I want to express my outrage at the News Gazette  editorial last week on the Champaign Police Department, the email sent anonymously by a group of officers and Chief Finney's retirement. The editorial states " Police officers are a truculent suspicious bunch ..."   Truculent is defined as   "Eager or quick to argue or fight; aggressively defiant" . For this local newspaper to smear all police officers with this definition is an insult not only to the men and women who wear the uniform to protect our city, but to us residents who live here. The issue discussed involved 18 sergeants and four lieutenants. Of those 22 officers maybe 3-5 are involved. Yet this paper decides to swipe with one brush a broad diatribe of character assasination against the whole department. Shameful !

Now are there are issues we must deal with inside the Police Department. Absolutely, but as most situations, the primary problems can be found within a few officers, and from what I can see the new Mayor and Council are working on solving those problems

The police officers of our City deal with underage drunk rowdy college students, burglars, people who commit battery, murder, sex offenses against woman and children, they patrol our schools, along with a plethora of other community problems and overall they do a great job. Yet our local newspaper attacks our police officers for speaking out about issues that festered and was ignored by their good buddy Jerry Schweighart whom they feel necessary to continue promote as our Mayor despite his defeat. Did you see the event with pictures in the paper this week  where good ole Jerry is handing out keys to the City to a local citizen on an unauthorized basis by the City and the voters ? Pitiful. 

 One other interesting part of that editorial was they chastised the officers who wrote the email for disseminating it broadly. This from an organization who is constantly preaching about open government and files Freedom of Information requests, most of them frivolous, on a weekly basis. This begs the question who are they trying to protect? Clearly the News Gazette will go to any lengths to protect their buddies including smearing our local police officers in print. Quite a disgusting practice by a so called newspaper. I have friends who tell me that I should not criticize a company that buys ink by the barrel, but I am all too aware of the NG smear tactics and they need to be exposed for who they are. And just like the police department and most other organizations, it only takes a few bad characters to make a whole group look bad and the News Gazette is no different. Only their bad characters sit right at the top of the editorial board and it completely overshadows the good work done by the men and woman of  this once fine newspaper.

Our City as it grows in terms of population and diversity, is subjected to the opinions of an editorial group that is completely out of touch with the people who live here. If only they would retire, the improvement to our City and its local newspaper would be tremendous.