Let top cop Brown run the Chicago Police Department on his own

I seriously wonder if Police Supt. David Brown knows how to manage the Chicago Police Department. He shouldn’t run to Mayor Lightfoot and do what she tells him to do. He needs to think on his own and get the advice of his commanders and officers.

The mayor doesn’t have a clue about running a police department. Let Supt. Brown run it and if he makes mistakes, learn from them and move on. You just don’t take 60% of your tactical officers and move them to beat cars and threaten officers if they don’t make more arrests — if they don’t trust you, they never will.

So what happens to Mayor Lightfoot and Supt. Brown if they fail to do their job? Not a thing. They need to remember the buck stops with them.

So Supt. Brown, talk to your officers and commanders. They have been around longer than the mayor. Putting tactical officers back on beats is idiotic, along with other moves you have made with the mayor. Get a spine and tell the mayor to butt out and let you run the department without interference.

I doubt that you will, but it is probably wishful thinking on the part of a lot of people.

Gerald Burnson, Tinley Park

Living with COVID in prison

Guys are staring to test positive in my cell house. Thus far I have no symptoms. I am so glad I am vaccinated.

It’s so sad around here. There is no movement. Only a few of us work, and if you don’t work there is no place for a person to go. It seems like this pandemic is never-ending, and it makes it even harder for us on the inside.

It’s like all of our liberties have been stripped from us. All we have to look forward to is waking up in the morning. And I know the younger guys are not thankful for that, either. Plus, guys in here are still having to deal with their trauma. Three guys around me have had family members murdered.

It’s so hard to grieve when you don’t have space to be alone and don’t have the proper people to talk to. You just have to deal with it. There are no extra phone calls to make to speak to loved ones. It’s really hard that there is no platform to tell your story, that people only see us as the crime we committed decades ago, not the human beings we are today.

We are people buried alive with no voice and little hope. Maybe being conscious of that is why I can’t sleep right now.

Lonnie Smith, Stateville Correctional Center