Elmer Smith

Elmer Smith is a member of the Daily News Editorial Board.

Email Elmer at smithel@phillynews.com

Elmer Smith: The beating was wrong, but was prosecution worse?

Posted 07/03/2009

WE SAW them squirming on the ground, fending off the kicks and nightstick blows in that televised police feeding frenzy.

Elmer Smith: Sending a 'message'? Madoff got off too easy

Posted 06/30/2009

THE BERNIE Madoff sentencing reminded me of the old story about the repeat felon who came before a hanging judge for sentencing.

Elmer Smith: Sanford not last for voyeurs - 06/26/2009: S.C. GUV JUST THE LATEST POSTER BOY OF DYSFUNCTION

AFTER WEEKS of following the labrynthine plot twists of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Mark Sanford has given us a new knothole to peep through.
Elmer Smith: The honoring Hardy Williams, by those he honored - 06/23/2009: THE VIP LIST reads like a who's who of Pennsylvania politics. You can't beg or buy a ticket. All they had to say was, "Let's honor Hardy Williams." His allies and opponents responded at once and as one.
Elmer Smith: Warm greetings to Gitmo detainees lands Bermuda premier in hot water - 06/19/2009: BERMUDA'S premier, Ewart Brown, seemed remarkably calm in the eye of the storm that has raged around him since he granted asylum to four Chinese Uighurs who were released from Guantanamo last week.
Elmer Smith: A Unique story about caring that's all Greek to us - 06/16/2009: I'VE NEVER understood how being smacked on the butt with a heavy paddle helps men to forge a bond. The idea of being branded with a red-hot wire hanger doesn't do a lot for me, either.
Elmer Smith: For repeat violent offenders, Pa. might just be getting tougher - 06/12/2009: STATE REP. Brendan Boyle is not the first freshman to herald his entry to the Legislature by introducing a lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key law.
Elmer Smith: To see stimulus at work, follow the $ ... if you can - 06/09/2009: MAYOR NUTTER was explaining yesterday how he would stuff $13 million in federal money into city potholes at the same time that Joe Biden unveiled phase two of the recovery act.
Elmer Smith: The importance of telling hard truths - 06/05/2009: BARACK OBAMA'S speech did not change the lesson plan at the local madrassa yesterday. Jihadists did not unstrap their bomb vests and Home Depot was still doing a brisk trade with new West Bank settlers.
Elmer Smith: Charter school for foster kids a place of learning, independence & heart - 06/02/2009: LYNN WALLACE heard them say that there would be a lottery to pick the first students to attend the only charter school in America for foster children.
Elmer Smith: Another crime appearance by 'black men' - 05/29/2009: OK, GIVE yourselves some credit. You had this Bonnie Sweeten abduction pegged for a hoax by morning coffee break Wednesday.
Elmer Smith: World's best prisons, but can't hold terrorists? - 05/22/2009: LAST TIME I checked, we had more people locked up in U.S. prisons than have ever been locked up anywhere else in the history of the earth.