Chicago police officers deserve our respect

The other day Chicago police officers attended a City Hall meeting and accused the mayor of not watching their backs. Upon leaving the meeting, the police officers marched carrying signs, and a woman spat on one of the police officers.

That woman should have been arrested and prosecuted for simple battery. How about changing the public’s culture with their anti-police demonstrations and disrespect of the police? Within a blink of an eye, a police officer must make the decision of using necessary force, and I wonder if the general public would be able to do the same.

Dan Bartoszewski, Irving Park

Families use SNAP to get good meals

I am a sixth grader at Hawthorne Scholastic Academy learning about SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which is a program also called food stamps. It’s a program that helps you stretch out your budget and helps pay for groceries. SNAP benefits help millions of households.

Some people think that SNAP benefits should be cut because people think that people use them for bad things. SNAP benefits should not be cut because they help save money for families. SNAP helps families with low incomes.

SNAP benefits can help families save up money and give children food. In a letter to the editor for USA Today on Feb. 22, one man thought people mostly buy junk food and soft drinks and sell cards for bad things, and he thought that food stamps are a waste. I disagree. Most people who receive SNAP use it to get good meals for their families.

Ajanel Wiley, Austin

Cost of road repairs for Obama Center too steep

Chicagoans are proud that we sent President Obama to Washington. We are proud to have his (not) library located in the city that launched him. It is now incomprehensible that President Obama, who ran as a man of the people and “change we can believe in” is comfortable with hitting the taxpayers with a $175 million (estimated) bill, the projected cost of road changes in and around Jackson Park deemed necessary for the Obama Presidential Center.

Last week, the Rev. B. Herbert Martin wrote an impassioned letter to the Chicago Tribune, emphasizing that there is no social justice sticking taxpayers with the cost for a center that was presented as being 100 percent privately funded when “Our streets run red with blood” and “schools have been closed in our most vulnerable communities.”

Ald. David Moore is to be applauded for his “no” vote. His ward in Englewood is only one of many areas of the city referred to by Rev. Martin, with schools needing supplies and repairs, streets with potholes and inadequate sewer lines among other important needs — all requiring taxpayer funding. Other aldermen need to consider the additional tax burden that these unnecessary road changes in and around Jackson Park will bring and make this right.

Karen Rechtschaffen, Hyde Park

Gina Haspel’s confirmation is a day of infamy for me

CIA career employee Gina Haspel was confirmed as CIA Directory May 17 by a Senate vote of 54-45. Haspel’s nomination was big news up till her confirmation because she participated in the U.S. torture program of suspected bad guys in the hysteria known as the War On Terror following 911.

She compounded her despicable conduct by drafting the memo ordering the destruction of the tapes documenting U.S. torture. Haspel didn’t get prosecuted for her crimes. She didn’t get fired. She didn’t get shunned by a country claiming moral superiority in matters of humane conduct. Instead, she was promoted to head the agency that conducted the torture in which she was personally involved.

Haspel’s confirmation vote was bipartisan; six Democrats joined 48 Republicans to celebrate rather than censure her. Within 24 hours, Gina Haspel and her torturous path to CIA Director disappeared from the 24/7 news cycle. Next May 17, her name and her foul deeds likely will not be mentioned by a mainstream media that enables both perpetual war and its illegitimate child torture.

But to me, May 17 will remain for my remaining years … a day of infamy.

Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn

Useless descriptions of suspects

Description: two males between 17 and 20. As a retired Chicago Police Officer, I have broadcast thousands of descriptions of wanted offenders, and as an adjunct professor, I explain to my criminal justice students just how vital a detailed description is in catching the criminals involved.

The three “musts” in any description are gender, race, age. Everything else is a bonus. As you see, a description using these three distinguishing visuals eliminates the majority of individuals and differentiates a good productive street stop from a time-wasting police action.

The description I gave above is one taken from Friday’s newspaper. It is completely useless but serves the purpose of pretending to be important, while it is politically correct in ignoring race and thus avoiding embarrassing a certain group of Chicagoans. Again, it is completely useless.

Victims usually can determine race or at least color. Protect the victim more than you protect the offender and the citizens may feel safer. With a little more honesty and a little less PC, more criminals may be taken off the streets of Chicago.

Larry Casey, Forest Glen