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Dear Editor,
Thank you so much for what you did to help the St. Mary Star of the Sea fundraiser at Wendy's. The free publicity you gave us helped pack the restaurant, and we raised more funds than we had imagined we could! Thanks for your commitment to the community! Just sign me,
A Grateful Mom
Editor's reply: It was a pleasure and privilege to assist. Thanks for letting us know about it in advance.
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Editor:
With all of the recent reports of police fatal shootings in this past year, one could be easily led to believe that such instances are indeed commonplace. This illusion is largely the result of the methods of reporting that all too often passes for journalism in so much of our news outlets. Unfortunately, these agencies appear to subscribe to the axiom of: "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story."
It has been our experience that in our 34-plus years of police work, that it is the community newspapers that do the best job in getting the story straight before committing it to the printed page; or as in the case of the Southwest Chicago Post, to the Internet.
As for the issue of police use of deadly force, one must consider a few simple, but often over looked facts. Most cops go through their entire careers without ever having to fire their service revolver or semi-automatic pistol on the street, with many seldom having to un-holster their weapons at all. The proper use of deadly force in regard to both state law as well as to department policy (which is much stricter) is one area that has never been under-stressed; be it in the initial training in the Police Academy or in the ongoing continuing education of in-service training.
Being a sort of flip-side to the shooting controversies, we should try to consider what goes on in a typical weekend in the City of Chicago. (Now one must make use of the powers of imagination and at least consider that the following is an accurate description of what actually does happen.)
Between the hours of 8 p.m. on a Friday and into the wee hours of the following Monday morning, the greatest number of calls are answered in the category of disturbances. The one category of these are the domestic disturbance (or "Double D."), which have the potential of escalating into some very dangerous situations. With those who are co-habitating and have been already engaged in the most venom-filled of an "argument" for some time before the arrival of the cops, the presence and use of dangerous weapons is so often a factor.
It is not unusual to have the police greeted with a rusty butcher knife, baseball bat or even a firearm. When the possibility of the weapons being turned on the beat cops, as well as on the combatants, the law would justify the display of weapons by the officers and the use of same if the threat of death or serious bodily harm became apparent.
In the vast majority of these innumerable cases, no firing of weapons is done. The situation is resolved, at least until the next weekend.
Of course, we never read about these incidents.
Thanx.
John T. "Red" Ryan
Garfield Ridge
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Editor,
Thanks--for nothing!--in the 23rd Ward race for alderman! You had a golden opportunity to help a new day dawn, to help us throw [Alderman] Zalewski out of office and put in a Latino leader in a new Latino ward--the 23rd--and you took a pass and stayed neutral on the sidelines by refusing to support Martin Arteaga, a great man who could have won and should have won.
We won't forget this. Racist.
Luz Hernandez
West Elsdon
Editor's note to readers: We received a fair amount of letters in the final days of the 23rd Ward aldermanic campaign and shortly thereafter. This and the next three letters we publish here are representative of what we received, for better or worse.
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Looks like everyone lined up to re-elect Big Mike Zalewski, except you, while you played footsie with Arteaga and ran his video on your website. You rode the wrong bus, pal, and scores will be settled.
Anonymous
Editor's reply: Just like other neighborhood newspapers, we accepted paid political advertising from candidates who wanted to advertise with us. That's not footsie, that's a small business conducting business. Will you, Anonymous, also be "settling scores" with the Southwest News-Herald, Clear-Ridge Reporter, City NewsHound and Brighton Park LIFE? They also accepted (and continue to accept) paid political advertising--just like downtown newspapers, radio and TV stations.
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Dear Editor,
Why did you have to attack Anna Goral by calling her anti-woman? She was the best candidate in the 23rd Ward alderman's race. It would have been refreshing to have a woman as alderman just for once in Garfield Ridge. But no, you did what you did with your back-door support of Zalewski, and cost her votes.
Hold your head high, Mrs. Goral. I hope you run in 2019!
Beata Chwasz
Westmont
Editor's reply: We did not call Anna Goral anti-woman. Are you referring to the City Mom Chicago blog post from 2011? That post, which supported the re-election of Alderman Zalewski in 2011 and criticized a mailer from Anna Goral in 2011, was written and posted a year before the Southwest Chicago Post was launched in 2012. It's four years old, and we can't see how it had any effect, either way, on the 2015 campaign.
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Editor,
There ought to be a recount in the 23rd Ward aldermanic race. There's no way at all that in a ward remapped with a Hispanic super-majority, [Alderman] Zalewski gets two thirds of the vote. Come on now!
Eddie Rodrigues
Archer Heights
Editor's reply: We have no problem believing the vote totals, for several reasons. First, in our opinion, both challengers failed to make a convincing case that the alderman should be replaced. They missed the bullseye again and again, and instead focused on criticisms that most people don't care that much about. Second, both challengers failed to make a convincing case that they should be alderman. Their plans for what they would do as alderman had little meat on the bones. In our opinion, they didn't do much more than say, "Vote for me, I'm not Alderman Zalewski." That just doesn't cut it with most voters. Third, the alderman's campaign went negative, hard, and some of the mud he threw stuck to the challengers. Finally, let's not forget that the alderman had an effective precinct organization behind him that included men and women who have earned a lot of respect and admiration at the grassroots level, and who themselves can draw votes for the alderman--Al Cacciottolo, to name just one--and that organization was given a boost by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and his 13th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, as well as State Senator Martin Sandoval, a popular leader who added his support in the ward.
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"Vote for me, I'm not Alderman Zalewski." That just doesn't cut it with most voters. Neither does "Anybody but Rahm" as you have said more than once on this site.
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