[Peace-discuss] Part III Post-Kiwane Carrington: The Struggle for Equitable Justice

[Melodye Rosales]

Thank you Joy for weighing in.  Where are you located?


The final straw was the city bringing in Bergeron--who was here two-years
ago----mediated---heard the complaints--and the CCAPP members at that time
can attest to nothing was changed---just window dressing added----new
members were recruited and some of the older ones stopped coming out of
frustration.  Most recently another fresh crop of quasi-Black leaders were
asked to join the group----even the CCAPP members already in place don't
know who asked the more recent ones to join----CCAPP is a controlled
group----Steve Carter's comments this past Tuesday were misleading when he
spoke about the CCAPP.

Ms. Joy---our community has been patient---has sat at the table----before
the CCAPP there was a group the city formed called Study Circles for about
eight years----My Husband, Giraldo Rosales was part of Study Circles----when
that began to wane, Giraldo applied and joined the Human Relations
Committee---became the Vice-Chair----during that time the HRC received
citizen complaints--many about the CPD---Giraldo realized that HCR had no
power and that the complaints they were able to review had already been
filtered by the City---HRC had no authority to do anything with the
complaints---to this day--the HCR is window dressing to make it appear the
city is meeting State and Federal mandates for the Civil Rights
act----During Giraldo's tenure as a Vice-Chair of HCR Tracy Parsons
(Director of the Urban League of Champaign County) and Cleveland Jefferson
(Director of the NAACP of Champaign County) brought in a request/demand for
a citizen's review board----Giraldo quickly realized the HCR was unable to
advocate and back such a proposal to fruition and that is when Giraldo ran
for City Council at-Large and was elected----inbetween Giraldo's VP of HCR
and his transition to his elected position, after Parsons and Jefferson's
proposal was made public-----Steve Carter informally asked the three of them
plus a few others to come in and share their voice with him-----Carter's
rationale at that time was that he was the person responsible for the city
and all of its governing bodies (which included the CPD)----that was approx.
10-years-ago----during those years Carter invited other's he perceived were
Black Leaders to join in the informal conversations-----during this
time----at some point---this group was given a name (Police Community Review
Committee---later to become Champaign Community And Police
Partnership)----throughout its tenure CCAPP has had many Black and White
community leaders who were concerned about the growing deterioration between
the CPD and the Black community and out of frustration the City was not
acting upon their advice or appearing to acknowledge the problems were
serious enough to follow a course more effective in resolving the festering
crisis----they left the group---however---they were always replaced by new
identified "Black" leaders---Giraldo remained the only regular member who
attended all of the monthly meetings since the conversations began---the
reason Giraldo has not left the group (though tempted many times out of the
same frustrations) is because he knows that once he leaves, so does the
history of the conversations discussed during the 10-years----Giraldo knows
that the City would love for him to stop coming so they can start erasing
the intended purpose---and the subsequent conversations and promises made
and not met---or made into a totally different "feel good" public display
that had short term effect and was simply a distractor from what they were
really being pressured to do by the committee.

For more information about my Husband, Giraldo Rosales----
www.giraldorosales.com

What the Black Community does not realize is that the City has already begun
to dismantle the CCAPP.  They would love for Giraldo to disappear so they
are not bothered by his monthly tone of dismay and calling them out on what
they have not done---which by default educates the new recruits----the City
would love for the Black Community to be the authors of the dissolve so they
won't be blamed-----the City would love to pit Black Leaders against Black
Leaders with the traditional divide and conquer when you can't win
fairly----the City would love to have another group form who they can feed
information to-----that will take a few years to begin to understand the
layers of B.S. that the City has covered the community with.

What should be happening is that the Terry Townsend's and other interested
persons should not ask to dismantle the CCAPP--but to have this group opened
to the public and once that morphs---so does the title and purpose of this
group. The goal should be to reeducate those CCAPP members who have bought
into the illusion that the City respects their input.  I can assure you not
all CCAPP members are on board with the illusion---but as a minority---they
can not influence the majority---but they have knowledge and understanding
of the game plan--both original and the revised editions.


