[Peace-discuss] Despite the title (and slant) N-G editorial makes some interesting points............

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Sounds like Brain is not the only one looking for some answers to what  
happened in West Side Park:
Maybe a N-G reporter noticed what happened at the press conference and  
is also concerned about the lack of forthcoming information.
Also thanks to the N-G we now know where the "trouble  
lies".........."local social agencies should better serve the  
homeless"......... and so it goes............
Thankfully our community has the public-i to provide the investigative  
journalism missing elsewhere!

Today in the News-Gazette......................
Grateful community needs answers after shootout at park

Tuesday June 12, 2007

We and others in the community, we are sure, are elated that the  
shootings last Thursday night at Champaign's West Side Park had a  
relatively positive ending. All three Champaign police officers wounded  
in the gunfight apparently will survive, although Officer Shannon  
Bridges remains hospitalized and obviously faces a difficult physical  
and emotional rehabilitation. We wish her and her wounded colleagues,  
Officer Jack Armstrong and Deputy Chief John Murphy, full and speedy  
recoveries.

We also hope for the best for the apparent shooter in the incident,  
Donnell Clemons, a homeless man who at last report was still in  
critical condition at a local hospital.

That said, there are many serious unanswered questions about this  
incident, issues that need to be addressed expeditiously, thoroughly  
and with great transparency. And we urge the Champaign Police and the  
local Serious Use of Force Team, an investigative group made up of  
officers from several area police forces, to answer all of those  
questions and to fully disclose its findings to the public.

We have long been troubled by a growing trend among local police  
agencies to manage the flow of information and to release as little  
information as possible about crime incidents, and that goes doubly in  
cases like this one.

So far, there has been a disappointing lack of information about this  
incident, from the failure of police to make full written reports  
available about the shootout, to how Clemons, a repeat weapons offender  
with obvious mental health issues, was able to obtain a gun and make a  
car parked on a busy city street his home. It is frightening to  
consider the level of potential catastrophe had the gunfight occurred  
earlier in the day when preschoolers were at a nearby playground or at  
some other time when students from Champaign Central High School  
frequently are in the park.

Furthermore, the incident raises other concerns, including whether  
Clemons was receiving any mental health assistance, whether he was  
enough of a risk to himself and others that he required  
institutionalization, and how many other troubled and potentially  
dangerous people are living on the streets of Champaign-Urbana,  
Danville or other Illinois cities, instead of receiving adequate mental  
health care.

We are grateful for the police officers who serve and protect us, and  
we are thankful that last week's incidents did not have a more tragic  
ending. Meanwhile, the police agencies involved in the investigation  
should conduct a swift, fair and thorough assessment of what may have  
gone wrong. Furthermore, local social service agencies should conduct a  
similar review to see how they might be better able to serve people  
living on the streets with mental illnesses, and to assure citizens  
that parks and other public places are as safe as possible.
  Find this article at:
   
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/opinions/editorials/2007/06/12/ 
grateful_community_needs_answers_after

JAN Kruse
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