Our gun laws  must be changed

Updated: September 18, 2013 2:24AM

I read the Tuesday editorial [“Another massacre, another cry of despair] and couldn’t agree more. How many more of these shootings need to take place before people become outraged? I remember the Columbine shootings like it was yesterday and was completely horrified watching it unfold. My son was an infant at the time and all I kept thinking was what kind of a world did I bring him into? Now it seems like we are immune to these type of shootings, and this just can’t be the case. This needs to stop now! Call your representative. Call the White House. Do whatever it takes. Something has to change in our gun laws so that these situations are halted once and for all and we can feel safe in our schools and places of employment again.

Colleen Brummel, Warrenville

Denied another Daley

I write to express the great deep regret I am sure my fellow Illinoisans feel at the news that William Daley has decided not to run for governor in the upcoming Democratic Party primary.

This is a tragic day, as we have all been deprived of the chance to vote against a member of the Daley family. Oh, the Humanity!

Bill Savage, Rogers Park

Unrealistic pension expectations

Both Springfield’s various pension reform proposals and Sun-Times editorials overlook the fact that the pension funds project outrageously high returns. This keeps contributions artificially low, and shortfalls are to be made up by the taxpayers. For example, the Illinois Teachers Retirement System projects a return of 8.5 percent — when the Federal Reserve has promulgated an effective 0.0 percent interest rate since 2009.

Kathleen Dervin, Hyde Park

Guns and death

Guns don’t kill people. Gaping holes in vital organs kill people.

Ken Karlson, Wheaton

Guns aren’t the problem

Before we start clamoring for more gun laws, let’s not forget that in much of the world the weapon of choice is explosives. What restraints violence are the character and beliefs of the people. A person intent on harming others will find a way to do so, whether by driving his car through a crowd, starting fires or the current rage, bombs.

Larry Craig, Wilmette

Unfair to good judges

I would like to comment on an article [“Case for convicted rapist bumped to chief judge,” Sept. 12] regarding a criminal matter that was sent to the chief judge for possible reassignment to a judge outside Cook County.

For over 40 years, I have appeared in the Criminal Courts of Cook County, first as an assistant state’s attorney and later as a private attorney. In the past, certain judges caused horrific damage to the judiciary as a whole. Those days are long gone. It is time to put those decades old scandals behind us and stand up for the dedicated and hard working judges that now preside over criminal cases in Cook County. It is also time to assess the judges on their own abilities and qualities rather than judging all the judiciary by the mistakes and embarrassments caused by a few.

Since fairness, equality and independence are the cornerstones of our system of justice, there are well-known procedures that any litigant can use to remove a particular judge if there are facts that indicate it would be inappropriate for that judge to hear the case. The Cook County judges are committed to a fair and impartial system of justice. All of the judges knows their ethical responsibilities and I am proud to say every judge I practice in front of lives up to those responsibilities on a daily basis, even if that means that recusal from hearing the case is the most appropriate order.

Quite frankly, the judiciary does not deserve the attacks and innuendos that question its independence. In a recent case, after a judge recused herself from hearing a case because she knew some of the parties, an attorney reportedly stated that “all current Cook County judges have ties with [former Mayor] Daley and [Appellate Court Justice] Lampkin, and therefore, an ‘instinct to protect’ them.” What a statement to make. What an insult to the judiciary. The attorney is requesting that a judge from outside Cook County be appointed to preside over the hearing because Mr. Daley and Justice Lampkin are potential witnesses.

So with over 400 judges in Cook County, not one has the ability to fairly listen to the evidence and apply the law? Not one has the ethical integrity to preside over a case that has been labeled “politically sensitive”? Not one has the ability to fulfill the duties of an independent judicial officer? To conclude that, one must have no experience and no personal knowledge of the many extraordinary judges that we have in the criminal courts and elsewhere.

I have practiced in smaller Illinois counties where the judges have attended school with litigants and witnesses. The judges often come from the same political party as the elected state’s attorney who is prosecuting the case. That does not create an “appearance of impropriety.” That unto itself does not even raise a fear of bias. In the smaller counties it is not unusual for a juror to know all the parties and witnesses to a case. That juror is not excused from service. The jurors will be asked, under oath, if they can be fair and impartial and apply the law to the facts. Only if the jurors say that they cannot be fair are they excused from service. The oath that the judges and the jurors take should overcome any chance of justice being contaminated.

On a daily basis, judges preside over numerous cases. While every case should be decided on its own merits, many of the cases have similarities. To label a case “politically sensitive” does not somehow make it unique or a first of its kind in a system that handles thousands of cases a year. One can look to the federal courts in Chicago to see that no one questions the district judge’s background when they preside over a “politically sensitive” trial. Why is it different in Cook County? I know it makes for a good story but it is terribly insulting and unfair to many of the very fine judges that we are lucky to have.

Our judges are not political hacks sitting back waiting for a good cigar and a “politically sensitive” case.

Since facts are so important in decision making. it is laughable to argue as fact that every Cook County judge has ties to Mr. Daley. That is simply not true. Those of us who practice law every day in this justice system have to abide by the method in which cases are assigned to judges. There should is no distinction among cases; each is important in its own right.

I have written this letter because I am keenly aware of how hard many of our judges work. I am also aware that many have ruled in favor of unpopular causes and litigants, subjecting themselves to unfounded criticism. That is what being a judge is all about.

While I may argue and disagree from to time with rulings made by a court, I will never argue that our county does not have a deep reservoir of fine judges to hear the most complicated or sensitive cases in the country.

Thomas M. Breen, Loop

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