Tanner's daughter should have sued over arrests a long time ago, and Tanner should have recused himself

Our erstwhile State's Attorney's daughter had a legitimate complaint against law enforcement officers for mistreating her.

But instead of filing a lawsuit when it happened, her father tried to gain advantage for her civil case by bringing a criminal case.

Former State's Attorney JOHN TANNER wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on legal defense to try to keep a grand jury presentment secret.

JOHN TANNER's anger at police abuses was entirely understandable, just as the anger of others in dealing with family members abused by cops all over America. His conflict of interest demeaned his office and the citizens of the 7th Judicial District.

Thank God for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who recognized the Constitution was violated by the "third degree" interrogation and incarceration techniques, often leading to wrongful criminal convictions.

But JOHN TANNER never confronted this sad state of affairs until his daughter was alleged victimized, and then he showed the sensititivy of a dancing Clydesdale horse by not recusing himself from investigating and prosecuting a case in which his daughter was the complaining victim. How gauche.

But thanks are due to TANNER and his daughter for confronting some local cops' continuing segregationists' mentality, leading to the Billie Holiday song, "Strange Fruit," about lynchings: