Good cop, bad gov
Chicago Tribune: Editorial
August 25, 2003

By all signs, the Illinois legislature this fall will override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's amendatory veto and once again pass a sweeping reform of the state's death penalty. House Speaker Michael Madigan, and a particularly outraged Senate President Emil Jones, have rejected Blagojevich's arguments in favor of weakening the legislation.
Good. That will mean Blagojevich's ill-advised veto will only delay justice, not squelch it.

But Blagojevich is now doing more damage with some ridiculous remarks on this matter.

With his veto, Blagojevich rejected a measure that would create a special review board to investigate and sanction police officers who are accused of committing perjury in murder cases. The review board could fire the police officer if there was evidence to show perjury had been committed. The legislative leaders have made clear that they intend to restore this provision in the death penalty legislation.

"In my view, that means our streets are less safe, not more safe. And I'm not going to stand for it," Blagojevich said last week. "When the legislature has to convene, they have to ask themselves one simple question and that is whether or not we should have a system that treats criminals better than it treats police officers."

That's not simple. It's simplistic. It is a cartoon view of criminal justice that says if you're with me, you're with the good guys, and if you're against me, you're with the bad guys.

Nothing in this legislation is about coddling criminals. Everything in this legislation is about preventing those horrendous cases where innocent people are sent to prison--and sometimes to Death Row.

Many good people have spent years trying to dispel the notion that criminal justice reform is a matter of siding with bad guys over good guys. No one benefits when someone is wrongfully convicted--not the cops, not the lawyers and certainly not the people who have to live in high-crime communities where the real perpetrators still lurk because the wrong person went to prison.

The provision in the bill that Blagojevich objects to states only this: If an officer is suspected of committing perjury during a murder trial, he may be called before a panel of 17 of his fellow cops, who then may decide whether he should lose his badge.

During a National Public Radio interview last month, Blagojevich cast himself as a criminal justice reformer and triumphantly surfed the wave of publicity following his signing a new law that will require the taping of police interrogations. It is a good bill, and he is to be commended for signing it.

He talked about deep flaws in Illinois' criminal justice system, the example the state was setting for the rest of the nation and the need for reform measures to go into effect immediately because "justice delayed is justice denied." He even addressed the "harmful" lack of trust between predominantly white law enforcement officers and black communities.

And then he unraveled all that sound talk with silly rhetoric about "a system that treats criminals better than it treats police officers."

So which is it, governor? It's difficult to figure out a leader who changes his tune every time he changes his audience.