[Peace-discuss] Could we legally shut down the IMC?

[Robert Naiman]

Dear friends,

I've become convinced that the IMC has become a kind of Frankenstein
monster, a clear and present danger to the community. I've also become
convinced that there is little realistic prospect that the IMC will
reform itself to become a responsible and accountable institution,
answerable to the community in which it resides.

The reason I have become convinced of this is that, unlike other
community institutions, when something bad happens in the IMC, there
is no clear address for responsibility and accountability. If a bad
thing happened in some other community institution, there would be a
clear address for complaint and redress. You could call the Executive
Director. You could contact someone on the Board. Responsible people
would tell you what their plans were for redress. There would be a
meeting of responsible people, empowered to take action. The meeting
would discuss: why did this happen, what can we do and what will we do
to try to stop this from happening in the future. But when something
bad happens in the IMC, there is no meeting of responsible people,
empowered to take action, for the simple reason that there can't be.
There's no such thing in the IMC as a group of responsible people,
empowered to take action. Because this is the case, there is a culture
of impunity in the IMC. And this is intrinsically dangerous to the
community. If the Urbana police announced, "in this three block
radius, we are no longer going to enforce the law," that would be
intrinsically dangerous to the community. That hasn't happened in this
case, of course. But there is a culture in the IMC of being above the
law and beyond accountability, and that is intrinsically dangerous to
the community.

Therefore, since effective reform of the IMC seems impossible, I have
come to the conclusion that legal avenues should be explored to force
the IMC to shut down.

I'm interested in brainstorming means by which the community could
legally force the IMC to shut down. Broadly speaking, I have two
ideas.

1. Civil lawsuit. The community could launch a civil lawsuit against
the IMC, seeking to force it to disgorge its assets, including its
building. Once the building had been seized, it could be sold off to a
developer who would raze it and construct something of use to the
community, like housing.

2. Action by the City of Urbana.

A. The City of Urbana is legally empowered to seize the building by
eminent domain for a public purpose. The legal standard for this is
actually quite low. If the community came up with a reasonable plan
for seizing the building by eminent domain and using the land for a
public purpose, I have no doubt that we could get five votes on the
Urbana City Council for it.

B. Zoning change or other legal change. The zoning of the IMC could be
changed so that it would be no longer possible to maintain an IMC-like
no-accountability institution there. The City could require that any
non-profit in the area have a legally accountable Executive Director.

C. Vigorous enforcement of existing law. Typically, it's the case that
laws aren't enforced to the letter. A community pressure campaign
could push the City of Urbana to vigorously enforce all existing laws
with respect to the IMC. The IMC building is old. Probably it has code
violations. These could be enforced. Also, I think a regular parade of
uniformed city officials marching through the building would be
salutary. These things could help foster the perception inside the IMC
that it's not a Lord of the Flies island of no accountability, but
physically exists inside the City of Urbana where the rule of law
prevails.

I'm sure others have ideas for legal means that we can use to end the
threat that the IMC represents to the community. I would be very
interested to hear them.


-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org