Presumably like most Chicagoans, I am glad that Cook County judges ruled that misconduct arbitration hearings for Chicago police officers accused of serious violations must be public to maintain transparency and (one hopes) restore more public trust in the processes and the Chicago Police Department.
But when Fraternal Order of Police lawyer Tim Grace complains that “Chicago Police will be the only union that will be required to have termination hearings in public,” he ignores one key thing: The FOP is indeed a union representing workers, but the workers it represents have unique powers that mandate stricter and more public termination processes.
Chicago police officers are given guns and the literal power of life and death over us all. When an officer is accused of abusing that power, it is a quantum leap beyond any other grievance that might lead to any other union member losing any other job.
A cop killing someone (perhaps justly, or perhaps unjustly: the hearing will decide) and having a termination hearing in public is not comparable to any other situation. A Teamster having a private hearing for termination based on parking a truck repeatedly in bike lanes, or a city Streets and Sanitation worker being fired for clocking in and going on a fishing trip instead of working, is not the same thing as a police officer taking a life, no matter what FOP lawyers want to argue.
Bill Savage, Rogers Park
Socialism is not communism
I appreciated Sun-Times reader Leonard Cavise’s recent letter to the editor regarding socialism, but even he misses the point. The problem is most people in the U.S. think that socialism and communism are the same animal. Of course, they are not.
Americans do not seem to understand that they already enjoy socialism if they partake in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance, aid for dependent children, public schooling and a slew of other programs run by the government. Under communism, the state owns everything, and there is no private enterprise.
Some European governments are run by social democrats, who care about the welfare of all their citizens — not just the super rich, like those in our country who are the only ones benefiting from Donald Trump’s Republican-backed (and forced through Congress) “Big Beautiful Bill Act.” It would be nice if folks actually knew their facts and definitions before succumbing to knee-jerk reactions.
Regina Gomory, Crystal Lake
Land offer
Since Donald Trump is so insistent on “swapping” territory over to Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, might I suggest Florida, Alabama and Texas?
David R. Inman, Edgebrook