Yes, the Sun-Times editorial “High cost of police misconduct is financially breaking our city” is correct: More than $100 million paid out in the last 10 years, plus substantial add-on costs seldom mentioned. Your proposed changes to the next police contract are sensible and vital if taxpayers are to get relief. What other big cities pay such big misconduct penalties?

But more is needed. Until cops who defend this sort of behavior are made to feel the pain too, there’ll be little if any self-discipline. On the contrary, they all know the rules are rigged in their favor. As others have suggested, unless there’s a law against it, a percentage of all payouts to settle misconduct lawsuits should be shared by the police retirement fund and/or Fraternal Order of Police dues fund, so cops can share the financial pain, having caused it.

As matters stand, individual cops are not only insulated by a contract lopsided in their favor, but also, based on outcomes, by the knowledge that they won’t suffer any direct penalty individually. Human nature being what it is, that is an unspoken, built-in perverse incentive to go rogue. The city’s contract negotiators never seem to have seriously considered that. The time has come.

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde ParkSEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

Satanists don’t belong at the Capitol

Why has the Illinois Legislature allowed a Satanic statue to be erected in front of the Illinois Capitol Building during the Christmas season? We who are of the Judeo/Christian faiths celebrate the Biblical God of light, salvation, and peace during the Christmas holidays. The Satanic religion is the very antithesis of these beliefs.

Placing a Satanic statue next to a manger scene with the Christ child, and/or a Jewish menorah, dishonors the spiritual principles that America was founded on. Christmas has no real meaning for Satanic believers. And yet, they are allowed to sully the sanctity of Christmas with a statue that gives homage to the “dark arts.”

Diane Hatchett-Cohen, Lombard