South, West sides need cops, too
Letters to the Editor May 21, 2012 5:56PM
Updated: July 2, 2012 8:04AM
South and West side taxpayers don’t pay to see downtown Chicago turned into a parody of the Roman Empire. They pay to see their children protected while going to school or returning home. If the South and West sides had this much police protection, at least one child could be spared. I guess when Police Supt. Garry McCarthy promised to put 1,000 cops on the streets, he was speaking of NATO.
Kenneth Gregory Simmons Jr., Loop
Police did their duty
I have never been prouder of the Chicago and State Police than now, after witnessing the restraint they showed during an idiotic day of anti-loyalty against our country.
These brave members exemplified what duty and honor really mean.
Bill Kugelman, Ravenswood
Oppresive intimidation
Having participated in the anti-NATO march on Sunday — protesting among other issues the continuing occupation of Afghanistan — I now have an inkling of what it feels like to be an Afghan. The police presence along the route was beyond excessive. It was paranoid and oppressive, a display of state force on a North Korean scale. At every turn we faced a scowling, club-wielding wall of blue, sealing off the city streets from our chants of peace, justice and humanity — messages that only a war profiteer would find threatening.
The overkill clearly had less to do with protecting citizens than intimidating them and discouraging the exercise of our right of free speech. The goal is a cowed public that asserts no rights and asks no questions, as though conformity and passivity were the true expression of patriotism and democracy.
For the thousands of us who took part in the march, the encounter served as a reality check. As long as NATO and similar conglomerations of power exist unchallenged, we are all under occupation.
Hugh Iglarsh, Skokie
Successful ad campaign
The proposed Jeremiah Wright ad campaign succeeded admirably in bringing the topic of President Barack Obama’s former controversial pastor to the forefront of the political discussion, all without spending a dime of Mitt Romney’s money.
Thomas Cechner, Lockport
Invest in our children
The Sunday editorial was spot-on. We must invest in our children. Frederick Douglass said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Northa J Johnson,
Near North Side
