[Discuss] [Peace-discuss] Re: Schwieghart's quote to WDWS

[LAURIE SOLOMON]

Of course, under this logic, one can argue for and justify the firing of the
city manager, who technically is the Chief's boss, and the City attorneys
who approve and give the legal ok for the decisions and actions of the City
manager, the Chief of Police, and their underlings.  One could justify
arguing for the impeachment of all the City Council members who technically
are the collective boss over the City Manager and his employees including
the department heads, thereby nullifying the point and purpose of elections
as mechanisms for holding public elected officials accountable for their
policy decisions and decision-making activities as well as their courses of
conduct while holding the elected offices.  

 

As a consequence of such a position, one would have to establish  rules and
procedures for assessing and evaluating these things in each individual case
that allow for full and complete substantive and procedural due process
including rights of cross examination and confrontation of one's opponents
as well as rights of appeal, which will require the instituting of an
appeals process and mechanisms that are objective, fair and just.  The
existence and use of such things obviously will  take and use time,
resources, and money that may or may not be available, may or may not be put
to better use, and may or may not be disruptive and destructive of municipal
operations and effectiveness in performing its functions.  The latter is
probably in tune with the Libertarian agenda which seeks a weak and small
government that does little in terms of social and economic programs; but is
not in tune with the agendas of many of the populations that are served by
the government.

 

I suppose that one could argue with equal validity that all police and all
police departments are paramilitary thugs who are hired and work on behalf
of  and in the interest of the established powers that be; therefore we
should abolish all police and police departments and permit society to
become a Hobbesian  universe in which each dispute and conflict of interests
becomes a war of all against all .  The problem is that there typically is
no middle ground of a good and just police department which objectively
represents the interests of all and whose members act in a fair and just
equitable way towards all interests without any negative consequences or
impact on any of the parties.  No matter what compromises or conclusions one
comes to, there will always be a significant percentage at any given time
who oppose the police and view them as biased paramilitary thugs who act
unfairly and inequitably.  While I am perfectly willing to concede that
there are bad cops and that frequently there are enough bad apples so as to
be able to say that the whole barrel is bad and I am also perfectly willing
to say that most if not all police departments have undesirable systemic
institutional flaws, failings, and problems that need to be addressed and
may call for radical structural and functional changes, I reject the
paramilitary thug characterization as a valid or useful critical argument
and criticism.  At best, it is pure emotional and juvenile name calling; at
worst, it is  based on and implies some unverified idealistic
presuppositions as to what is and  idealistic assumptions as to what is
practically possible.

 

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of E.Wayne
Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:34 PM
To: Marti Wilkinson; Karen Medina
Cc: Peace-discuss; Courtwatch Discuss
Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Peace-discuss] Re: Schwieghart's quote to WDWS

 

I have been characterizing the Champaign police as paramilitary thugs for
about 2 years now.

 

The speed of the outfit is the speed of the boss.  Ousting Finney seems to
be an essential part of

any programme of improvement in the overall attitude of Champaign Police.
In fact one could justify firing Finney

and retaining the guy who pulled the trigger.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Marti Wilkinson <mailto:martiwilki at gmail.com>  

To: Karen Medina <mailto:kmedina67 at gmail.com>  

Cc: Peace-discuss <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>  ; Courtwatch
Discuss <mailto:discuss at communitycourtwatch.org>  

Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 2:57 PM

Subject: Re: [Discuss] [Peace-discuss] Re: Schwieghart's quote to WDWS

 

I understand that it appears that people are very quick to rush to judgment
without having all of the 'facts' - Karen I think articulated this pretty
well in that Finney has a history of taking actions that have undermined the
publics trust. Additionally, he was present when an unarmed suspect was shot
and that alone compromises his authority and his position. Plus - I'm
inclined to believe that it's really bad policy for a police chief to
respond to calls unless it is absolutely necessary. 

Personally I think it's time he resign.

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Personally, I'd like to see Mayor Schweighart resign.  I think we already
> have enough evidence against HIM.  :-)

Mayor Schweighart would rather die than give up his thrown. But
impeachment would be a worthy thing to look into.

> RE: Chief Finney

Chief Finney was at the scene when the child was killed.
If the shooting was wrong, and I believe that it was, then the officer
should be fired.
If Finney did nothing to stop the shooting, then he enabled it. As an
enabler, he is also guilty.

One should also ask why the Chief of Police was out there.

Over the last year, Finney and the city council have been told
repeatedly that there was a major problem: The teens in Champaign do
not trust the police. Repeatedly, they ignored the public comments,
the readily visible signs, and Finney continued supporting the
activities of his officers that degraded the trust even more. For
these alone, he should be fired.

But even beyond all, he was there that day.

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