A Sun-Times editorial claims “Only police reform will save the city from paying millions more for misconduct.” That’s laughable from several angles, starting with the fact that while the feds mandated a list of court-supervised reforms in 2016, none has reached full compliance yet.
Apparently the reform requirement has no meaningful penalty for failure to meet deadlines.
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The only action that can end cop misconduct is to change the ground rules that protect them even when they are wrong, and for every misconduct payout to victims, deduct from those cops’ paychecks a share of what taxpayers pay for their failure to use good judgment.
Politicians like to talk about being “tough on crime.” Clearly, there’s also an ongoing need to be tough enough on cops using bad judgment or going rogue. A pain in their wallet would do it.
As has been reported, taxpayers are hundreds of millions of dollars poorer after paying such claims over the past 10 years, with no relief in sight. Without a money penalty substantial enough to cause pain to individual cops, we’ll be reading similar woeful editorials 10 years from now. Nothing else can change unthinking cop behavior.
Because of how the rules are rigged, firing a cop even for cause is nearly impossible. So it’s that, or keep eating huge settlement payouts as the cost of having careless, unthinking cops taint the entire police department while enriching lawyers.
Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park
Grasping at straws
If the Republicans believe the Democrats were actively involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection as attendees in disguise, why are they trying to stop the process of the investigations that would get to the bottom of the whole debacle?
Thomas Bajorek, Burbank
American freedom
I couldn’t hold back the tears when I watched President Joe Biden award the Medal of Honor to three brave military men, two of the awards posthumously. The courage these men displayed in battle against our nation’s enemies will always be remembered.
Then I think about the anti-vaxxers whining about the infringement of their personal freedom that getting a vaccine would impose and realize what a selfish, unpatriotic thing it is they are doing.
This can’t be what these men fought and died for.
Richard Keslinke, Algonquin
