Other C-U Updates

 

A few news items this month that impacted the C-U local area and government bodies more generally than the usual individual City of Champaign or Urbana Cheat Sheet updates.

The leader of the Ford County militia group, that firebombed a Minnesota mosque and attempted to firebomb a women's clinic here locally in Champaign, pleaded guilty to various federal charges related to the local incident. Hari has already been convicted and sentenced for crimes related to the mosque bombing. From the News-Gazette last month:

Hari’s plea agreement in Urbana wraps up four years of work by government agents against the former Ford County sheriff’s deputy turned leader of a Muslim-hating militia group dubbed “The Patriot Freedom Fighters,” later changed to “The White Rabbits.”

[Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller] laid out for Long a summary of the Illinois case.

He said Hari’s leadership of the small band of followers, based in tiny Clarence in northern Ford County, wreaked havoc in several Illinois communities, including Champaign, Watseka, Mount Vernon and Effingham, and reached into Indiana...

The plan to firebomb the Champaign clinic fizzled — literally — when the PVC pipe stuffed with an ignitable powder did not catch fire. Morris admitted he broke a window at the clinic and put the homemade bomb inside. Hari had rented the truck that took the would-be arsonists to the office.

More at the full article here. As a previous Cheat Sheet post noted, the local attack preceded the end of surgical abortion services at that local Clinic, and the last of such services in Champaign County and much of the surrounding region.

In related law enforcement news, the intergovernmental METCAD agency that handles dispatch for many local and County government emergency services is dealing with staffing issues. From WCIA:

Vacancies are not unusual at METCAD 9-1-1, but they are unusually high right now at the dispatch center that answers all of Champaign County’s emergency calls.

Staff members are often working 12-hour days, sometimes five or more days a week and it’s taking a toll, according to METCAD operations manager Betsy Smith.

It’s not far removed from the trend seen at local law enforcement agencies, and although they’re not officially recognized by state and federal government as first responders, Smith described those fielding initial emergency calls as the first, first-responders. What police, firefighters and EMS see, they hear.

That full article here. One METCAD employee is also being recognized for his work on a tough 911 call.

The new health inspection system was covered by Illinois Newsroom:

The new system started in January 2019 and uses a different evaluation system than its prior scoring system to pass or fail a restaurant. Sarah Michaels, environmental health program director, said the old scoring system was outdated. 

Before the new inspection system went into effect, a restaurant would be scored on a 100-point scale, with additional points deducted by the number of violations and the type of violations cited. A restaurant would fail with an adjusted score below 36 and would be shut down if it scored below 0. 

Both the new and old inspection systems are based on series of risk factors related to foodborne illnesses imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Model Food Code. The five risk factors inspectors look for are improper holding temperatures, inadequate cooking, contaminated equipment, food from unsafe sources and poor personal hygiene.

That full article with a lot of additional information here. 

The mayors of both Champaign and Urbana marked the first . More on that from Smile Politely here, and more information at the Champaign County Cheat Sheet's Health Update post earlier this month.

Other C-U Local news stories:

There were Cheat Sheet updates specifically for the City of Urbana here and the City of Champaign here this month. Below are news stories that impact the governments or services across both cities:

• The director of the Champaign Public Library is retiring June 1st, according to the News-Gazette.
• Smile Politely highlighted the upcoming UC Books to Prisoners book sale in April here.
• Tom Kacich on the dwindling revelry around "Unofficial St. Patrick's Day" from Tom's Mailbag.
• The Illinois Marathon will be limited this year to shorter races according to Smile Politely.
• FirstFollowers had an event on its H3, Harm Healing & Hope initiative briefly highlighted by WCIA. For folks interested in more information, their website has an informational page here and video of their August 2021 presentation to the Finance Committee of the Champaign County Board is available here.
• Smile Politely had an interview with DeShawn Williams about his BlackVest project.

More White Supremacist Propaganda

Local white supremacists targeted Champaign and Urbana again with propaganda drops around the Martin Luther King, Jr holiday. Flyers in baggies weighted with rocks were distributed targeting at least a couple neighborhoods, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr subdivision. The incidents were raised in public comments at both Champaign and Urbana City Council meetings recently. From WCIA's coverage last month:

Authorities in Champaign and Urbana are investigating after people woke up this weekend to flyers saying “No White Guilt.”

This isn’t the first time these flyers have shown up in Central Illinois.

