The Price of Freedom

The title of this article, “Why Topeka, Kan., repealed its ban on domestic violence”, immediately caught my attention. Mark Guarino explains that Topeka stripped the district attorney’s office budget by ten percent. On September 8^th, “District Attorney Chad Taylor… said he no longer had the money to prosecute misdemeanors, including domestic battery.” This meant that many misdemeanors were dropped because they weren’t able to be prosecuted in a timely manner. Because of this, the DA had to choose which cases would be heard, and as a result, many people were upset.

To show how they felt about misdemeanors such as domestic battery being dropped, Topeka repealed its ban on domestic violence, prostitution and animal cruelty. They did this in an effort to force the DA to hear more cases. It worked, but at what cost? The financial crisis still remains, and this isn’t the first incident of extreme action in the face of budget cuts. “Prosecutors in North Carolina's Wake County had to fill in as receptionists this summer to cover staffing cuts.”

Guarino seems to hold the importance of the cases over the strain on the workers. He points out that “most domestic-violence cases in the county are misdemeanors ‘perpetrated by extremely dangerous offenders’”, and that “victims rely on the criminal-justice system to hold their abusers accountable.” Guarino is appealing to the public’s sympathy for the abused, since he focuses on this issue and not prostitution or animal cruelty.

I can see the point the city of Topeka was trying to make. After all, who would follow the law if they knew their charges were just going to be dropped? On the other hand, how can we expect cases to be heard fairly if all the DA is thinking about it getting through them? If courthouses are so understaffed that lawyers are serving as secretaries, how many hours would they have to work a week to hear all the cases? If the city of Topeka is going to react so strongly to the DA not hearing cases, they need to provide him with the means to do so.