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…
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 that same meeting, Urbana Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin announced that Urbana Police Lieutenant Jason D Norton would be investigating the incident.…
Urbana Police Officials didn’t waste any time attempting to save face and deflect blame after a disturbing police brutality video went viral on April 10th 2020. The video quickly made its rounds on social media, garnering widespread criticism for the Urbana Police Department from local citizens. Just 18 hours later,…
On April 10th, 2020, a video of Urbana Police Officers physically assaulting an unarmed woman, Aleyah Lewis, surfaced on social media. Within two days, the video received tens of thousands of views and thousands of comments by concerned citizens. Around 4:30pm on April 10th, Urbana Police Officers responded to reports…
The emergency order unanimously pass by Urbana City Council on March 16th 2020 continues to come under scrutiny by citizens. We’ve just received notice that since Mayor Diane Marlin has shut down all citizen access to the services offered at the Urbana City Building, citizens now cannot submit police or…
