Dave Coffey
Editorial Page Editor
The Berkshire Eagle
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Top honors in the under 35,000 circulation category of the Editorials category of the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition were awarded to Dave Coffey, editorial page editor of The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
First-place includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $2,250.
As the federal government took an aggressive new posture on immigration in the first days of the Trump administration, an “enhanced targeted enforcement operation” swept 10 people off the streets of Berkshire County — including some residents who had legal residential status and no apparent indication of criminal record.
For the impacted neighborhoods, Coffey said these detainments felt more like disappearances. He said, “U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has provided little public-facing information on the identities of the detained and what if any charges they were facing. In a series of editorials, we threw the spotlight on this localized chapter in an alarming national trend of disregard for due process, called out the government on its unacceptable lack of transparency and brought whatever information we could to the communities still gripped by fear after an immoral and lawless show of official force.”
Kevin Moran, executive editor of The Berkshire Eagle, said: “Dave Coffey’s editorials [on ICE raids in the Berkshires of Massachusetts] cut through the fog of federal secrecy to defend a fundamental American value: due process. When our neighbors were taken and no one in power would answer for it, The Berkshire Eagle's editorial page refused to look away. That’s courage — and that’s why this work matters. Dave's editorials show exactly why a fearless local newspaper matters: Because the minute we stop confronting unchecked power, this country stops being a democracy.”
Three editorials were submitted as part of this entry:
Among the comments made by contest judges:
