This is tremendous!<div><br></div><div>Congratulations all!</div><div><br></div><div>Ingbert</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 12:57 PM, Brian Dolinar <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:briandolinar@gmail.com" target="_blank">briandolinar@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Two
out of three proposals presented two years ago by the grassroots organization,
Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ), were included in the
police union contract approved by Champaign city council on Tuesday night,
December 4, 2012. </span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In
April 2010, <a href="http://www.ucimc.org/content/cucpj-makes-proposals-champaign-police-union-contract-wake-kiwane-carrington-killing" target="_blank">CUCPJ
delivered</a> their three proposals to city council with allies from the local
NAACP, Ministerial Alliance, and Planner’s Network, a student group. They were
put forward after widespread public outrage to the police killing of
15-year-old Kiwane Carrington on October 9, 2009. The recommendations to the
police union contract were written with the help of members of the Graduate
Employees’ Organization (GEO), who had recently won a contract after a two-day
strike. They included: 1) a residency requirement for officers to live in the
city of Champaign 2) drug testing of officers involved in incidents that result
in death or great bodily harm, and 3) public access to complaints against
police officers. The first two proposals, in some version, have made it into
the new police union contract. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In
the new agreement, the city will offer a $3,000 to officers who move into the
City of Champaign. If an officer fires their weapon, and there is injury to
person or property, they must submit to an alcohol and drug test. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In
speaking before the city council on Tuesday night, Aaron Ammons, of CUCPJ,
highlighted how these changes came from the community. “The work of the
citizen,” he said, “is rarely, if ever, brought to light and appreciated in the
way it should be.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Belden
Fields, of CUCPJ, addressed the third proposal for access to police complaints.
The group had been mistaken, he admitted, in asking for this in the police
union contract. It’s not a bargaining issue,” he said, “It’s a legal issue.” As
Fields has <a href="http://publici.ucimc.org/2012/11/a-tale-of-two-cities-public-access-to-police-complaints-in-champaign-and-urbana/" target="_blank">reported
in <i>The</i> <i>Public i</i></a>, the decision in the <i>Gekas v. Williamson </i>case by the Fourth District Appellate Court of
Illinois, and two rulings from the Illinois Attorney General’s office, state
clearly that complaints against police officers are public documents. The city
of Champaign has refused to acknowledge the decisions and explain its current
policy of withholding the names of officers in complaints. The city must
disclose the names, Fields said, and adopt policy in line with the recent
rulings. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The
City of Urbana is currently considering an ordinance putting such a policy in
writing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">For
the <i>News-Gazette</i> article on the new
police contract in Champaign go<a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/news/courts-police-and-fire/2012-12-04/new-police-contract-draws-praise-champaign.html" target="_blank"> here</a>. </span></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></p>
BD<br>-- <br>Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.<br>303 W. Locust St.<br>Urbana, IL 61801<br><a href="mailto:briandolinar@gmail.com" target="_blank">briandolinar@gmail.com</a><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>==========================================<br>Ingbert Schmidt<br><a href="http://ingbert.org/" target="_blank">http://ingbert.org/</a> || skype/twitter/etc.: spacesoon<br>
<br>"Dream in a pragmatic way."<br>-Aldous Huxley<br>
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