Why beautification? Hire more police!

Why beautification? Hire more police!

To the editor: I have lived in Wheeling for 20 years now and throughout the years I had never heard of a drive-by shooting or an armed robbery transpiring.

I read your paper every day, as well as the Countryside on Thursday. While reading, I constantly notice cars being broken into, graffiti being splashed across like walls of businesses and homes, tires being slashed and a lot of theft.

Instead of the village wasting more money on fountains, flowers, statues and the likes, how about them hiring a few more police officers to patrol our streets?

Gangs are running wild through Wheeling and the police have more then they can handle already. Having a few additional squads out there might deter some of the activity. They might even catch a couple of these punks and possibly make an example of them.

I also feel that with the culturally diverse groups of people living in Wheeling, it would be nice if our police could do the same as the police in Waukegan. During a traffic stop, check for illegal aliens, check for current insurance and valid driver's license.

If they are found to be illegal, not have current insurance coverage and to be driving without a valid driver's license, they should be locked up and their car impounded.

My husband was rear ended by a woman without insurance. The repairs cost us $1,500. When we went to court, the woman cried and carried on in front of the judge and she was fined $300. Hello, what about our car? Who's paying for that? Oh, yes, I forgot, we did. He had insurance, he had a valid license and he did not rear end her, but we were the ones out the money.

It would be nice if the trustees would stop looking at the big picture for a while and come back down to earth to see what is really happening today in Wheeling.

P. Wilson

Wheeling