The Anchorage Assembly is entertaining yet another law that will take another bite out of our civil liberties. The wise and all knowing Assembly Chairman Dick Traini wants to take away a cab driver's license to work if they’re charged with sexual assault. It doesn’t matter if they’re guilty or not, according to Traini, as long as they’re charged they should be taken off the job until their day in court, which could be months. That makes no sense and robs the accused of their 14th amendment rights.

Traini’s proposal is in response to a recent case in Anchorage where a cab driver has been charged with sexual assault of a woman at a cab service lot. The cab driver, Chidiebere Nwokorie, is accused of raping a passenger. He was charged with first-degree sexual assault and released on $5,000 bail. The bail was later increased to $50,000.

A public hearing was held Sept. 13 and an Assembly vote will be held after the Public Safety Advisory Commission has a chance way in on the proposal.

Let me get this straight. If someone accuses you of a crime and the police formally charge you then you should lose your job? The constitution of the United States presumes your innocence in the fifth, sixth, and 14 amendments. That’s kind of how this country was founded. But apparently not in the land Dick Traini or the Anchorage Assembly lives in. These people are an example of how bad legislators can be when given too much power. Just because someone is charged with a crime doesn’t mean that they’re guilty. If a cab driver loses his job due to being charged and is later found innocent or the District Attorney decides not to press charges is the all knowing and omnipotent Dick Traini willing to give them back pay? Probably not. And why is he only going after cab drivers?

The United States Supreme Court, in Coffin vs. United States, said in its 1895 decision that “The presumption of innocence is evidence in favor of the accused.” Basically, you just can’t go and point the finger and take away someone’s life. If that were the case we’d all be in jail and out of a job. The government has the right to keep you incarcerated, after you’re charged, if they think you’re a threat to society but they shouldn’t have the right to take away your employment. That’s what Dick Traini wants to do and I think it’s overstepping their boundaries and robbing people of due process.

New York State was the first to include the term of due process within its statutory Bill of Rights in 1787. Eventually, New York requested that this definition of due process be added to the United States Constitution, with the language, “No Person ought to be taken imprisoned, or be exiled or deprived of his Privileges, Franchises, Life, Liberty or Property but by due process of Law.” James Madison considered this proposal and redrafted it to leave out certain aspects of the language but the intent of people being able to keep their livelihood until their day in court was always there.

Now more women have come forward saying that they were assaulted by the same cab driver. I’m not disputing that the driver may have sexually assaulted multiple women and if he did then the District Attorney should bring him to court and present their case. If he’s found guilty then a judge should apply the punishment. We have a system in place. You don’t have the right to take away someone’s job based on charges. If a teacher is charged, but yet not convicted, do they lose their employment? No. Worst case scenario they’d be put on paid leave. If anyone is charged with sexual assault, and not yet convicted, should we take away their livelihood before they ever get their day in court? It may sound a little over the top but then again that’s what the Anchorage Assembly is all about. They should change their name from the Anchorage Assembly to the “Assembly of Knee-Jerk Reaction.”

If I’m a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, I’m contesting the proposed law by the Municipality as denying people of their fourteenth amendment rights.

We’re starting to have a big problem with the Anchorage Assembly and especially Dick Traini. These people are like a runaway train when it comes to making ridiculous laws without considering their implications. Traini spearheaded the ordinance to check for a red stripe on a driver’s license every time you go into a liquor store. It’s just one example of the many absurd ordinances the Municipality has enacted. I saw an 85-year-old man get carded. At 85 years of age haven’t you earned the right to not be harassed and carded every time you walk into a liquor store? Not according to Dick Traini. Has this guy every met a ridiculous law that he didn’t want to hug and squeeze and kiss on the cheek?

If the Assembly and Dick Traini want to make a law where someone loses their livelihood, if they’re charged with sexual assault without being convicted, then I say make it for everyone, including people that serve on the Assembly, Municipality workers, state workers as well as teachers, administrators, construction workers, attorneys, and doctors, just to name a few. After all, those people deal with citizens on a day to day basis as well.

I do know this – you don’t have the right to take someone’s job just because they’ve been charged by the police, but not yet convicted - that’s naive, ignorant, and goes against everything this country was founded on. You don’t have the right to specify one profession to pick on, when it comes to this type of law – that’s bias. And you don’t have the right to deny people of their constitutional rights because you overreacted to a situation without thinking things through.

Arthur Schlesigner, who wrote “The Imperial Presidency” once said, “For most Americans the Constitution has become a lazy document, cited like the Bible on ceremonial occasions but forgotten in the daily transactions of life.”

That quote fits well with Dick Traini and the Anchorage Assembly, who seem to believe that city laws should supersede the constitution.