You were right to question police credibility in the Foster Avenue District arrest of two men for drug possessions (“Police morale and police credibility,” Editorial, May 1). Your reporters, Steve Mills and Maurice Possley, are to be commended for their investigative work.
The problem, however, is that you have confused that issue with what occurred at the April 29 City Council meeting. At the meeting the City Council approved settlements in two lawsuits that had nothing to do with the Foster District drug case or Jeremiah Mearday.
I pointed out during a discussion of the settlements that each case must be looked at separately and stand or fall on its own merits. The facts, as presented to us, led me to believe that neither case had merit.
In the Jorge Guillen case, four separate investigations were conducted, including one by the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division, all finding no police misconduct. While Mr. Guillen’s death was a tragedy, not all tragedies are compensable in a court of law. In the case of Andrew Sledd Jr., police officers carrying a search warrant for drugs (which they found) shot and wounded Mr. Sledd, who was armed with a rifle pointed at the officers. Sledd claimed the police did not identify themselves. An independent eyewitness, however, verified that the police did identify themselves as Chicago police officers.
In my humble opinion, the City of Chicago should have backed the police department by not voluntarily settling these two cases for $1.3 million of the taxpayers’ money. The Tribune for its part should not have confused the issue by transferring vicariously the conduct of police in one case to that of another.
