At the May 4th, 2020 meeting of the Urbana City Council, residents showed up in force once again to voice their complaints about the Urbana Police Department following a violent arrest of an unarmed woman. Rather than being met with open arms by their elected officials, Shirese Hursey and others…
Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin issued an update at the May 11th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting regarding the Aleyah Lewis incident. Her update was the latest attempt by the city to appease outraged citizens. On April 10th, 2020, Urbana Police Officers carrying rifles physically attacked an unarmed Aleyah Lewis (article…
After months of residents criticizing the failures of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB), and amidst a barrage of Urbana Police misconduct allegations following a violent arrest video which went viral on social media, a new Chair was quietly assigned to the CPRB. Previously chaired by Grace Mitchell, who…
Citizens were outraged, and at least one Urbana Council member left speechless, after Council member Shirese Hursey placed full blame for the violent arrest of Aleyah Lewis (original article here) squarely on Lewis herself. Hursey’s monologue was delivered at the May 4th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting, immediately after 20…
On May 5th, 2020, Mayor Diane Marlin announced that she will be accepting applications for a vacant seat on Urbana’s Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB). Grace Mitchell, the Chair of the CPRB, and a member of the group since its founding in 2007, has resigned her position after widespread criticism…
“I witnessed a poor review of police conduct at last week’s City Council meeting” A publicly presented “review” by Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and Lt. Jason Norton at the April 27th, 2020 Urbana City Council meeting has begun to draw more public scrutiny than the violent arrest that prompted…
Citizens having been speaking in great numbers for the past several Urbana City Council meetings, and the May 4th, 2020 meeting was no exception. Residents returned to the virtual podium to issue further complaint about the Police Department’s arrest and beating of Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis, which occurred on April…
“This was a carefully crafted one-sided puppet show designed to further embarrass and harass Lewis while straining to assign hero-status to her unscrupulous attackers” Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and his cohort have switched into full-offense mode after initial efforts to squelch public outcry about police misconduct backfired. It all…
On April 20th, 2020, dozens of citizens attended an electronic City Council meeting to voice their concerns about the recent arrest and beating of Urbana resident Aleyah Lewis. At the beginning of the meeting, at least 20 citizens had sent public input to be read at the meeting, and another dozen…
Sixty-six citizens attended the April 20th, 2020 Urbana City Council Meeting that was held electronically via Zoom. Attendance was unusually high as citizens voiced their concerns and outrage at the brutal beating of an unarmed woman by Urbana Police Officers. On April 10th, 2020, a video (article here) of Urbana…
