Take it from me: Police sickened by one cop’s failure to protect Mia Irizarry

While Mia Irizarry was preparing to celebrate a birthday in a Cook County forest preserve, she was taunted by a seriously out-of-control individual because of the shirt she was wearing. She also was subjected to something else equally bad: a law-enforcement officer in full uniform who refused to intervene and serve and protect.

I can tell you from experience that every law enforcement officer who saw that video was sick to their stomach to see that happen. To “serve and protect” has meaning to 99 percent of us who have taken the oath.

Leadership, though, starts at the top. The officer’s resignation is not enough. An evaluation of the forest preserve police, from top to bottom, is necessary. Questions need to be asked. Was this incident the result of insufficient training or supervision, and what must be done going forward?

Irizarry got an apology from the president of the Cook County Board. Believe me, thousands more of us apologize to her also.

Bob Angone, retired Chicago Police lieutenant,

Miramar Beach, Florida

Sun-Times and the L: Working for working people

As a subscriber, I smiled when I saw that the Sun-Times had chosen a photo of an L train to go with its full-page letter celebrating the paper’s one-year anniversary of “independence.” The people your newspaper serves so well are the same over-2 million weekday riders — one-sixth of our state’s population — that mass transit moves efficiently to work, school, medical visits, shopping and for tourism or leisure.

Chicagoland desperately needs multiple great daily newspapers. The Sun-Times niche is critical to our city and region. And, as you pointed out, “We are in this together.” Kirk W. Dillard,

chairman, Regional Transportation Authority

Working poor?

In a country as great as ours, the term “working poor” should be an oxymoron.

Steven Butman, Rosemont