The Price Of Honor

Deputy Police Chief Rudy McIntosh of East St. Louis, Illinois, took on one of the most corrupt Democrat political machines in the country. He volunteered to go undercover for the FBI in order to help investigate and end the corruption there.

Deputy Police Chief Rudy McIntosh said he had no regrets about aiding the FBI even though the agency told him that he and his family would be at risk. He said the investigation that has led to the indictment of five so far would result in several more arrests.

Kelvin Ellis, the city's former regulatory affairs director, was arrested Jan. 21 on charges that he tried to have a federal witness killed. He is being held without bail.

The heart of the case against Ellis is a series of conversations the two men had while McIntosh was wearing a wire. The two men are precinct committeemen, and McIntosh sought Ellis' advice on climbing the political ladder. McIntosh, 45, is running for East St. Louis Township supervisor in the election April 5.

In his first public comments on the investigation, McIntosh said Monday that he was able to work his way into the city's political power base and then use what he had learned against those who trusted him.

"They let an honest man into a corrupt circle," McIntosh said, referring to some in the city's powerful Democratic Central Committee. "That was the biggest mistake they could make."

McIntosh has been threatened, maligned, and suspended from his job because of his courage. Let’s hope that his sacrifice is worth it, and that the people of East St. Louis, like the people of Iraq, will one day be permitted to vote in an honest election.