[Peace-discuss] letter to NG and reminder of Wednesday noon protest at the courthouse

[Karen Medina]

Don't forget the justice demonstration today at noon. Also, please comment on my letter below. I need to shorten it drastically.

>   Justice for Brian Chesley!
>   Justice for Patrick Thompson!
>
>   Protest at the Champaign County courthouse
>   this Wednesday at noon.
>
>   End police brutality!
>   Stop Racial Profiling!
>   No more all-white juries!

-- my letter to the NG ---

The trial centered on one boy's reaction to the police. But let us remember where the real issues are. 

There is a severe mistrust between the people and the police in Champaign-Urbana. This situation must change, and I fear that this case will lead the police to intentionally and purposefully deepen the mistrust that they do not acknowledge is present.

First, the police consistently swarm the Douglass Park area. The officers testified that they were all sent to the area that night, not because of a call to the area, but on routine surveillance. The night of the incident, at least 2 patrol cars were within a few blocks of each other. This density of police in your neighborhood on any night would make you feel uneasy. But this is not a single night surveillance; this is a near constant surveillance.  

The police are in the schools as well. There is no relief from the stalkers if you are black teen. 

The night of this incident, Officer Davis, a black man, approached a group of three boys -- two teens walking an eight-year-old home to make sure he was safe. Officer Davis testified that he just wanted to talk to the boys, not to arrest them, but to enter their personal data into a database just in case. 

Why are the police creating a database? Would they stop me, a white woman, and enter my personal data into this database? They would neither stop me in or out of Douglass Park, and they would not put my information in this database. 

During the trial, person after person testified that they ran to get video recorders, tape recorders, or the local City Councilperson Gina Jackson. This alone should set off alarms in the jury-members' minds. Each person on the stand mentioned that they had these devices for just such events. Why would you keep a video recorder ready in case the police did something in your neighborhood? The answer is, because the police have a reputation for doing horrible things. The Douglass Park neighborhood is regularly stalked by people carrying guns and waving badges.

And we, the larger community, know there are rogue cops walking our streets -- we remember the police officer in Urbana who raped at least one woman while on duty. We know of the guards who taser people who are tied to chairs. These events are fresh in our minds. 

Brian Chesley's actions were exactly what we would want him to do if he were being approached by the criminal element. We tell our kids to just keep walking if someone bad is trying to stop them, if someone is stalking them, or if someone is trying to provoke them. And, in his mind, isn't this who was approaching him?

There is a recent study that shows that children who witness police hurting someone close to them are traumatized. Isn't there the slightest possibility that the mistrust of the police throughout Champaign-Urbana is even worse in the black neighborhoods? 

Isn't it possible that one of the officers lied on the stand? One officer contradicted the others and was even self-contradictory. If this one person's testimony were to be removed, then the jury would have a completely different understanding of the incidents that night. 

And if this young man had a jury of his peers -- people actually from Champaign-Urbana instead of the surrounding rural area -- wouldn't they understand that the police are only human? 

Sincerely, 
Karen Medina