[Discuss] [Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance

[cu at veyafoundation.org]

Okay since we opened this door let's talk about dangerous criminals in  
Champaign County. Until you commit to punishing and prosecuting the  
private sector, city, state and federal government for the 100 years  
that they have robbed and stolen trillions of dollars from everyday  
people then how do you support an ordinance that will be used to  
discriminate against the minority and the poor. If law enforcement was  
aggressively targeting those dangerous criminals like they pursue the  
poor and minority then your argument would be valid. I see and hear  
only a few. As a few of my white friends and colleagues told me if you  
Patrick go out and fight injustice they will lock you up and kill you.  
But if I a white person fight for those same reasons nothing would  
happen to me.

PDT

Quoting "E. Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>:

> Excuse me, but your posting did focus on upkeep.
>
> The City of Urbana has a law forbidding landlords from denying housing
> to persons because of a criminal record.
>
> Do you think this law should be repealed?  I am intending this to be a
> serious question.
>
> Certainly not all dangerous criminals have criminal records, vis a vis,
> the past and current President, many members of Congress,...
> And not all persons with criminal records are really "dangerous
> criminals", but there may be some correlation.
>
>
> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>> And basic maintenance is not my point, Wayne, but the hazards and   
>> sometimes terror of living in a building or in a neighborhood where  
>>  landlords keep renting to dangerous criminals, and so on.
>> Ricky
>>
>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> *From:* E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
>> *To:* Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
>> *Cc:* peace discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>; Community   
>> Courtwatch <discuss at communitycourtwatch.org>
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 11, 2009 12:13:53 AM
>> *Subject:* Re: [Peace-discuss] more than a nuisance
>>
>> Your previous experience and hard work is noted and appreciated by   
>> all, but Basic maintenance is not at all what the proposed urbana   
>> criminal nuisance ordinance is about.
>>
>> The most recent draft is available at the city's website.   
>> http://www.city.urbana.il.us/Urbana/City_Council/Agendas/01-12-2009/ordinance_2008-11-135.pdf
>> Additional info here:
>> http://www.city.urbana.il.us/Urbana/City_Council/Agendas/02-09-2009/ordinance_2008-11-135.pdf
>>
>> Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>>> My opinion may not be popular on either of these lists, but I   
>>> think I ought to explain where I'm coming from.
>>>
>>> In the nineties I worked for ACORN - an association I was never   
>>> prouder of than in this last election.  As a lone NYC Council   
>>> member once said in another context - about not so different   
>>> attacks on poor people organizing for their rights to vote, to   
>>> improve their communities, to live in decent housing and safe   
>>> neighborhoods, attacks by people who oppose all those things - "It  
>>>  is a badge of honor!"
>>>
>>> When I was at ACORN I spent my days and evenings six days a week   
>>> walking around in the poorest, most dangerous (a.k.a. "worst")   
>>> neighborhoods in the cities where I worked, talking to people who   
>>> lived in toxic environments.  There were many rats, and in Buffalo  
>>>  skunks, garbage in the streets not swept by the city, abandoned   
>>> buildings, vacant lots.  When it rained water cascaded down the   
>>> walls of the living rooms and kitchens where we sat and talked and  
>>>  they offered me orange juice and tried to figure out why I wasn't  
>>>  married and we planned the next meeting and how to get the press   
>>> interested and which local preachers might help and which might   
>>> get in the way, which cops were honest and which were dangerous   
>>> criminals.  Front doors of apartment buildings didn't lock or had   
>>> been broken for months.  Some people were afraid to go out into   
>>> the hallways in their own building because of the violence and   
>>> violent people going in and out, or living next door, down the   
>>> hall, just up stairs.
>>>
>>> These were hazards, nightmares, not mere "nuisances".
>>> Landlord after landlord refused to fix anything, get rid of any   
>>> dangerous tenants haunting the buildings, or take any   
>>> responsibility at all.  People in these communities were trapped.   
>>>  They lived there because they had few options, and there was very  
>>>  little recourse.  We organized together and fought the landlords,  
>>>  pressured city government to hold them accountable, and demanded   
>>> that the landlords and the local government take some   
>>> responsibility for the neglect and toxicity of those   
>>> neighborhoods.  It was always an uphill climb, because money and   
>>> influence and property rights were always on the other side. We   
>>> won some, one piece at a time, but in truth we lost more often.  I  
>>>  think a lot of us know that song.  Even the victories were often   
>>> mixed bags, but we improved real lives.
>>>
>>> I do have concerns about the proposed "Nuisance Ordinance" - some   
>>> along the lines I think expressed by Charlie Smyth - and I'd like   
>>> to see a more community-based, even complaint-driven system,   
>>> rather than reliance on the police - but overall I support this   
>>> effort.  I hope I've explained why. I continue to support efforts   
>>> to expose and address police racial profiling and other abuses of   
>>> power.  I still hope we as a community can strengthen the police   
>>> review board some day soon.  But I do not see this ordinance as   
>>> repressive on its face, but potentially very progressive.
>>>
>>> In Solidarity,
>>> Ricky
>>>
>>> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
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>>>
>>