After several times of getting the runaround, I still have not been able to see the official account of what happened on March 30 when Champaign police sent a 17 year old to the hospital.

On a Friday night at 8:30 p.m. three black youth – a 17 year old, a 15 year old, and an 8 year old – were leaving the Douglass Center gymnasium and walking home. Champaign police officer Andre Davis ordered them to stop. Police say the 17 year old youth resisted arrest. Whatever happened, four police officers surrounded the youth at 5th at Tremont, threw him up against a fence, pepper sprayed, and then beat the youth. He had to be taken to the hospital, then was taken to the county jail.

The semi-annual Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center general membership meeting will be this Saturday, May 5, from 4 to 6pm at the IMC, 202 S. Broadway, in Urbana. This date is also the Second Anniversary of UC IMC's purchase of the historic old downtown post office building.

The general membership meeting is a chance to catch up with what's going on among the various working groups that the hundreds of UC IMC members participate in to bring media access, performing arts, and make available space for other arts and community projects. You can find more about most of these working groups by clicking on the links in the banner at the top of this page, but you can meet and discuss this work by attending the GMM yourself. Everyone is invited to this public meeting.

On April 9, 2007, local Urbana attorney Brian Silverman began a nine month suspension handed down by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) in Springfield. They found credible the allegations made by a girlfriend of one of Silverman’s clients that he had extorted her for money and sexual favors. This was in exchange for getting the State’s Attorney, who was a friend and “will do just about anything I say,” to go easy on her boyfriend. The State’s Attorney was Tom Difanis, now Presiding Judge of the entire Champaign County criminal justice system. According to the woman, she was not only forced into sexual relations with Silverman against her will, but she was asked to provide $5000 “under the table” for Difanis and find someone to “be good” to him.

I picked up this Sunday’s (29 April 2007) News-Gazette to read John Foreman fulminating still on the subject of the “chief.” He included extensive commentary on the issue of what will become of the regalia the University purchased from Frank Fools Crow in 1982. The Oglala Sioux nation has demanded the regalia be returned to them. The University claims to own the regalia, based on their purchase of it for a relative pittance.

On April 24, 2007, Judge Harry Clem handed down a decision to grant a new trial to black activist Patrick Thompson. This could result in a third trial. Thompson’s supporters demand that Special Prosecutor Michael Vujovich drop all charges and not spend one more cent of taxpayer money on this flimsy case.

In the downstate Illinois environment of sundown towns and law-and-order Republicans, the police are as brutal in Urbana-Champaign as in Chicago. The black community is kept segregated from the University of Illinois campus and is heavily policed. Starting a cop watch program in 2004, Thompson captured local police on videotape as they arrived in “arrest mode” when dealing with the black community. For his media activism, the local authorities have come down hard on Thompson.

The number of felony charges filed in Champaign County has been decreasing.  We studied the raw data provided by Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz from 2000-2006 and found that 2006 had the lowest numbers of charges and defendants.

Since defendants often face multiple charges, we thought that it would be useful to estimate the number of defendants from the raw charge data. We assumed that if a record had the same name, birthdate, and race, it represented the same person, and we performed some queries to determine the number of defendants by year and case type. We noticed errors in a few records, but this represented a very small percentage of the total data. Overall, the queries counted 19246 defendants - 8449 black, 9163 white, 754 Hispanic, 880 other.

Below are some tables and graphs that summarize the findings.

by Martel Miller

Tuesday, April 17, City of Champaign voters will be asked to fill 3 city council seats. This year's primary election for Champaign City Council saw only a 7 percent voter turnout. We cannot afford this kind of voter apathy this election. The next Champaign City Council cannot merely serve the developer and business interests as we have seen in recent years. While the City of Champaign continues to grow and prosper, there are other pressing issues that will affect our quality of life.

By Marti Wilkinson

On March 13, 2007, members of the community showed up at the Urbana Civic Center to learn how the criminal justice system works. A panel comprised of Sheriff Dan Walsh, States Attorney Julia Rietz, Public Defender Randy Rosenbaum, Associate Judge Richard Klaus, and Director of Court Services Joe Gordon shared what their duties are and how they do them. After their speeches, the participants selected written questions to answer. The only parts of the evening offering anything fresh and new were the cookies served to the people who attended.

(Urbana) Four years ago this month the US launched an illegal, immoral and ill-thought-out war of aggression against Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of needless deaths and billions of wasted (and much needed) dollars later, the Bush Administration is threatening another unprovoked war, this time against Iran.

Local opponents of this shoot-first policy will gather twice in coming weeks to mark the anniversary and to protest. And some will make the long trek to Washington DC to protest there.

Now, feeding your own hunger can help feed the hungry, house the homeless and much more!

On Tuesday, March 13th, Community Shares of Illinois invites you to pull up a chair at participating local restaurants for the 4th Annual Share-a-Meal with Community Shares event.

All you need to do is spend an enjoyable evening with family and friends at one of these fine participating local restaurants: The Great Impasta, Café Luna, Milo’s, Kennedy’s, or the Camelot Room at the Historic Lincoln Hotel.