People in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. subdivision in Champaign and Ellis Drive in Urbana woke up Friday morning to a flyer saying “no white guilt.”

...

Urbana Police are currently investigating, but have no leads at the time. With no suspects or anyone in custody, people are living in fear.

Full WCIA article available here. WCIA also had coverage of previous incidents in Champaign County with nearly identical flyers promoting the same white supremacist links and organizations in a 2019 article and video segment. Images and descriptions of the most recent flyers have been shared on social media locally (e.g. here and here).

Illinois Newsroom had additional coverage of the most recent incidents a couple weeks ago:

[Melanie Keil], who is white and married to a Black man, believes her mostly-Black Champaign neighborhood was targeted.

“I do think this was a coordinated effort that it was meant to be a statement in advance of Martin Luther King Day in the Martin Luther King Jr subdivision,” says Keil.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the movements of hate organizations, wrote in an article that there’s a white nationalist podcaster and vlogger known by the phrase. Last week, there were reports of the flyers appearing at homes in Whitestown, Indiana and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

That full article including a Champaign Police response here. For more details of the local extremists blamed for these incidents, Chicago Antifascist Action has catalogued the activities, on-line admissions, police records and other information about two extremists in the area likely responsible here and the other here [Warning: these links include overt white supremacist propaganda and imagery]. We caution readers that internet sleuthing sites can be unreliable and law enforcement has not confirmed or alleged that these incidents were committed by these same actors.

These white supremacist propaganda drops are just the most recent among white nationalist activity in the area in recent years. For example:

• A local clinic was targeted by a white nationalist group that had already firebombed a mosque.
• A white nationalist group has regularly papered campus and downtown Champaign with propaganda promoting their "western chauvinism" re-branding of white nationalist ideology. The Daily Illini had more here.

There have been other recent incidents of propaganda drops locally and East Central Illinois that also promote the New Jersey hate group in these flyers. The Anti-Defamation League has an overview of that particular hate group on their website here. The independent newspaper The Public i had coverage of previous drops last year here.

White Nationalist Paperings

 

In a more disturbing bit of local government news, there was another incident of a white nationalist group papering an area with fliers promoting white nationalist themes and advertising a possible new local chapter. From the News-Gazette earlier this week:

White-nationalist group's flyers pop up again in downtown Champaign
A white-nationalist group posted flyers on lampposts in downtown Champaign, the second time the group has done so in the area in recent months.

The flyers were from an organization called Patriot Front, considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League...

Watchdog groups say Patriot Front is a splinter group of Vanguard America, a self-proclaimed fascist group that supported white nationalism but disbanded after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., last year, where one protester was killed.

One of the group's flyers has an anti-immigrant message, and another espouses the group's view that European-Americans conquered America and the country belongs to their descendants.

Kris Koester, spokesman for the Champaign Public Works Department, said light poles "are a combination of responsibilities."

But he said, "if our staff saw them, they would probably take them down. We don't allow postings of any particular messaging."

More at the full article here. A previous campus papering also had volunteers and staff removing posters placed where prohibited in a balance of limits and protections on free speech rights. From the News-Gazette last October:

UI students, staff scrape down white-nationalist stickers plastered across campus
More than 200 stickers from a white-nationalist organization were plastered on lampposts and signs around the University of Illinois campus last weekend...

UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler said the campus removes flyers and other posts when they violate the rules.

"It has nothing to do with the content," she said. "People have a First Amendment right. It doesn't matter what it says, if it's in a place where it doesn't belong," it gets removed, she said.

Courts have ruled that universities and other government entities can enforce "time, place and manner restrictions" on speech but not the content itself.

Facilities and services spokesman Steve Breitwieser said administrators asked that any illegal stickers be removed, and staff members, mostly painters, found about 60 across campus. The majority were on stop signs and street signs, including several near the UI Ice Arena, one adjacent to Lincoln Hall, and others at Sixth and Green streets and Goodwin Avenue and Green Street, he said. 

That older article is available here. More on the evolution of the group from its neo-Nazi roots to their recent papering campaigns across the country at the SPLC here. A recent post on campus bias tracking and possible new rules to stop harassment of teachers, including by white nationalists here: Campus Bias Update. There was also recent news on the local white nationalist terrorist attack with guilty pleas by two of the suspects. More on those attacks and the resulting loss of surgical abortion services in the area here: White Nationalist Terrorists Plead Guilty.