Champaign police group members defend its usefulness

CHAMPAIGN – Members of a group who have been working with Champaign police to improve community relations say that now, with emotions stirred by a fatal shooting, is not the time for their resignations or dissolution as a group, contrary to some calls for that.

Some city council meetings have been packed after the Oct. 9 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Kiwane Carrington. Many of the speakers have criticized the city's handling of the incident.

At a city council meeting Tuesday, several people called for the Champaign Community and Police Partnership to dissolve.

According to Champaign police, Mr. Carrington and another teen male were involved in a struggle with police who responded to a report of a burglary in progress on Vine Street. Police Chief R.T. Finney was first on the scene and was injured in a struggle with another teen, who now faces a juvenile felony charge of resisting police. Officer Daniel Norbits also responded, and his weapon discharged, with the bullet hitting Mr. Carrington in the chest, police reported.

Terry Townsend, a former board member of the Housing Authority of Champaign County, said he believes the police-community group violated the open meetings act by not allowing the press or public into their meetings in most cases. He asked City Manager Steve Carter to dissolve the group.

Townsend called the group "race management" and said its purposes are to "blunt public criticism of the police" and to create unconscious informants," he said.

"They act like a secret society," Townsend said. "They co-opt the leadership ... and they deprive the African-American community of synergy to solve our own problems."

Carol Ammons, a county board member, read a statement on behalf of Citizens for Peace and Justice calling for the police-community relations group to be dismantled and urged members to resign. Several others made similar comments and some people called for Finney to resign or be fired.

The Rev. Jerome Chambers, pastor of the Church of God in Christ and local president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was among the people who were meeting with local police.

Chambers said the group is "actively involved in helping to resolve the problems so the healing process can begin."

Chambers urged calm and patience until the outcome of an investigation of the shooting is made public. A "rush to judgment" is "not intervention," he said. "It's not proactive; it's reactive." He said the community does not have enough information to call for Finney to resign or be fired.

Giraldo Rosales, a Champaign County board member and former member of the Champaign Human Relations Commission and the Champaign City Council, said his participation in the group for more than 10 years is part of service to the community.

He said, "The community is rightfully angry about the events of Oct. 9."

But Rosales is not going to make any decisions about those events until the results of the investigation are announced, he said. Nor is he going to resign from the group, which he said gives the city feedback "from a voice that is often silent."

Rosales said the police-community relations group has worked "for the city as a whole, not just the African-American community."

The group tries to establish a priority project every year, he said. One year, it was youth employment. Another year, it was town meetings, resulting in 43 meetings with police participating, he said.

Patricia Avery, director of the C-U Area Project, which works with youth in delinquency prevention, and former county board chair, is a member of the Champaign police-community relations group.

She said the group does need to be more open.

"We have on our agenda public participation," Avery said. "In order for for public to participate, they need to know when and where we meet.

"I am all for open and honest government. We do not want the larger community to think we are not acting in their best interest."

Avery said she does not think this is the time for the group to dissolve.

"We need, actually, more people to be coming forward to work on police-community relationships," she said.

Avery said there are serious problems that go back for decades in relations between the local black community and police.

"This is the just the thing that blew the lid off the top," Avery said.

Ed Bland, director of the Housing Authority of Champaign County and a member of the group, said this is the first such group he's seen in the six cities he has worked.

"It's a group to benefit the whole community," Bland said. "It's a good working group. This is the first group to have a relationship with police and sit down monthly to go over concerns. Should the group dissolve? I say, 'No.'"

In answer to some of the comments and criticisms Tuesday, City Manager Steve Carter said the group was not appointed or organized by the city.

"It's not a city group," Carter said. "We didn't form it."

"This is a group of people who came together because they were concerned about police-community relations and have been meeting for over 10 years," Carter said.

To call it a failure is unfair because the group has accomplished many things, Carter said.

"Why get rid of a group that's active and working on problems?"

Carter said in an interview Wednesday that the group has been most interested lately in addressing problems with youth. Among the things to come out of the group are a Youth Police Academy, a review of juvenile justice issues and initiation of a Youth Dialogues program, and creation of a local summer youth employment program in conjunction with other partners.

Carter said if the group wanted to dissolve and reform, that would be the members' choice.

"The city is ready to recognize and work with any group that seeks positive change," Carter said.

In a prepared statement released Tuesday, he said the group began a dialogue process in 1998 to work on issues of concern in the African-American community.

Some of the issues where the group has had a positive impact include police training on prevention-based police practices, development of a youth academy, creation of a local summer youth jobs program, suggestions for improvement of the police complaint process and efforts to increase recruitment of minorities and females, according to the statement.

Carter's statement also said the group has been meeting since the fatal shooting on Vine Street.

At an Oct. 20 city council meeting, Carter announced that he asked the Department of Justice office on police-community relations to help. As a result, a representative of that agency has been to Champaign and is continuing to work on improving local police-community relations, he said.

Also at that council meeting, council members called for a study session on the Champaign police policy on use of force. That study session is set for Tuesday.

Champaign Community and Police Partnership members

— Al Anderson, Illinois Employment Training Center.

— Mark Aber, Champaign Human Relations Commission chair.

— Patricia Avery, C-U Area Project director.

— Andre Arrington, Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club.

— Ed Bland, Housing Authority of Champaign County director.

— Pam Burnside, citizen representative.

— Charles Burton, Champaign Park District.

— Steve Carter, Champaign city manager.

— Jerome Chambers, NAACP.

— Domonic Cobb, citizen representative.

— Arthur Culver, Champaign schools superintendent.

— Joe DeLuce, Champaign Park District.

— Rene Dunn, Champaign Police Department.

— R.T. Finney, Champaign police chief.

— Lloyd Gwin, religious community.

— Minor Jackson, Parkland College.

— Jameel Jones, Champaign Park District.

— Michael McFarland, Champaign schools.

— Charles Nash, religious community.

— Giraldo Rosales, citizen representative.

— Valerie McWilliams, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid.

— Joan Walls, Champaign community relations.

Source: City of Champaign

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