Journal Standard It is a historical fact that the genesis of racism and brutality in law enforcement evolved from “slave catchers," people employed by plantation owners to run down Black slaves attempting to escape inhuman cruelty and oppression. Over the last number of decades, the evidence of disparate and out-of-control police practice is still, sadly, very often in public view. Racial justice and appropriate policing practices are far from being achieved on the streets of this country. Protests over the last year in response to murders of Black citizens by public safety officers did not happen for no reason. Instead of responsibly and honestly debating the features of the Illinois bill, Andrew Chesney, in the Jan. 23 issue of the Freeport Journal Standard, parrots “unfunded mandates” and more hyperbolic misinformation about House Bill 3653. Mr. Chesney, Mr. Stewart, Chief Summers and Sheriff Snyders have promulgated an active scare campaign of misinformation to their “red meat” law-and-order constituents.