The judge saw the video, read the cops’ statements, heard testimony from a cop who saw the shooting of Laquan McDonald testify that her report was made up and testimony from a citizen who saw the whole affair, all putting a lie to the cops’ reports. Still, “not guilty,” Cook County Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson says.
What will it take to break this horrendous code of silence in the police department? Maybe we have to stop electing judges who were once prosecutors. Old relationships with the police are clouding their judgment.
Roger Flaherty, Edgewater
So the long tradition of brutal Chicago cop enablers getting off the hook will continue.
They’re the ones most at fault. It’s the “good cops” who are accessories after the fact (a felony) to the sociopaths like Jon Burge, Ronald Watts, Reynaldo Guevara and Jason Van Dyke, who are the main problem. Focusing on training or new police academies is just a dodge of responsibility. Until judges, the mayor and top police brass punish the enablers of brutal cops, we will continue to have wrongful deaths, wrongful convictions, destroyed families and communities.
Andy Thayer, Uptown
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.
Chicago, act quickly on green issues
Thank you for your Jan. 17 editorial “Time for Chicago to bring back the Department of the Environment.” While the sustainability team in the mayor’s office has done a good job, there are so many issues that need attention that a full department with adequate staffing and funding is needed. In addition to all the programs you mentioned, including recycling, replacing lead water pipes and switching municipal buildings to renewable energy, I would like to call attention to the problem of plastics that are cluttering our lake, with fragments getting into the fish and the water we drink. In November, voters said they wanted an end to plastic straws. The city should ban those and also single-use plastic utensils, as other cities have done.
Most importantly, we need to be moving quickly toward 100% renewable energy for the entire city, for both electricity and transportation. With the Trump administration rolling back measures to fight climate change, the cities and states must take up the slack. Nothing less than a major effort to reduce greenhouse gases can save us from a crisis. We need a full city department to push that along. It doesn’t matter if it’s called a Department of the Environment or Sustainability Department (that seems to be the favored word these days.) The city needs to act quickly and decisively.
Cynthia Linton, Streeterville
