List Members: After reading the discussions on this list for the past several days, watching the news last night and seeing references in the Strib this morning, I decided to do what I often tell my children to do: Investigate the facts and make up your own mind about what you think is right or wrong in any given situation.
After investigating the facts (by reading the actual words that CM Natalie Johnson Lee wrote as well as the statement released by Police Federation representatives), any inclination I had to cut the family of Police Officers some slack disappeared.
The facts bear out that CM Natalie Johnson Lee saluted the "work and contributions of officer Melissa Schmidt" in the second paragraph of her letter and praised her for the way she carried out "her special calling to ensure that our streets were safer and our calls for help answered." Johnson Lee observed in her statement that "Her responses to our calls for help transcended racial and economic lines. Her efforts to make our streets safer had no boundaries." The fact that CM Johnson Lee sent these words out for National Night Out observances adds poignancy and a greater context for their meaning.
My analysis of the facts lead me to believe that Police Federation leaders attempted to put words in Johnson Lee's mouth that she did not say. Only the three Federation representatives who issued the statement know why. I do feel, however, that the use of the McVeigh analogy in their statement added fuel to an already tragic and emotionally ladened situation.
As a long time Ward 5 resident, I want to commend CM Natalie Johnson Lee for her empathy, sympathy and for recognizing the need for all of us to reflect and learn from untimely deaths. I want her to know that at least one constituent in Ward 5 supports her August 6th statement and her subsequent statement that she has no intention on resigning.
Emily Nancy Ero-Phillips,
Willard Hay - Ward 5
A Northsider (by choice) for over 42 years
