Ron Manescu: I Can Be Fair

I've told you in the post below that no matter who you elect for district judge in Allentown, you will be well-served. Ron Manesu may be a bit more reserved than his opponent, Walter Felton, but has a deep sense of justice. That became very clear in The Morning Call coverage, where Ron resisted a few opportunities to slam his opponent. Ron's campaign web page contains an alphabet soup of accomplishments. You can see his speech to NAACP here.

"My name's Ron Manescu and I'm currently an assistant chief in the Allentown [police] department. I've been with them thirty-six years, or as my wife likes to say, since Moby Dick was a minnow. I've been thee a long time.

"During my tenure in the police department, I've been involved in a lot of interesting cases, and I've had a very good and kind career. Some folks have mentioned, 'Ron, we don't want you to leave. We think you're doing a good job.' But I asked them to please bear with me because I would jut like to move from one venue to another. I would like to stay in the criminal justice system as district justice.

"There's some folks that talk about - and I notice that Mr. O'Hare is in the front seat, and he's mentioned a few times about, or on his blog has mentioned a few times - can a police officer be fair at being a district justice? Obviously, Walt and I are both police officers, and my answer to that is yes.

"Throughout my career with the Allentown Police Department, I've had some difficult choices to make. In some cases, some officers needed to be disciplined or they needed to be arrested. I'm not proud to say that I've done that, but it had to be done and it had to be done in a fair and judicious way.

"So anybody that comes into a courtroom, if I'm elected, is going to start off from ground zero. The fact that a police officer come walking into the courtroom does not mean he has a three point advantage or he has a handicap or anything like that. He's going to have to prove his case just like everybody else does.

"So I bring to you a lot of experience. I bring to you a lot of knowledge. I've got a resume being passed around with my qualifications, my work at Temple University. I bring that all to you, and I promise to you that I will be fair, I will be objective and I will follow the law."