[CPRB] My letter to the News-Gazette
John W.
jbw292002 at gmail.com
Sat Aug 4 06:49:25 CDT 2007
It's slightly over 250 words, and it's kinda late. Perhaps someone who
reads the News-Gazette regularly could let me know if it gets
printed? Here it is:
It was a Champaign City Council meeting that will live in infamy.
There was a bit of humor, though: the joke played by Mayor Schweighart on
certain citizens of Champaign.
Last Tuesday the Champaign City Council, by a vote of 5-4, rejected the
recommendation of its own Champaign Police Complaint Procedures
Subcommittee for the establishment of a Citizen Review Board as a means of
improving police-community relations. In fact, the City Council even
rejected any further discussion of the matter.
The Champaign Police Complaint Procedures Subcommittee, a subcommittee of
the Champaign Police Community Relations Committee, consisted of
representatives from the police department, the city staff, and the
community, and met once a month for twelve months. Its final report, a
handbook roughly one-half inch thick, and its final recommendation
reflected a consensus among the representatives of the three constituencies.
But it wasn't the consensus that retired police officer Jerry Schweighart
wanted. And so, as he had promised to do, he invalidated the hard work of
his subcommittee through some deft politicking. Following almost three
hours of public input, with all but two speakers in favor of some form of
citizen police review, he made a motion to ignore the subcommittee's
recommendation and maintain the status quo without further discussion or
public input. His own vote was the tie-breaker.
This marks at least the third time in the past nine years that the
Champaign City Council has disregarded the recommendation of one of its own
governmental bodies for some form of citizen police review. At this point
one has to wonder why any citizen would ever serve in a volunteer capacity
on a city board or commission.
At least three of the council members who voted with the mayor asserted
that THEY as elected officials were the Citizen Police Review
Board. Perhaps we should put their word to the test.
John Wason
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