City of Champaign Updates

There have been unending developments over the summer with the City of Champaign on issues from the pandemic response to police reform. Yesterday there was also an update on the reentry housing issue. From the News-Gazette today:

After more than a year of talks, the Champaign City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce the amount of time landlords can hold certain felonies against potential tenants from five years to two...

In December, the council moved forward with changes that were approved Tuesday and will make it clear that the two-year rule refers to convictions in which someone is sentenced to prison, not probation. It also lists the types of felonies that can be considered, such as murder, robbery and arson.

Full article here with additional information on relief for liquor-license holders impacted by the coronavirus as well. I checked in with Esther Patt of the C-U Tenant Union and proponent of repealing the language altogether to see if the language passed last night was in line with the compromise the City agreed to last year (the legalese of these things can make it hard to tell sometimes). She confirmed that it was what the Council had agreed to at the time:

The language is exactly what was agreed upon at the last study session.   The three changes are:

1. The exemption from fair housing protection lasts only 2 years instead of 5  years;
2. Felony convictions for drug possession (as opposed to sale or delivery) cannot be grounds for denying housing;
3. The exemption from fair housing protection only applies to a forcible felony conviction for which the person was sentenced to state prison.   

It has been a long wait, but we have accomplished an important reform.

In other reform news, the City's Human Relations Commission supported recommendations from its Citizen Review Subcommittee that functions as the City of Champaign's police review board. From the News-Gazette yesterday:

Members of Champaign’s Human Relations Commission were supportive of proposals brought to it that aim to make complaints against the police more transparent and shift funding toward mental-health services...

The Citizen Review Subcommittee plans to vote at its September meeting on the recommendations, which will then be sent to the police chief and city manager’s office for feedback...

Champaign police have planned community engagement sessions for this summer and fall, and last month it updated its use-of-force policies to include de-escalation, the duty for officers to intervene during unlawful use-of-force and an explicit ban on chokeholds.

Full article here with a lot more additional details and information. More coverage, including video segment from WCIA here. A draft report of the CRS Recommendations are available here. For more background on reform recommendations prior to the George Floyd protest movement earlier this year is on the Cheat Sheet here (with the last pre-pandemic update here).

The Champaign Police Department gave an overview of its updates in light of the protest movement in the aftermath of the George Floyd arrest death to the City Council (written report here, Study Session presentation here). Illinois Newsroom had coverage of the use of force changes suggested at that Study Session here. 

In other recent City of Champaign government news:

• Champaign gun violence news conference including City and Police officials (video here) The News-Gazette had an overview in its coverage here. WCIA's coverage also included a list of organizations and links for people to get involved in stopping gun violence locally here. First Followers Reentry Program also announced a new initiative against gun violence this week as well (more from WCIA here).
• In a previous City Council Meeting, small business relief and Garden Hills demolitions for future improvements were improved. News-Gazette coverage on that here.

Rogue Barber Co. Protests and Incident:

Local activists have been protesting the Rogue Barber Co. barber shop after it was made public they had restricted their services to members who signed statements disavowing affiliation with Black Lives Matter, "antifa" (a nebulous term for anti-fascists) and other organizations they considered extremist. Smile politely had an overview of the disagreement and video of a customer who drove through protesters after leaving the shop. WCIA had coverage of that incident here. A Champaign Police representative said that the investigation into that incident is ongoing, but making progress at last night's City Council meeting.

Here are some clips from public videos posted on social media showing the incident from three angles From the video it appears that the customer left wearing a branded T-shirt for the store, backed up and drove through the protesters rather than go the opposite open direction away from the protests. The third clip shows that the first person he hits is one of the protesters directing traffic just prior to accelerating through the full group. As he drives through the group the protesters react in an apparent effort to stop the truck, hitting it and one person even ending up in the truck bed before it drives away.

The compilation of video at different angles may help shed some light on local discussions have often presented one or more of these videos with descriptions at odds with what witnesses and the videos show occurred. For example, many people defending the driver have reversed the order of events, such as arguing the protesters hit at the truck prior to him driving into the crowd. They have described the those guiding traffic away from the protest as blocking him in as opposed to directing traffic away from protesters. They've also made a lot of hay over the woman yelling about kidnapping as he drove away with one of the protesters still in the back of the truck during their attempts to stop it from running through the crowd.

I leave it to viewers to make up their own mind on these arguments and perspectives. The full videos are still available publicly on social media, primarily facebook for those who want the full context of the situation. You'll find bullhorn speeches, marching, and chalking messages on the ground, but no violence preceding the truck incident.