Malice or ignorance?

Dear Editor,

Let me tell you how I see it. (Just me, as a citizen and a Gazette reader, not as any part of the city government.)

Since there already exists a provision for city employees to receive pay increases based upon merit, Councilman Lonnie Anderson was almost certainly referring to the pay ceiling or cap which applies to every hourly city employee.

This ceiling, or cap, once reached, prevents long-term city workers from receiving merit increases. Given the many, many years of service that Lonnie provided to the city as a police officer, it's easy to see why he wouldn't have received a merit increase in those last seven years he spoke of.

I'm grateful that we NOW have at least one City Council member who understands this.

I've worked as a McCook police officer for over 13 years, and during that entire time, McCook police officers have been issued semiautomatic pistols (with magazines), not revolvers (with cylinders). The shootout Lonnie was involved in occurred at some time prior to that, and, while I wasn't here at the time, it's my understanding that he was fired upon before he could get out of his patrol car, and that most of the bullet holes in the car were put there by the man who was trying to kill him.

Lonnie was able to return fire, thereby surviving and prevailing. It may seem like a small thing to anyone who's never been in that position, but it's something that ISN'T accomplished by about 150 police officers every year in this country.

I'm fairly certain that council members don't have access to the performance evaluations of hourly city employees, such as police officers. Thus, I can understand why Mr. Trail might erroneously believe that patrolmen are evaluated by the Chief of Police, rather than by a Sergeant or Detective.

Isaac Asimov stated that one should never assume malice to explain that which could be attributed to ignorance instead. I'm trying very hard to follow that advice, but it seems like more of a tie in this particular instance.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Trail regarding the kudos due to the street crews for the long hours of work they've put in clearing snow off of the streets, while most people are sleeping.

Lastly, I defer to Mr. Trail's superior first-hand experience regarding irascible ex-City Council members, the good riddance thereof, and ill-advised criticism from those who know not of what they speak.

Owen J. McPhillips

McCook