[CPRB] RE: [Peace-discuss] CPRB

Tue Jul 17 15:08:44 CDT 2007

It's always amusing, when Urbana proposes adopting something that already exists in dozens of communities around the country, that opponents step forward to assert that the sky will surely fall if Urbana takes the unprecedented step of doing anything new.  Whether it was creating a city-wide recycling program, adopting an Historic Preservation Ordinance, adopting an anti-war resolution, implementing rental registration for apartments -- our city was a late-comer to a national trend but opponents threatened horrible consequences.  Robert Dunn's claim that the crime rate will sky-rocket if the city creates a Police Review Board  is just plain silly.  The real experiences of dozens of communities through the nation refute Robert's claim.  

By the way:

The Fraternal Order of Police fundraises the money for Shop with a Cop.  I think it's a good program and donate to it, but wanted Robert and others to know that the program is not about police officers spending their own money to buy things for low-income children (although I don't doubt there are officers who donate to the fund).  But the money is raised by the FOP -- primarily by their calling people like all of us and asking for donations.  Then the officers go shopping with the children for "holiday" presents, using the money raised in the community.  Community members are needed to accompany the officers and kids on the shopping trip and to help the children wrap the presents they buy.  

Esther Patt

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:28:21 -0500
>From: "John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com>  
>Subject: [CPRB] RE: [Peace-discuss] CPRB   
>To: "Robert Dunn" <prorobert8 at hotmail.com>, peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net, cprb at lists.chambana.net
>
>   At 12:21 PM 7/17/2007, Robert Dunn wrote:
>
>     ps, have anyone outside of myself ever done a
>     ride-a-along with a police officer? How about
>     participating in Kiwanis "Shop with a Cop" program
>     where the Urbana Police Department uses its own
>     budget to take low-income families Christmas
>     Shopping on the UPDs tab? Yes, thats right, the
>     same Department that is "targeting" low-income
>     African Americans is willing to help them out.
>
>   Then who is it who is always phoning me and
>   soliciting money for such programs?  I was under the
>   impression that it was MY money and that of other
>   citizens that paid for those Christmas toys.  For
>   the police, it's a PR program.
>
>      That is more than what the Left has done for
>     low-income persons.
>
>   Oh?  Excuse me?  Members of "The Left" never help
>   low-income persons?  May I ask your source of
>   information on that assertion? 
>
>     Police work is dangerous! They go out there and
>     risk their lives everyday to make sure that our
>     streets our safe from criminals. Part of the
>     reason why i "left the Left" was because i was a
>     victim of a mugging. Ironically, i was on my way
>     to a meeting in San Bernardino to establish a CPRB
>     there. From being someone who believed that cops
>     were "pigs", i developed an apprecriation (sp) for
>     the police. I found myself more and more
>     uncomfortable establishing something that would
>     deny someone like me who had been robbed at
>     gunpoint justice. What if you were in the same
>     situation that i was? The Left did not stand up
>     for me. When i shared my story with my comrades in
>     San Bernardino, they took the robbers side. They
>     made excuses for him, just like you guys make
>     excuses for criminals here! I was the Damn Victim,
>     but i was turned into the enemy automatically
>     because i wanted justice and was denied it.
>
>   Why were you denied justice?  Didn't the police
>   catch the criminal who mugged you?  What did the
>   police do for you?
>
>     I felt so guilty because of what i had done. I
>     could not come up to the same City Council in San
>     Bernardino and say that i was wrong for opposing
>     the police. Well, here is my chance.
>
>   How fortunate for you.
>
>     Also, i want to thank Danielle Chynoweth for
>     showing courtesy to me and welcoming me back home.
>     Even though my comments were directed at her, she
>     did not act the way that Charlie Smyth and Mort
>     Brussel did. I also want to thank Mayor Prussing
>     for stopping Mr. Smyth. He is so unprofessional
>     and rude, and i thought Tod Sattherwaite was bad!
>     Im sorry, i don't know anything about statistics,
>     i was horrible in math, only made it to college
>     algebra and fought like mad for a C. All i can go
>     by is my experiences and basic commonsense. Its
>     something that ideology blinds people to. But, my
>     traumatic incident shattered my Leftist
>     illlusions!
>
>   All I can say is that I'm thankful my various
>   traumatic incidents have left my "Leftist" illusions
>   intact.
>
>   When I was in high school in Chicago, age 14 or 15,
