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News :: Crime & Police |
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New Police Chief In Champaign -- What's His Record? |
Current rating: 0 |
by Muck Raker
(No verified email address)
Address: Champaign |
07 Oct 2003
Modified: 01:32:43 PM |
Last night the City of Champaign announced its decision for the City's new police chief. Their choice is R.T. Finney, previously chief of the Carbondale, IL police department.
According to an article in today's News-Gazette, Finney sounds like a golden-boy, without a spot on him. Is that true? |
The News-Gazette's article today on Champaign's new police chief, R.T. Finney,( http://www.newsgazette.com/story.cfm?Number=14672 ) is all congratulations and good feelings. I don't know, but I wonder if the N-G has done any sort of research on this fella, or if they just take the word of Champaign City officials and his old Carbondale bosses.
According to the N-G article:
"Finney, 43, had the right combination of command experience, a stellar police career and the experience of working in a diverse Illinois city that also hosts a major state university, said Champaign City Manager Steve Carter, who hired Finney."
Now, at least with regard to diversity, Carter is pretty much on target, since only 66% of the population is white and 20% is black in Carbondale, compared to 72% white and
16% black in Champaign, according to the 2000 census.
But does that mean everything is hunky dory between the Carbondale police and the black community there?
I pose that as a legitimate question, not a rhetorical one, because it's something we should know about our new police chief, as he moves to a city more than twice the size of Carbondale, and part of an urban area that's more than four times bigger.
According to an April 2, 2001 puff piece in SIU's Daily Egyptian, entitled "Carbondale Police Chief Robert 'R.T.' Finney is a Man of the law" (http://www.dailyegyptian.com/spring01/04-02-01/finney.html), Finney, apparently, can do no wrong. Prior to joing the Carbondale force, Finney worked the gang beat in Quincy, IL, where "We arrested people nightly," he told the paper.
However, at least one group of black students at SIU was less than pleased with the conduct of Carbondale police officers who, in April of 2001, who used tear gas and force in responding to noise complaints at a block party (see AP article below).
Also, one might remember that Carbondale was the scene of "rioting" during Halloween celebrations a number of years back, culminating in 2000, with the police turning out in riot gear and using pepper spray and tear gas on students and residents. (See AP article below).
Now, I wasn't in Carbondale for that Halloween, so it's hard to know how bad things really were or weren't. I do know that I don't remember Champaign police showing up in riot gear or tear gassing students in the last 10 years or so.
Unfortunately, newspaper archive searches are not necessarily the best way to rake the muck on cops and police officials, since local papers tend to be pretty friendly with the local police, especially in smaller towns. Further, so much police misconduct never makes its way into the mainstream press because the victims don't know where to turn and don't have the resources to pursue justice.
Isn't that what Indymedia is for?
Perhaps you or someone you know has been to or lived in Carbondale during R. T. Finney's tenure on the police force. Now is the time to share whatever information you have, good or bad.
Did you or someone you know have run-ins with the Carbondale police? How did it turn out? How was everyone treated?
Post comments to this article with what you know. Don't worry if the incidents or situations were never reported in the mainstream press -- that doesn't make them illegitimate. Indymedia is the place for people to tell their stories and their struggles. Perhaps there's someone out there with similar experiences -- one isolated case can turn into a trend, or a scandal when people come together and can share stories and experiences.
Indymedia allows you to be anonymous, so you don't have to worry about retribution for telling the truth.
Maybe you have something good to say about Finney -- that deserves to come to light, too.
Whatever information people might have to share, it's a tragedy when it stays underground, because it might be a matter of life and death someday.
News Articles:
Black students to protest police action at weekend parties
April 24, 2001, Tuesday, BC cycle
By SUSAN SKILES LUKE, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: CARBONDALE, Ill.
BODY:
A group of black students at Southern Illinois University is charging racism was behind police breaking up an off-campus party with tear gas.
Some students are planning a demonstration Saturday night in the city's downtown. They want police to apologize and drop charges against Patrick Gant, a 26-year-old elementary education major who was charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest.
