[Peace-discuss] Fwd: The Struggle for Equitable Justice

[Melodye Rosales]

Thank you Joy for your sincere offer to mediate---but the climate in
Champaign is decades old and in my opinion, beyond mediation.  I don't speak
for the community so I cannot accept or reject your offer.

That said, I will answer your questions regarding "my" personal take on the
matter:

*"I would like to know what your bottom line is?" *
Building and Sustaining an Equitable Community
*
"and how it could be achieved?" *
To have those with the power of the pen look beyond their financial gains in
bricks and mortar and rebuild their community assets by investing in human
equity.

*"Dream big."*
To have the City held under a "Consent Decree" that way if the City is doing
everything they claim the Consent Decree will not step in and oversee the
process----however, if the City is not meeting its obligations a Consent
Decree will make certain the community---All of the community has an
equitable seat at the table.

Again, I appreciate your concerns--I will direct you to:

*"Carol Ammons" <carolammons at gmail.com> *

If you would like to connect with someone who is one of our community
organizers and is a voice of the issue we are currently dealing with.


On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 5:37 PM, <jgeo61 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hello Melodye,
>
> I am hearing from you that too many voices are not being listened to,
> respected and taken seriously.  I am also hearing that you feel that past
> efforts have been quite artificial, meaningless and not done in good faith
> by the other side.  Am I close?  I would like to know what your bottom line
> is and how it could be achieved?  Dream big.
>
> We are local, serving Champaign Urbana and surrounding counties.
>
> In Peace,
> Joy
> Prairie Land Conflict Mediation Center
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Melodye Rosales" <melodye at nitrogendesign.com>
> To: jgeo61 at comcast.net
> Cc: discuss at communitycourtwatch.org, "Peace-discuss" <
> peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2009 12:53:35 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Part III Post-Kiwane Carrington: The Struggle
> for  Equitable Justice
>
> 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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>> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>
>
>
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