>   coming out of basketball practice after dark, I had
>   the shit beat out of me by about 20 black youth who
>   surrounded me on the sidewalk.  Several of them held
>   my arms behind my back, while several more took
>   turns punching me in the face.  They broke my
>   glasses and bloodied my face.  The only thing that
>   saved me from further harm was deciding, as I was
>   falling to the ground, to "play dead" and hope
>   they'd get scared and run away, which they did.
>
>   After they were gone I went across the street to a
>   service station, run by a couple of white
>   gentlemen.  They didn't offer to call the police or
>   help in any way.  When I asked them if I could
>   borrow a flashlight to search for the pieces of my
>   broken glasses, they refused.  So I took the bus
>   home, and my father went back and found my broken
>   glasses.  The white bus driver, seeing my bloody
>   face, didn't offer to call the police or show any
>   sort of concern.
>
>   At age 17, I was harassed by the police for curfew
>   violation in Chicago.  Two of us couples were
>   "making out" in a car on the Lake Michigan beach,
>   harming no one.  I was already in college by that
>   time, had lived on my own for a year.  Yet the cops
>   took us to the precinct house, fingerprinted and
>   booked us, and locked the two males in a jail cell
>   for a couple of hours.  It seemed to be great sport
>   to them.  They finally let us go without pressing
>   any charges.
>
>   At age 20, while doing a teaching internship in
>   inner-city Jersey City, I had my life savings of
>   $300 stolen out of the chest of drawers in my room. 
>   The police were called, but when they arrived they
>   acted so put out about having to investigate or file
>   a report that I told them to just forget about it.
>
>   As a rookie firefighter, I was used by the police to
>   help them conduct an illegal search, and to hose
>   down noisy prisoners in the city jail.  I was
>   ordered to do so, and faced threats of
>   insubordination if I refused.
>
>   Before coming here to C-U, I sold my house to the
>   town's chief of detectives (brother-in-law of the
>   police chief), who promptly breached the contract. 
>   When I dared to sue him in small claims court, he
>   threatened my life, with only his wife as a
>   witness.  There was nothing I could do at the time,
>   but a couple years later I was vindicated when he
>   was fired from the police force for threatening
>   other citizens and even threatening fellow police
>   officers.  He was a true rogue cop.  It was,
>   unfortunately, his threatening of his fellow police
>   officers that finally did him in.
>
>   In that town he was fired by the three-person
>   civilian Board of Police and Fire Commissioners
>   after a lengthy hearing - a slightly different form
>   of civilian police oversight.  In all this time, I
>   haven't been able to find out much about whether or
>   not Champaign and/or Urbana have Boards of Police
>   and Fire Commissioners, and if they do, what their
>   disciplinary powers are. No one seems to know.
>
>   The point of all this, though, is that through all
>   of these experiences I have never felt it necessary
>   to classify any of these protagonists - black or
>   white, cops or not - as ALL good or ALL bad.  Life
>   is not black and white.  There are good cops and bad
>   cops.  A CPRB exists to identify the rogue cops and
>   hopefully help to get rid of them.  It exists to
>   provide civilian oversight over questionable police
>   practices.  In no way could a CPRB ever have the
>   power to "coddle" criminals or somehow allow the
>   crime rate to soar.  By asserting that it could, you
>   and other like-minded individuals on "The Right"
>   denigrate the integrity and common sense of those
>   who will serve as CPRB members, and you show very
>   little understanding of how a CPRB actually
>   functions.
>
>   John
>
>             From:  Bob Illyes <illyes at uiuc.edu>
>             To:  peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>             Subject:  [Peace-discuss] CPRB
>             Date:  Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:59:51 -0500
>
>             >For those of you who were not at the
>             Urbana City Council last
>             >night, Robert Dunn was the only speaker
>             who opposed the
>             >Civilian Police Review Board.
>             >
>             >You know perfectly well, Robert, that the
>             police and the
>             >military must be under strict civilian
>             control. The number of
>             >complaints against the police here in the
>             African-American
>             >community is huge. This is the sort of
>             thing that gave us
>             >the torching of Detroit. We need some
>             mechanism outside of
>             >the police department to process these
>             complaints in a way
>             >that most see as fair.
>             >
>             >Bob
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