Regarding the Tribune article “Bias found in Chicago traffic stops” (June 10): I served as a lieutenant in the Austin police district from June 1998 to July 2007. I conducted several hundred traffic stops for vehicle equipment violations and never wrote a citation. I thought I was doing good police work, but according to the research methodology cited in the article, I was biased.
When I served in Austin, the district was 99% Black. All the vehicles I stopped had a problem with a taillight. Most drivers don’t know what’s going on with the back of their vehicles, so I stopped them and made them aware of the problem. I suggested what might be wrong. Every stop was pleasant, and every driver thanked me. This is police community relations at its finest.
Those who have never been a big-city police officer sometimes have no idea why officers do what they do. Sometimes, the uninformed just assume the officer’s conduct is improper and criticize it.
Every day and night, police officers conduct traffic stops. With every stop, they risk being shot, stabbed, punched, kicked or hit by a vehicle. They do this to protect society and its freedoms.
Officers should stop giving passes to motorists and write citations for each violation observed. Then the driver should have a mandatory court appearance before a judge who can sort it out.
— Michael C. Flynn, retired Chicago police officer, Chicago
Here’s why cops leave the force
There are some concerns about Chicago’s readiness to handle upcoming summer events, including the Democratic National Convention in August. Some news outlets have even called a shortage of police officers a possible serious barrier to keeping events in Chicago safe.
Not much has been written about America’s first responders retiring in unprecedented numbers. The Chicago Police Department alone has endured hundreds of retirements in the last three years.
From my perspective, as someone who served with the Chicago Police Department for 33 years, the list of reasons for leaving is long and depressing.
They don’t want to hear the sobbing and shrieks of grieving loved ones. They don’t want to be around gangsters and killers, not to mention critics and second-guessers.
They no longer want to work in a cesspool, day after day, year after year, 10 to 12 hours a day, working desperately to try to make sense of dealing with the political and social failures that have doomed so many in Chicago’s neighborhoods.
They no longer want to drown in the filth of it all. They no longer want to work holidays and off-hours, missing family moments and events and precious family time that can never be regained. They are exhausted from extending a helping hand to politicians, police brass and city leaders and then being lucky to just get their hands back from the gutless and timid leadership.
What cops and first responders see in crime-ridden neighborhoods is outside the realm of imagination for most people. Working in law enforcement and being a first responder in Chicago are akin at times to being in a war zone. Being on patrol and responding to violence can change the way a human being thinks and acts.
Responding to traumatic events over and over is known as critical incident exposure. The mind is always on the lookout for threats. Anyone who is interested in being a first responder should beware. Talk to people who have ridden the beats; those two-hour movies and television shows are fantasies.
There is a price to pay to serve and protect.
— Robert Angone, retired Chicago police officer, Austin, Texas
Snelling has a responsibility
The Tribune has reported that racial bias has been found in Chicago traffic stops — there are disproportionately more Black driver stops than white driver stops. This phenomenon has never gone away, but that’s hardly news. So when is our comparatively new police superintendent, Larry Snelling, going to put a stop to the practice? He has known about this since before he became leader of the pack.
Existing statistics provide evidence enough to identify the cops guilty of disproportionate stops of Black drivers. The ball is in Snelling’s court. Correction is up to him, but he is playing a game of “see no evil.”
— Ted Z. Manuel, Chicago
Sentencing for Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden and Donald Trump are now both convicted felons — Biden on three counts and Trump on 34. Biden bought a gun illegally but didn’t do anything harmful with it. Trump committed fraud by covering up the truth about hush money payments and gained the power of the presidency for four chaotic years, which ended with an attempted coup.
Anyone who wants to know about the fairness of our judicial system only needs to compare the prison sentences these two receive.
— Kenneth Leone, Deerfield
Which judge will be fairest?
Those who condemned Judge Juan Merchan for his “kangaroo court” tactics in Donald Trump’s hush money trial will likely be crowing about how scrupulously fair the Trump-appointed judge was in the Hunter Biden prosecution and conviction, even though the trial occurred only because she rejected a plea deal worked out earlier by defense attorneys and the prosecution.
Plea deals are negotiated and approved every day, but this one was rejected because the judge said she had “concerns.”
When it comes time for sentencing in these two cases, let’s see which of these two judges is the fairest of them all.
— John Feaster, Valparaiso, Indiana
Against giving credit when it’s due
First, thank you to Dr. Sheldon Hirsch whose letter (“Early days of pandemic,” June 8) shared with us details of the extraordinary challenges and exhausting months of caring for COVID-19 patients that health care workers faced during the pandemic. All physicians, nurses and staff are truly heroes for their efforts and sacrifices.
Second, like Hirsch, I and other like-minded individuals fully appreciate the tireless work done by Dr. Anthony Fauci to help our country deal with a pandemic that took so many lives and would have taken far more if not for Fauci’s efforts in helping stem the tide of this illness. We owe this hero a huge thank you.
On the other hand, how absolutely shocking that individuals like U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ilk would apparently have preferred more people die by listening to her hero, Donald Trump, who assured us that this contagion would just float away.
Greene, like Trump and other Republicans, hates to give credit where it is due lest it in some way sully the name of the convicted former president. What a depressing state of affairs we are in which these people embrace an upside-down world like the famous witches of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.”
These foolish, blind Republicans really need to learn what truth and facts are and stop falsifying their own. Perhaps they might learn something if they weren’t so focused on getting their fellow liar back in office.
— Carol Van Durme, Chicago
Much ado about protest walkouts
Is it really worth a front-page photo and full-page story on Page 3 (“Some NU graduates walk out in protest,” June 10) to describe a few dozen protest walkouts at Northwestern University’s graduation?
This group “streamed” out of the United Center where more than 7,700 remain seated. Shouldn’t the story be how minimal (1% or less) the walkout was rather than how major it was? Especially after all the hype of the encampments and the faux hysteria of the congressional GOP?
Please. A little perspective is called for.
— John Fitzgerald, Chicago
Sometime-high costs of activism
In the article “Long-term consequences a big concern for activists” (June 4), University of Chicago senior Rayna Acha related her fears that her pro-Palestinian activism could cost her getting a job. Acha lamented, “The reality is we might not get jobs because of (our activism).”
Of course, Acha’s activism can cost her getting a job. Did she think that only people marching with the Proud Boys or protesting with a Nazi flag would cause potential employers to shy away?
— Bruce R. Hovanec, Chicago
DEI is actually a basic tenet
The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is not some new-fangled idea that is somehow part of a liberal agenda to diminish America. It is one of the most basic tenets written into the very foundation of this great nation.
— William D. Young, Rockford
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.