Follow Lake County’s lead and dismantle the gangs

Chicago, you are in some serious doo-doo. A young female officer lost her life this weekend at the hands of emboldened criminals. Your police officers are under siege by the gangs, and the people in charge are responsible.

Blame the mayor for her inflammatory rhetoric. Blame the police superintendent for being overwhelmed and underprepared. Blame the Cook County state’s attorney for playing favorites and letting too many bad guys go free. Blame judges for not imposing sentences that will keep the bad guys behind bars.

We seem to care more about the rights of the offenders than those being offended.

What should be done? Well, look no further than the county to the north, Lake County, where a year-long investigation by local police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is resulting in the dismantling of an entire gang. The leaders of the Satan Disciples could be going to prison for a very long time.

But not in Cook County, where instead we see the blame game go around in circle. We see underfunded and abandoned communities churn out soulless monsters.

Get serious, Cook County, and take your streets back from the gangs.

Scot Sinclair, Third Lake

Trust and the police

Members of the Chicago Police Department say they’ve been betrayed by politicians, but mostly they’ve been betrayed from within. The biggest betrayal has been a resistance to reform by the Fraternal Order of Police and the department’s administration, with politicians caving and failing to insist on reform a secondary betrayal.

The FOP and police administrators’ insistence on protecting rotten apples on the police force has betrayed sincere and dedicated officers, as well as the public.

Muriel Balla, Hyde Park

Tax the polluters

To push back against accelerating climate change, many Americans are proposing a carbon tax assessed on pollution emitters, such as coal-burning power plants. Others are calling for taxes on oil and gas companies. It is unconscionable that the average taxpayer is being forced to pay the costs of damage caused by natural disasters — fires, flooding, extreme temperatures, hurricanes and tornadoes — that have become more frequent and severe because of rising temperatures.

Mary F. Warren, Wheaton