Police were responding to complaints about loud music, said Carbondale Police Chief R.T. Finney, who defended his officers' actions.
Gant, who is from Chicago, was hosting a block party with his neighbors about a half-mile from the SIU campus when a group of officers arrived in their squad cars around 1 a.m. Sunday, said Paul Hardges, 21, of Chicago, who attended the party.
Two officers knocked on Gant's door and asked one of his roommates, John Bratton, to turn down the music, police and Bratton said.
But when police took Bratton's identification card, Gant objected and reached for the card, according to both Gant and Finney.
When the officer tried to arrest Gant, Gant retreated into his bedroom, where witnesses say six or seven police officers ultimately subdued him with tear gas and physical force.
"At one point I was lying on my bed with my covers over my head trying to get away from the Mace," Gant said. "And one of the officers jumped up on the bed and continued to spray me."
Finney said his officers acted properly.
"When a verbal command doesn't work, you have to put your hands on them, and when that doesn't work you have to use other force, like Mace," he said.
Witnesses said police also sprayed tear gas at several people outside Gant's bedroom window, whom they say were trying to help Gant escape.
Hardges said police overreacted because everyone at the party was black.
"It's not that they hate black people, but the way the police acted was racist," he said.
Finney said racism played no part in the incident. "We treat all parties the same," he said.
Police said Gant was arrested and charged with obstructing justice, resisting a police officer and two counts of aggravated battery. He was released on $500 bond.
HEADLINE: Police use tear gas to disperse 2,400 Halloween revelers
November 1, 2000, Wednesday, BC cycle
DATELINE: CARBONDALE, Ill.
BODY:
About 2,400 Halloween revelers mobbed city streets near the Southern Illinois University campus, leaving police still counting the number of arrests Wednesday and shopkeepers again replacing broken windows.
At one point, several hundred people surrounded seven police officers, pelting them with rocks, bottles and cans while the officers fired back with mace, The Southern Illinoisan newspaper reported.
More police soon moved in and fired tear gas to break up the crowd. The officers, who were wearing protective body vests, were not injured.
"This was bad, really bad," Carbondale Police Chief R.T. Finney told the newspaper after the streets were finally cleared at about 4 a.m.
"There wasn't anything we could do for a short time, nothing at all. We used up our mace, and we were taking shots constantly," he said.
Though dozens of people were arrested, police did not immediately know how many.
Five people were treated for minor injuries at Carbondale Memorial Hospital, two for reactions to tear gas, three for minor cuts and bruises, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Carbondale has a reputation for attracting unruly crowds for Halloween. This year marked the first in five years that downtown bars and restaurants were allowed to stay open over the Halloween weekend.
City leaders had closed the businesses in 1995 over the weekend closest to the holiday in an attempt - largely successful - to avert unruly Halloween crowds.
In March, the City Council narrowly voted to lift the ban, a vote several publicly regretted after more than 100 people were arrested last weekend for the same kind of chaos that erupted early Wednesday.
City Manager Jeff Doherty had said Tuesday that he will ask the council to reinstate the ban.
Some people who were milling about downtown shortly before Wednesday's trouble began predicted what would later happen, saying students wanted to respond to plans to again close the bars.
"People know this could be the last Halloween with the bars open, and they're talking about damage," SIU student Rob Taylor said about an hour before the bars' 2 a.m. closing time.
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See also:
http://www.newsgazette.com/story.cfm?Number=14672
http://www.dailyegyptian.com/spring01/04-02-01/finney.html
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Re: New Police Chief In Champaign -- What's His Record? |
by Patrick Gant
patdregant (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
29 Oct 2005
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your police respect you they tried to humiliate me and treat me as an animal but i made it through, eventough i've done sveral hours of community service with my fraternity and gave my time to carbondale this is how they treated me it was a race issue and Finney will have to stand before God one day. I am afifth grade school teacher who coaches football, volleyball, and basketball but i'm bad, if i was a European it would of never happened. |
