On October 11th 2018 Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates held a press conference flanked by area law enforcement officials where she explained why they believe that Issue One (which would lessen sentences for drug offenses) is a bad idea.  Their primary complaint being that without the threat of being able to lock people up in cages they wouldn’t be taken seriously, and non-violent drug offenders would “get off too easily”.  Nevermind the ridiculous assertion that the only way to help drug offenders is to lock them up in prison, why are they using taxpayer funds to give a press conference about a political issue?  Make no mistake this was a political statement on a political issue, what if they held a press conference on why they believe that christianity is the only true religion? How would that be any different from this? As they would both express a non-authoritative opinion about a subject, and they would both be using public funds.  Also, where are the doctors and mental health professionals? Shouldn’t they be the ones talking about this as they are actually qualified to do? Police and prosecutors are not medical experts, their opinions are just opinions, why do people think that police are an authority on medicine? In fact I think it’s inappropriate for them to comment on issues such as this, not only is it a conflict of interest as they stand to benefit from keeping the status quo, but they are supposed to be impartial, they don’t make the laws, they only enforce them. When someone both makes and enforces the law it tips the scales into dangerous territory. The police work for the people, if they can both legislate and enforce who are they really working for?

Here is a link to the Blade story: https://www.toledoblade.com/local/police-fire/2018/10/11/law-enforcement-leaders-oppose-issue-one-drug-possession/stories/20181011125