Editorial: Defense Attorney Ed Wade for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor over racist McGinty, if Wade gets on the November ballot

Clevand Criminal Defense Attorney Edward Wade, who filed petitions last week to run as an Independent for Cuyahoga County prosecutor against Tim McGinty, who won the Democratic primary on Tues. in a five way race.

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Editorial by Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of Cleveland Urban News.Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) and (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

Cleveland Criminal Defense Attorney Edward Wade (pictured) has given the Black community another shot at keeping former Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Tim McGinty from taking office as county prosecutor to further promote his racist, sexist and unjust policies.

He is running as an Independent candidate against McGinty, who won a five way Democratic primary on Tues. No Republican sought the office. (Editor's Note: Wade has turned in petition signatures to run to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and absent a dearth of signatures, his name will be on the Nov. ballot. Until such time that his signatures are verified, he is technically a perspective candidate for Cuyahoga County prosecutor).

Both men will likely square off for the upcoming Nov. general election.

Also a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor who had innocent Black men prosecuted, wrongly convicted and sentenced to prison on bogus rape allegations from White women that later recanted, the antagonistic McGinty was hell on the bench, and his orders to illegally imprison Black men and to harass and intimidate women, other minorities and community activists were routinely overturned on appeal.

He bought the Democratic primary election on Tues., winning with only 35 percent of the vote after promising favors to a group of naive Black Cleveland councilmen and others, and using his rich daddy's money to build his more than $200,000 campaign war chest.

His idea of reform is keeping Blacks accused but not convicted, or more so not even taken yet to trial, in jail without bond, a way of shall I say of "caging Black people."

Tim McGinty is an arrogant White man that managed to escape an ongoing Cuyahoga County political corruption probe that brought convictions for two of his former judicial colleagues and a host of other affiliates of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. He is a threat to the administration of justice across racial, ethnic and gender lines.

His record as a former judge and assistant county prosecutor speaks in volumes to this. The database is clear and should not be overlooked by Black and other community leaders engaged in the political process.

Tim McGinty lacks the temperament to lead in a position like county prosecutor that has always been a sensitive one for the Black community, given the soundly documented discriminatory treatment Blacks face as data compiled by the Cleveland NAACP reveal that we are disproportionately prosecuted, convicted and given harsher sentences than our similarly situated White counterparts by the 34 majority White judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas where felony criminal cases and other matters are heard.

And nobody in power seems to demand fair play anymore, even as women are degraded by White vicious men like McGinty, and Blacks are living in poverty, their homes often stolen by corrupt county officials via illegal foreclosures, and their loved ones raped and murdered because of a serial killer let go by police. Its as if the constitutional and statutory rights of people mean very little in this day and time.

A seasoned attorney that has fought for decades to help Blacks and other disenfranchised people facing criminal proceedings secure access to representative counsel and a fair trial, Wade put his hat in the race because he knows the Black community needs him to shield us from the wrath in the past and what is in store in the future from the McGinty regime.

He is not perfect and there are times that I have disagreed with his handling of people seeking his help and those that he might seek to oppose politically, but Wade is the better choice.

Reach Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannews.com or by telephone at 216-932-3114