Public Health & Safety
This semester I have served OrangePolitics as a student intern to complete a minimum 30-hour service-learning requirement for a sociology class entitled “Social and Economic Justice.” The course is a capstone requirement for all social and economic justice minors like myself and has allowed my professor the opportunity to chronicle the development of the Occupy movement over the course of the semester. Admittedly, I am privileged. But, having studied the birth and spread of this movement, I was shocked when a local demonstration against corporate hegemony of the wealthiest Americans (unaffiliated directly with the Occupy Chapel Hill demonstrations) took a dramatic turn a little more than a week ago, as a police tactical team of more than 25 officers arrested eight demonstrators in a vacant Franklin Street building.
I want to begin by thanking all of the stakeholders who came out to Chapel Hill High this morning, a beautifully sunny fall morning, and participated in our first “come together” session in which we heard reports from all of the theme groups on what transpired in their first work sessions. We had over 100 stakeholders participate and we got to hear from about ¼ of you in the discussion portion of the meeting. For those of you who didn’t have time to share your thoughts please think about posting them on either the blog or the web.
Many questions remain unanswered in regard to the
Chapel Hill Police Department's deployment Sunday of a heavily-armed Special Emergency Response Team to clear a private building in Chapel Hill that had been occupied by a group of protesters.
Seven people were arrested and charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering.
I submitted a petition Monday afternoon to to the Chapel Hill Town Council calling for the appointment of an independent commission to review the events leading up to yesterday's deployment of the SERT unit. Residents of Chapel Hill are divided, one camp outraged by what they deem to be an unmeasured response by a SWAT team and the other yielding to the professional judgment of the CHPD. Neither side has the facts to which the public is entitled in order understand the events that led to yesterday's display of lethal force by the Chapel Hill Police Department.
On September 26, members of the Chapel Hill Town Council suggested that the Community House Good Neighbor Plan Advisory Committee expand its membership . Hence, the IFC is seeking applications for committee membership. See http://ifc-gnp.blogspot.com/ for more detail. The application form can be found at http://ifcweb.org/GNP-app.htm. Applications should be submitted to the IFC before October 14.
An e-mail from Eleanor Howe to the Chapel Hill Town Council:
Dear Mayor Kleinschmidt and members of the Town Council,
I am a member of the committee working to create a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP)
for the IFC’s new Community House at 1515 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. As
such, I’m writing in response to a “guest column” in today’s Chapel
Hill News by Mark Peters, and because a status report on the committee’s
work to date is on the Council agenda for Sept. 26.
I take great exception to Mr. Peters’ characteristics of the GNP
committee as a “biased committee that lacks transparency.”
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