[Peace-discuss] Nuisance Ordinance and Racism

[Neil Parthun]

At the AWARE meeting, the question was asked how the nuisance  
ordinance could be brought up in the issue of anti-racism work.

1. It has been conclusively proven that the minorities have a  
disproportionate amount of interaction with the Champaign and Urbana  
police departments.
2. The Champaign and Urbana police departments over-police certain  
areas and thus enforce more authority there.
3. With over-policing, it is more likely that police will find  
"problems", "nuisances" or other reasons to have interactions with  
minority populations as the data has shown with traffic stops and  
police contacts in CU.
4. The proposal also allows for collective punishment -- giving the  
city the authority to suspend the rental license for a property for a  
period of 30 to 180 days.  Tenants who were not offenders could lose  
their homes due to the collectivized punishment.  When one looks at  
the racial/class clustering of living space in Champaign-Urbana,  
there is a clear racialized element that comes into play.  Also,  
there is the whole issue of the children in a family being punished  
with having to transfer to a new property, likely transfer to a new  
school and having their lives completely upended because one person  
in their home chose to do something inappropriate.
5. We've seen the necessity for police review boards due to the  
problems or racism and abuses of authority that the police have  
chosen to implement in the community.  This ordinance would give such  
institutions more authority and power.
6. The ordinance also allows for a person's own individual bias to  
play a role into removing an entire family from a residence.   
Remember, there are no trials and there does not have to be  
conclusive proof, just a preponderance of the evidence.  It also  
registers calls to a property.  If a person wanted to get rid of a  
neighbor, all it could theoretically take would be a few phone calls  
alleging nuisance behavior and a preponderance of the evidence to  
remove the tenant and the tenant's family.

Live hard,
      Neil

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil  
obedience...Our problem is that people are obedient all over the  
world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war,  
and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails  
are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are  
running and robbing the country. That's our problem.
[howard zinn, 1922-]

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