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 10th (original article and video here).
At the previous City Council meeting on April 27th, the Urbana Police Chief Bryant Seraphin and Lt. Jason Norton gave a 1.5 hour presentation detailing their perspective of the incident. However, the presentation was littered with convenient assumptions, biased interpretations, and leading narratives.
Chief Seraphin even went so far as to describe the situation as an “active shooter” scene, even though there was no indication that anyone had even threatened someone with a gun. The original 911 call appeared to be more of a medical call – indicating that a concealed handgun carrier had accidentally shot themselves while their gun was in their waistband.
Over 60 people attended the online Council meeting via Zoom, in addition to those watching on TV or through the standard online video stream. About 20 people gave public input during the meeting, 100% of which was critical of the Chief Seraphin and the Urbana Police Department.
Common criticism among almost all concerned citizens was great contempt for how the Urbana Police Department has handled the entire situation, particularly Seraphin’s biased presentation. Many people called for an independent investigation and demanded that charges against Lewis be dropped. Several people wanted to see the officers in question be put on leave until an independent investigation could be completed. Some found the Chief’s presentation at the previous Council meeting so appalling that they called for Chief Seraphin to resign.
There continued to be public focus on the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB), a board to is supposed to oversee Urbana Police complaints. Impressions of the CPRB vary, but the general consensus is that the board is powerless and ineffective, and needs to be redesigned. Thus far, no member of the CPRB has issued any comment about their board during the past 4 City Council meetings, even though the CPRB has been criticized at each of those meetings.
Interestingly, the Chair for the City of Champaign Citizen Review Subcommittee for police complaints, Emily Rodriguez, attended the May 4th Urbana City Council meeting. Rodriguez criticized the presentation given by Chief Seraphin and cited several policy violations that she was able to determine, even from the limited perspective given by the Chief.
This article will close with some choice portions of public input from the meeting:
“The Police Chief used his public platform to obscure and erase a community member’s experience of racialized police violence. He went to great lengths to gaslight the public and tell us how we should interpret we were seeing in the videos.” – Jeffrey Putney
“Our Police Chief has defended all of this, our Mayor has defended the actions of the police, our State’s Attorney says she sees nothing at all wrong with what happened. So what these leaders are telling us is that this is business as usual in Urbana. This should not be business as usual in Urbana, this should never be business as usual in Urbana. All charges must be dropped against the victim immediately so that she may begin her healing process from this nightmare. But clearly that is not enough. Is this is what our leaders deem acceptable, if this is their idea of business as usual, we need for our City to conduct a full independent investigation of this police misconduct, and for the results to the shared publicly with all. We must go further than that, to make sure this is never again business as usual in Urbana. The Civilian Police Review Board must be given teeth. It must be redesigned to accept complaints from any witness, to have subpoena power, and to have the power to take action based on its findings. Because this must never again be business as usual in Urbana, and our elected leaders need to step up now to prove it will not be, going forward.” – Jacqueline Hannah
“The Urbana City Council did not act as representative of the people, but as managers, defraying liability due to incompetent performance. As with any internal investigation of this sort, the conclusion was written first, and the facts were arranged and interpreted to fit that conclusion. Every police officer received a clear message from the false investigation: the system of oversight for Urbana Police is virtually absent. Police officers that have the option to use force or deescalate, now have the blessings of the City Council to use violence.” – Ron Kester
“The message you are sending says that if we are in trouble, we should not call the police, because it might mean that we or our neighbors would be attacked.” – Elizabeth Simpson
“The officers had many chances to use verbal de-escalation tactics, and chose not to do so despite their extensive training in these tools.” – Jane McClintock
“Arguing that violence is in policy is necessary for avoiding liability through lawsuits, sure. The City doesn’t want to be on the hook because one police officer audibly lost his temper.” – Allan Axelrod
“I want to know if you would show this video to new recruits, and to the media, as an example of appropriate response to the call that they received.” – River Brown
“My concern is that the CPRB has shown to be basically useless at this point and I want City Council and members of the concerned public to know of the deficiencies of the board, especially moving forward in the Lewis case…Regarding the city’s response, and seeing the police treatment of the initial juvenile suspect versus their brutality against Ms. Lewis, the message is clear. It is a chilling threat from the Urbana police department to citizens- that if citizens comply with whatever the police command, they will only be mildly abused. But, if anyone dares question, speak up, or not comply, they will face the full force of police brutality, and that is business as usual.” – Tracy Chong
“This was a hasty investigation that appeared from the beginning to be a rush to justify an incident of police brutality caught on camera…Her voice of protest was literally drowned out in the presentation, by the Chief justifying the physical violence against her.” – Danielle Chynoweth
“I witnessed a poor review of police conduct at last week’s City Council meeting…I found no reason for the City Council to be satisfied with the professionalism shown by the officers in that video…When I reviewed the footage, I saw no real attempt or opportunity for voluntary compliance for that resident.” – Emily Rodriguez, CRS Chair
