Rockland

Good Thursday morning. Here’s a glance at opinion content published today in The Journal News.

Midwestern tornadoes: Editorial
We encourage our readers to aid the suffering survivors of the devastating tornadoes have pummeled the Midwest. The people of Joplin, Mo., in particular, warrant our attention.

Police and DWI in Tuckahoe: Editorial
We comment on recent news that Tuckahoe police are accused of letting a drunken New York Police Department officer go without an arrest after he damaged property along that village’s main corridor in April 2010. Police, we say, are not above the law. We write:

Fresh allegations of police letting police off the hook for wrongful conduct, in this case drunken driving, drip with sober irony. There is the obvious: police are suppose to enforce the laws, not carve out exceptions for their own; and there is the embarrassing — one of the purported cover-up cops is the son of Westchester’s “Stop-DWI” chief. The saga serves as new evidence that even police officers sometimes have to learn expensive and often tragic lessons the hard way.

Police Officer Vincent Pinto and Sgt. John Cuccinello of the Tuckahoe department are under investigation for issuing property-damage summonses but administering no sobriety tests after an allegedly drunk, off-duty New York City police officer last year plowed his vehicle into a light pole and took out a parking meter on Sagamore Road, causing some $17,000 in damage. Last week, a recorded phone conversation surfaced in which two NYPD officers blithely discuss efforts to intervene and cover up for fellow NYPD Officer Michael Lazarou, who allegedly was “bombed” when the Tuckahoe accident occurred. …

Race in Peekskill: Reisman
Phil Reisman assesses the long and challenged history of race in the city of Peekskill in today’s column.

More opinion
Here’s what our colleagues are saying today:
Reject the tax cap: Editorial, The New York Times
A hearty tip of the cap: Editorial, Daily News
A tax cap, warts and all: Editorial, Albany Times Union
Devil is in the details of tax-cap deal: Editorial, Poughkeepsie Journal
Tax-cap proposal would hamper local government: Editorial, Watertown Daily Times
Now, the real work for Hochul: Editorial, The Buffalo News
Fear and money can’t lure votes: Editorial, Times Herald-Record
A portentous election: Editorial, New York Post
Why the Republican lost: Commentary by Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal
Congress picks the wrong target: Editorial, Newsday