[Peace-discuss] Police Review -- small steps

[John W.]

At 04:43 PM 8/2/2007, Karen Medina wrote:

>RE: citizens police review board in Champaign
>
>I think we would be wisest to analyze the FOP lawyer's "claims". We can 
>start educating the public, correcting the lawyer's mistakes one-by-one.
>
>We can do a myth correction flier.
>We can set up a webpage that can be a resource for our community and others.
>We can do an article for a newspaper, local or not-so-local.
>
>Danielle C. has really done a lot of homework on CPRBs and Stan Levy is a 
>wonderful resource.

And then there is the Coalition for Citizen Police Review.  :-)  We do have 
a web site already, although it's rather primitive and woefully 
outdated.  Ricky Baldwin and I have just commenced a discussion of how best 
to update and utilize it.  Here's the URL:  http://www.prairienet.org/cprb/ .



>I was completely out of hope for Champaign, but I think there is some 
>light if we use the resources we have at this point. And, oddly enough, I 
>think we can use the FOP lawyer to our advantage -- he created the myths 
>that the police will tend to believe and that the middle class people 
>might follow suit. A source of well-contained myths is a resource, if used 
>correctly.

As I type this I'm in the process of taping Tuesday night's Champaign city 
council meeting.  I want to be able to refer back to some of the 
comments.  Tom Sonneborn's 15 minutes of fame were especially disingenuous, 
and illuminating.


>And, I still like the idea of inviting a police officer to spend a day in 
>the home of a resident in a high crime neighborhood. (thanks go to Robert 
>D. for sparking this idea). Public servant education rocks!
>
>There is hope!
>-karen medina