glance at opinion content published in The Journal News today, Tuesday, March 1:
Hate crimes: Editorial
We comment on news that Spring Valley teens charged with menacing Orthodox Jews last April in Monsey are likely to be sentenced to do community service. They’ll pitch in at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley. We write:
When the crime is ignorance, sometimes the punishment that fits is education.
That is what a group of Spring Valley teens will get, including one who pleaded guilty Friday in Rockland County Court to felony menacing as a hate crime. He was among four teens who confronted Orthodox Jews last April in Ramapo with a profanity-laced tirade and death threats. Two of the teens brandished a baseball bat during the confrontation, police said, but there was no physical contact. Two others had already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Ramapo Town Court. A fourth teen, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was referred to Rockland Family Court.
The teen in court Friday, who was 16 at the time of the incident, admitted his role; the judge has indicated that the April 25 sentencing will include five years’ probation, work release with the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department, and community service. That service will be spent at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley — 200 hours’ worth. This is not light duty, in subject matter or in time. The two sentenced in Ramapo Town Court will also fill their community service — 75 hours apiece — at the Holocaust Center. …
Library funding: Commentary
Thomas Staudter, president of the Ossining Public Library, offers a Community View in which he advocates for strong state funding of public libraries. A proposal from Gov. Andrew Cuomo cuts aid to 755 public libraries by 10 percent.
More opinion
Congress should take a smarter path: Editorial, Albany Times Union
Cuomo should eliminate “Last in, First Out”: Editorial Daily News
Bill would boost public-meeting transparency: Editorial, Poughkeepsie Journal
With friends like these: Editoirial, Syracuse Post-Standard
Cooler heads oppose a shutdown: Editorial, Newsday
