[Peace-discuss] RE: What happened Friday night?

Tue Apr 3 14:30:20 CDT 2007

Another reason for a strong civilian oversight of
police, too, let's not forget.  I think the City
Council and News-Gazette need that reminder.

But that's just the start.

This kind of thing is disgusting, and inexcusable in a
democratic society where citizens are supposed to have
rights - some rights even after conviction, but at the
very least all their rights until they are convicted
of something.  But police powers are such that you
don't really need a conviction, or even a trial, to be
severely punished -even killed- in this country.

What does that say about what "all our rights" means? 
I think it means "all" is still pretty limited. 

This kind of policy has to be changed.  It's also
based on a very bad idea, that anything but immediate
submission is to be met with brutal violence - even if
we're talking about a kid, maybe just talking, asking
a question, trying to explain that his jacket is
caugght, or just scared and thinking over what he or
she needs to do - don't we want to *encourage*
talking, asking questions, explaining ... thinking?

But anybody who has ever tried to "explain" to a cop
who had his or her mind made up may know - none of us
is really free as long as this kind of brutality is
allowed and even sanctioned.

Ricky

--- Esther Patt <estherpatt at hotmail.com> wrote:

> If you want to get the most mileage out of your
> appearance at city council, I suggest that a much
> better question than "why are these officers not on
> suspension?" is "why does standard police procedure
> involve use of excessive force when there is no
> criminal activity underway or suspicion of a crime?"
>  
> On this morning's T.V. news, Finney was reporting
> that the Department investigated the incident and
> decided there was no wrong-doing on the part of the
> police officers involved because their behavior was
> standard procedure.  I'm not defending what the
> officers did, but Finney is right.  The problem
> isn't cops misbehaving.  The problem IS the standard
> procedure.  
>  
> When you criticize personnel, city officials will
> defend their employees.  Please don't take this down
> the wrong path.  Rank and file officers are not the
> source of the problem.  The standard operating
> procedure IS the problem.
>  
> The procedure has to change.  I urge those who speak
> tonight to focus on that instead of complaining
> about the individual officers who happened to be
> there.   You could have 100% turn-over of personnel
> in the police department and nothing would change
> until the policies and procedures change.  
>  
> Esther Patt
> 
> 
> Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:14:01 -0500From:
> briandolinar at gmail.comTo:
> announce at communitycourtwatch.org;
> grosales at ad.uiuc.edu;
> GinaJackson at ci.champaign.il.us;
> jenny-p at sbcglobal.net; dj_matt_99 at yahoo.com;
> melodye at nitrogendesign.com; estherpatt at hotmail.com;
> contactus at habariconnection.com;
> williams_clan at sbcglobal.net; stop at iresist.org;
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.netSubject: What
> happened Friday night?Here's a write up from the
> investigative work of Martel Miller, with the help
> of Chris Evans.We will be taking up this issue at
> the Champaign City Council meeting, Tuesday, April 3
> at 7pm.Friday night, March 30, a 17 year-old black
> youth was confronted by police in Douglass Park.  An
> altercation ensued, ending with the youth being
> heavily pepper sprayed, an ambulance arriving, and
> him being taken to the hospitol.  This is the
> victim's story:
> According to the victim, the officer that approached
> the 17 year old was NOT the officer that attacked
> the victim. The attacking officer came from another
> squad car and acted on her own provocation without
> telling the victim why he was being attacked and
> apprehended. This happened in front of the nine-year
> old and 15 year-old. Still not explained is why the
> female officer needed to use force in the first
> place. When she attacked the 17 year-old, his
> "hoodie" got caught in a chain link fence, and other
> officers joined in the fray, and the youth was
> trying to get his shirt unhooked off the fence. The
> victim was NOT resisting. Other officers piled on
> top of him, and it was then he was punched in the
> face causing the bleeding. While he was piled upon
> and subdued already, it was then that the officers
> used pepper spray directly into his face and
> nostrils. According to the victim, he was punched in
> the face, there were knees into his neck and back
> while he screamed that he was having difficulty
> breathing. It was then when they pepper sprayed him.
> The nine-year old and 15 year-old watched all this.
> One other youth watching was the one who ran down to
> Gina Jackson's house, which may have stopped the
> police brutality from escalating further and saved
> the young man's life.Questions from the community
> are why are these officers still on active duty and
> will there be some suspensions? Chief Finney
> promised nearly 3 years ago, that it was his
> priority to improve relations with the black
> community and police. It looks like we have a long
> way to go.-- Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.303 W. Locust
> St.Urbana, IL 61801briandolinar at gmail.com 
>
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