Rauner’s primary victory speech left a few things out

Gov. Bruce Rauner has perfected the art pretending that his first 38 months in office were anything but the abrogation of the basic principles of good governance. In his cold victory speech Tuesday — given before his opponent conceded — he omitted that he didn’t secure a single one of his proposed 44 reform measures. He didn’t fess up to worsening every indicator of Illinois’ economic health, including budget solvency, timely paid bills and expanding the taxpayer base.

Rauner neglected to mention the myriad of social safety net resources reduced or abolished under his governance. He offered not a single serious proposal to improve life for us 13,000,000 Illinoisans, unless you’re a member of the “less taxes for the well off, less services for everybody else” club. He quadrupled down on his mantra that he’s the guy who can smite the imagined crooks running the other party.

His bashing of Mike Madigan is as tiresome and worthless as President George W. Bush’s endless bashing of Saddam Hussein. Rauner should have examined his floundering failure these past three years, and channeled Tom Buchanan in ‘The Great Gatsby” who “smashes everything up and retreats back into his money.”

Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn

What does it take to fix the broken police system?

Sgt. Donald Markham is dead, David Koschman is dead and Laquon McDonald is dead. What does it all point too? Friday’s scathing Sun-Times editorial on yet another botched death investigation conducted by the Chicago Police Department was, without question, on the money. After 33 years working Chicago’s streets, I can say with a clear conscience that it should not take an editorial board to sound an alarm to a city that desperately needs solutions.

A murder clearance rate of 17.5 percent should send a clarion call to a city and its police department. Something is very wrong indeed. Three crucial words come to mind: supervision, accountability and trust.

After the death of Koschman, after the death of McDonald and after the death of Markham, we have to ask ourselves “Where was the supervision?” Where was the accountability by command officers, when it was realized the results of those investigations produced a stench that never seems to subside?

Last week a large group of community activists called for a new commission to have the power or the authority to remove the police superintendent and have authority over the agency that investigates police misconduct or incompetence, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA). The proposal has been met with strong resistance from the superintendent and from the mayor’s office.

Leadership starts at the top, and so many fine men and woman are getting tarred day after day for doing a job that is difficult at its best. A continuing failure of command and supervisory members going forward is just going to make more people call for change and make demands, and we will no doubt see more editorials revealing a badly need fix as soon as possible.

Bob Angone, Miramar Beach, Florida

The real public figure of unity

I neither trust nor like either major party candidate for governor. That’s why I will write in the name of the only woman who can unite us and bring everyone together, Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt of Loyola.

Michael Sullivan, Avondale