Officer deserves promotion
In the Dec. 2 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in large bold print it said, “Officer with record is up for promotion.”
Immediately, I thought that this was a situation where there wasn’t a disposition of the offense. However, after reading the article I learned that the officer did have a record for an alcohol-related driving offense that occurred almost six years ago. The officer had been suspended from the police department and served several days in jail for the violation. Should he continue to be punished the rest of his life? Apparently, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel believes so.
Having a misdemeanor on your record won’t preclude anybody from becoming a Milwaukee police officer. Will police applicants with a misdemeanor record be denied promotions? The answer is no. Then why should this officer continue to be punished the rest of his career and denied a promotion?
I have no doubt that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel succeeded in creating more hatred and mistrust of the police through this article. Currently, our dedicated police officers are not only verbally battered, but also physically assaulted and shot while trying to protect and serve the public.
This officer passed all the test/ assessments for the lieutenant position and was thoroughly vetted by the department. He hasn’t violated the department’s code of conduct and has been an exemplary officer for the past six years and, therefore, should receive the promotion that he rightly deserves.
Ted Engelbart Hustisford
Fully fund UW budget
State legislators should fully support the moderate and reasonable budget request submitted by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents.
As noted by Tom Still, a regular contributor to the Business Section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is no longer among the nation’s top five research universities in spending (“Fall in R&D rank cause for concern”).
Budgets for the UW System have been cut in five of the last six state government spending cycles. This has reduced state support for basic research and professional training at all UW campuses and, in turn, adversely affects the ability to attract funding for applied research, which creates new products and services of benefit to all of Wisconsin.
In addition, state politics have drawn negative attention to the UW System, making it more difficult to attract and retain top researchers and educators. As many probably know, many top professors already have left the UW System because of budget cuts.
Funding for our university system is critical for the prosperity of Wisconsin, and its current budget request needs to be fully funded.
Mariette Nowak East Troy
Ryan’s attitude disturbing
I find it very disturbing that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is somehow able to dismiss presidentelect Donald Trump’s twitter comments that Trump would have won the popular vote if it had not been for the “millions” of people who had voted “illegally” (“Ryan says he’s patched up relationship with Trump,” Dec. 5).
That Ryan sees this type of lying and inflammatory hyperbole as “basically giving voice to a lot of people who have felt that they were voiceless” is pretty incredible. Maybe Ryan needs to review his history books, paying special attention to the chapter on fascism. Voiceless people, all people for that matter, are better served by the truth than by what some leader decides they should or would like to hear.
It would be more fun watching Ryan continue to twist himself into a pretzel in order to ride the Trump Train if it were not so frightening for our democracy.
Barbara Wooten