Author: Pete Lee

Pete Lee Journalist and critic H. L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is a solution that is clear, simple and wrong.” The problem is crime and public safety. The solution, for half a century, has been incarceration. Despite prison not solving the problem, we imposed longer sentences, criminalized mental illness and addiction, and…

Pete Lee Our community is engaged in an important discussion about public safety and police accountability. Prompted by tragic police killings, disproportionately of Black men (De’Von Bailey, Elijah McClain), public debate sometimes degenerates into partisan finger-pointing. Around elections, rhetoric escalates and becomes more based on fear than fact, more on polemics than reasoned policy. We…