[Peace-discuss] CPRB editorial

[Brian Dolinar]

Excellent editorial - Ricky.  BD

 [image: The News-Gazette.com] Urbana public backs idea of police
review Thursday
August 2, 2007

Can the News-Gazette really be that out of it?

A recent editorial attack claims, "The proposed police review board in
Urbana could be quite different than what the public has been told it will
be." But The News-Gazette is the one misleading the public, so let us be
clear.

The vast majority of opinion that Urbana residents have ever expressed
publicly has been in favor of police review. Almost every comment on the
current proposal was in favor of strengthening it along the lines of the
latest revisions.Yet when Alderwoman Danielle Chynoweth speaks up for this
majority, The News-Gazette slurs her as "the pied piper." When Mayor Laurel
Prussing agrees to make some, not all, the changes, the paper accuses her of
"pacifying" Chynoweth alone, and worse, portrays this openness to input as
somehow dishonest.

The editorial conjures up a number of imaginary horrors it says could occur
just because citizens might be able to appeal a decision on a complaint
against a police officer, none of which are borne out in the many other
towns where police review is in place.

One is that "zealots" will somehow "wreak havoc" with the authority to
subpoena evidence and witnesses, not even including police, for review.
Review boards nationwide have this ability, and more. And it has been openly
discussed in public in Urbana for months. But somehow the News-Gazette is
surprised, just as they earlier claimed to be surprised that the board would
be trained, another longtime proposal.

RICKY BALDWIN

Urbana
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Find this article at:
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/opinions/letters/2007/08/02/urbana_public_backs_idea_of_police
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-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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