Law enforcement raises questions

With all that is happening in the Champaign community, I really have to start questioning the priorities of every level of the law enforcement process.

Here are a couple of examples.

The first involves an incident my friend had. An intruder broke into his house and tried to steal his car. He detained the intruder until the police arrived. Once the case got to the state's attorney's office, they wanted to plead it down to misdemeanor trespassing. It was just a hassle for them to deal with. The intruder served no jail time, but they made him write a letter of apology.

The second example is a widow I know from church. She was heading home from mass and an officer pulled her over for rolling a stop sign. He said he smelled wine on her and asked her to perform a field sobriety test. He cuffed her and took her to jail. The state's attorney and the judge suspended her license and gave her every fine possible because she could not perform the physical tests. She was almost 70.

It appears these actions emphasize those crimes that turn an extra profit for the local government. It would only add to the tragedy of the shooting of Kiwane Carrington if it ends up as an acceptable financial loss. Champaign is in Illinois. Fish rot from the head down.

JEFF BRADLEY

Champaign