A.G. candidate at odds with OEA

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber, the likely Republican candidate for Ohio attorney general, should show more concern for the law than is apparent in his recent screed against the Ohio Education Association on the subject of cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a column for the Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Faber takes issue with the Ohio Education Association over the teachers union advice to its members not to cooperate with ICE if they show up at schools unless they arrive with a court order granting access to the building.

The teachers union had advised its members to refer ICE to school administrators and not to share information on students, consent to entry on behalf of the school, or physically interfere.

The state auditor called the letter “reckless and harmful.” Parroting a talking point of the President, Mr. Faber blames the opposition to ICE on organizations like the OEA encouraging resistance.

“When organizations persuade people that they are living under an imminent authoritarian crackdown, we should not be surprised when some respond with reckless or criminal behavior. Fostering or encouraging the paranoia may not be a crime, but it’s deeply irresponsible. The OEA should be ashamed of doing it,” Mr. Faber wrote.

In addition to misrepresenting OEA’s letter Mr. Faber offers a provocative legal judgment on the shooting death of Renee Good, the first of two Minnesotans killed by ICE agents.

Mr. Faber said she was not an “innocent.” That’s loaded language coming from the would-be A.G. Even assuming she was a suspect for interfering with ICE, she enjoyed the presumption of innocence that could only be obviated by an investigation. There was no investigation before the Trump Administration accused her of attempting to run over an ICE agent with her car.

Candidate Faber claims Ms. Good “accelerated her vehicle into a law enforcement officer,” who “responded according to his training” and shot the fleeing protester.

Both of those statements are problematic, to say the least.

Law enforcement agents are trained not to be in a vulnerable position in front of the vehicle.

And video of the incident appears to show the officer stepping away from the vehicle and shooting at Ms. Good as the car passed him.

Mr. Faber has mischaracterized the facts to make a political point in support of ICE tactics that are widely opposed across the country, but especially by the residents of Minneapolis where they’re seen as a government occupation which has all but shut down the city.

Mr. Faber has done citizens a favor by providing a sample of his loose grasp of facts and his judgment on important issues, such as ICE’s tactics in Minneapolis, before voters select the next Ohio Attorney General.