Illinois (ECWd) –

After years of witnessing a laundry list of malfeasance by public officials and hearing their justifications as to why what they did was no big deal, I wonder if we have lost our way.

We are supposed to be a nation of laws, but what good is that when people don’t know what the laws are, and even when they do they want to find excuses why they should be ignored or don’t apply to them.  Such a breakdown in our society can be a dangerous path.

After watching several public employees speak at a recent county board meeting, along with several citizens, it became evident the only thing that mattered to many of them were their feelings or emotional attachments to those alleged of wrongdoing. So much so that we listened to out-right lies and fabrication of information to attack certain board members.

We listened to an employee who quit her job complain about being called before a Grand Jury two months in a row for unknown reasons.  Maybe the employee, who received immunity, needs to understand Grand Juries are supposed to be secret and those called before them are not supposed to know in advance as to what they are being asked to honestly testify about. Having prior knowledge could jeopardize what investigation is taking place, but rather than understand those basic concepts, this person chose to claim her work environment is toxic due to the county board and the State’s Attorney who convened a Grand Jury to ensure our laws are followed and when not those responsible are held accountable.  When the pursuit of honest testimony is spun to attack those doing the job they were appointed to do, we have lost our way in my opinion.

When people get paid a monthly paycheck to work in the public sector, they should not publicly complain when warned that live-streaming entertainment while on the clock could result in criminal charges, unless of course, their job is to sit and watch movies on the taxpayer dime.

When your paycheck has more hours paid in it than you worked, the right thing to do is to correct it, not stay quiet and reap the extra income for years on end.  Such behavior led to over $700,000.00 of payroll malfeasance in the Shelby County Sheriff’s office.  Rather than hold those responsible for the malfeasance many insist no one did anything wrong since they were not convicted of anything.

Most people can understand it is not legal for a sheriff or other law enforcement to sell seized guns, but every month we hear people claim no one did anything wrong because they were not convicted.

Deputies who participated in Sheriff’s sales were violating the law, yet again, we hear people claim no one did anything wrong because they were not convicted.

A public employee who operated his private business out of the government’s facility violated our State Constitution. While there is no disputing such actions took place, claiming that no one did anything wrong because they were not convicted is the new normal, which ignores the most basic understanding as to how our laws are to be applied.

Follow the law.  When you don’t, an appropriate investigation should take place and then be passed on to those who can make a charging decision.  If charges are the result, then the matter goes before the court for final resolution.

However, in Illinois, the culture of corruption has taken hold in just about every public sector as well as our society.  A culture that finds excuses and justifications as to why it was OK for the person to violate the law rather than face the fact their friend or co-worker violated the law.

As we have said for years, in Illinois the standard is if caught breaking the law, change the law to make that illegal act legal and then claim no one broke the law.

The fact a person was not convicted for driving their truck into a moving train does not mean they didn’t hit the train or violate the vehicle code.

While we understand not every violation of the law will lead to a criminal charge, nor should it, it does not mean laws were not broken as some would have you believe.