Forgive my hurried jargon and bulleted points----but I wanted to get this to
sooner then later and have no time to sound eloquent

PeaceOut
Melodye



On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 11:34 AM, <jgeo61 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hello Melodye,
>
> Thanks for sharing this.  As an active mediator with my own non profit
> center I wanted to share that if one side, say the police departments,
> really have no interest in working for a resolution to an issue and are on
> the defensive, mediation will never work.  That said, a good mediator will
> be able to bring out important information from both parties in order for
> each side to have a better chance of coming to a resolution.  I would like
> folks to "keep the faith" concerning whether to mediate or not.  I do
> believe that the benefits far out weigh the costs.
>
> I am interested in furthering this conversation.
>
> In Peace,
> Joy
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Melodye Rosales" <melodye at nitrogendesign.com>
> To: "Courtwatch Discuss" <discuss at communitycourtwatch.org>
> Cc: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 4, 2009 11:48:40 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Part III Post-Kiwane Carrington: The Struggle for
> Equitable Justice
>
> *Part III   The Struggle for Equitable Justice*
> **
>
>
> *Post-Kiwane: **A City Preparing for Community Building* *or* *A City
> Fulfilling its Divide and Conquer Plan* *in order to achieve perceived
> calm and control.*
>
>
> *"...Kenith Bergeron is the U.S. Justice Departments Conciliation
> Specialist that Champaign City Manager, Steve Carter brought in to
> "so-called" mediate, with the City's hand-picked choices they've entitled
> Champaign's Black Leaders, after the tragic death of 15-year-old Kiwane
> Carrington, a slightly built, unarmed, African-American youth.  Bergeron is
> not new to Champaign or the climate unrest among the racial divide.
> Bergeron was called in by the City Manager two-years-ago after the Brian
> Chesley "resisting arrest" case that led to this African-American youth's
> arrest that also caused unrest in the Black Community, leading to protests
> and public complaints about the Champaign Police Department "Use of Force"
> tactics and Bias Profiling in areas heavily populated by African-Americans.
> *.."
>
> *
> Part III:*
>
> *http://www.mail-archive.com/mpls@mnforum.org/msg12296.html*
>
> [Mpls] To mediate or not
>
> timothy connolly
> Mon, 29 Jul 2002 23:59:19 -0700
>
>
> Sunday's StarTribune contained a report that the U.S.
> Justice Department was undertaking a preliminary
> inquiry of complaints from members of minority
> communities that the Minneapolis Police are guilty of
> biased and brutal law enforcement.
>
> As part of this process the Community Relations
> Service of the Justice Dept. has offered mediation
> services to the city.
>
> St. Paul recently underwent a similar mediation
> process between the NAACP and the St. Paul Police
> Dept.
>
> I am of the opinion that it would be a major mistake
> to engage in mediation before there were a thorough
> independent investigation of the Minneapolis Police
> Department.
>
> I'm certain that if the Justice Department conducts a
> preliminary inquiry they will find probable cause to
> proceed further with a full investigation.
>
> It is disturbing that this story has been unfolding
> for several months behind closed doors and only now
> are we hearing of it.
>
> The Mayor's office will churn out reams of happy news
> but would they release a statement saying that the
> Mayor has turned down the offer of the Justice Dept.
> to mediate between the city and its minority
> communities?
>
> You can bet that if the Mayor engages the services of
> the Justice Department's community relations service
> we will see a press release leading us to believe it
> is a good thing.
>
> At the end of Sunday's report, Kenith Bergeron of the
> Justice Dept. Mediation service said that "in general
> he thought they(the Justice Dept. Civil Rights
> Divsion)typically would not be investigating a city
> involved in mediation."
>
> He added, "they would see a city in mediation as going
> forward. They would see a city working with the
> community."
>
> I would see a city wanting to skirt the issue.
>
> I would see a city afraid to look closely at itself.
>
> The time for mediation is AFTER an investigation, not
> before.
>
> Tim Connolly
> Downtown West
>
>
> _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list
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>
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