[Peace-discuss] Re: [CPRB] Police Pepper Spray & Injure Youth walking home from B-Ball

Thu Apr 5 11:36:20 CDT 2007

Absolutely - 

The cops need to be taken down a notch after this. 
Call them -- and the papers -- on this disinformation.

I'm writing a letter to the editor - I hope others
will, too.  Are we planning further action?

Ricky

p.s.  fyi

Florida governor wins voting rights for ex-felons 

By Michael Peltier April 5, 2007 

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters)- Florida officials on
Thursday voted to end the practice of stripping
ex-criminal offenders of their civil rights, including
the right to vote.

Florida is one of just three U.S. states, all in the
Deep South, that have maintained long-standing
constitutional barriers to restoring civil rights to
those that have committed serious crimes, rights
groups say.

Meeting in a special session, the Florida Clemency
Board agreed by a 3-1 vote to allow some 950,000
ex-felons to automatically have their civil rights
restored, removing a barrier that goes back 140 years.
The changed rules still require the state's most
serious offenders -- murderers and sexual offenders --
to undergo a formal review by the four-member panel
led by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist.

"We must provide a system to allow these people to
become productive members of society," said Crist,
invoking Passover and the Easter holidays as a time of
forgiveness.
The vote pitted Crist against Attorney General Bill
McCollum, also a Republican and the sole dissenter in
the ruling, and is just one of a raft of ways in which
Crist is distinguishing himself from his predecessor
as governor, Jeb Bush, the president's younger
brother.

McCollum chided his Republican colleague for
submitting a proposal that does away with a mandatory
five-year waiting period before ex-offenders can apply
for the restoration of their rights. In addition to
voting, the rights include sitting on a jury, owning
guns, holding public office and applying for some
professional trade licenses.

"It is a very grave mistake to do that," McCollum
said.

IF this news is printed in the N-G at all - a big IF -
we might look for a note that Illinois and other
states do still have significant restrictions on the
civil rights of ex-felons (as we know: running for
office, receiving Township aide - at least for SOME,
etc.) ...

But I won't hold my breath.

Take care-
Ricky

--- Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Danielle Chynoweth <chyn at ojctech.com>
> Date: Apr 4, 2007 8:54 PM
> Subject: [CUCPJ Announce] Police Pepper Spray &
> Injure Youth walking home
> from B-Ball
> To: announce at communitycourtwatch.org
> 
> Last Friday around 8:30 pm, police pepper sprayed
> and roughed up a youth
> heading home with two other kids from Basketball at
> Douglas Center.  The kid
> was bleeding and couldn't breathe from the spray. 
> He has been arrested on
> obstruction of justice charges.  (read more:
> http://www.ucimc.org/node/1200)
> 
> The police continue to say their reason for the stop
> is because Douglas park
> was closed. NOT TRUE.
> 
> I called Douglas Center today and was clearly told
> by a park official that
> Douglas center has activities on Friday night until
> 11 pm and that the park
> closes at midnight.  I asked "Is the park closed at
> that time [when the
> Center is open]?"  She said "no the park closes at
> midnight."
> 
> Readers of the News Gazette and Daily Illini saw:
> 
> "Police said the youth was walking through Douglass
> Park after dark when the
> park was officially closed. When officers tried to
> stop the young man, he
> would not stop and he then allegedly took up a
> fighting stance, and police
> are trained to use as much force as necessary to
> carry out their duties"
>
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/print/2007/04/04/youths_arrest_sparks_heated_debate_at_council_meeting/
> 
> A 17 year old black man "was arrested Friday night
> on charges of resisting
> arrest as he walked through Douglas Park after the
> park was closed."  ...
>
http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/04/04/News/Man-Takes.Racial.Issues.To.Council-2821687.shtml
> 
>  "Some say police used too much force arresting 17
> year old Brian Chelsey.
> He was walking through the park after hours when
> officers stopped him."
>
http://www.illinoishomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=5131
> 
> Readers think "why was this kid walking through the
> park when it was
> closed?" and assume ill intent.
> 
> The news has to stop printing what the police say as
> fact (like the DI &
> WCIA) or not checking the veracity of police
> statements (like the NG).  It
> is amazing to me how false info from the mouths of
> police can fly around
> this community with every news reporting repeating
> the last one.
> 
> The police should be called on their story - it is
> not true.
> 
> - Danielle
> 
> _______________________________________________
> announce mailing list
> announce at lists.communitycourtwatch.org
>
http://lists.communitycourtwatch.org/listinfo.cgi/announce-communitycourtwatch.org
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
> 303 W. Locust St.
> Urbana, IL 61801
> briandolinar at gmail.com
> > _______________________________________________
> CPRB mailing list
> CPRB at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/cprb
> 

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