Hundreds of cars whizzed past us every moment while the wind blew, but spirits were high. We were joining the Women’s March, urging people to vote, and supporting the Illinois Fair Tax proposition.
Mary S.
Notes from the FVC4PNJ meeting of Saurday, July 4th 2020
Those present were: Kathy Hamill. Bill Koehl, Paul Scott, Mary Roberti, Vince Hardt, Sherry Liske, Barbara Evans, Bettina Perillo, Steve Bruesewitz, Earl Silbar, Karen Beyer, Ro Maziarz, Don Bak, Mary Shesgreen.
Once again, most of our meeting focused on conversation about the first discussion question on our agenda: Are the protests for police accountability and racial justice working? What else needs to happen? Paul talked about his work in DuPage County with the NAACP and Unity Partnership and their hopes to move toward better racial justice especially in the area of policing. He talked about moving to change the wording of police procedures and policies as California has done: Use of lethal force is only permitted when it is “necessary.” Earl stated that the wording of Elgin’s police standards was excellent, but good wording did nothing to protect DeCynthia Clements, and did nothing to bring Lieutenant Jensen to account. Paul also talked about citizen oversight boards for police departments. Earl said those only made a difference when they had the power to subpoena police officers, interrogate them under oath, and then have disciplinary power to fire or even change officers.
Agenda for FVC4PNJ meeting of August 1st, 2020
Discussion Questions:
Evaluation of July Activities:
Password to join is PHOt76. Post screening panel via zoom requires registration https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0lcu-oqDksE9RY6IywyLHoCEmm9mXn7FZJ?fbclid=IwAR1CxjhxKgEiyoJXXBV2WSG-giPIiR1YxSKMt5_i5K7ewcK3k2eGKXT_2Qo
Ongoing Campaigns
Occupy Elgin is doing substantial work on homelessness and doing weekly demonstrations each Saturday from 1 PM till 2 Pm at Kimball and Grove in Elgin calling for racial justice.
Occupy Elgin celebrated Juneteenth on Saturday, June 20th. We registered our event on the SixNineteen website. Twenty People participated, wearing masks and standing, carefully apart to observe social distancing. Here are a few photos from that day.
Please join us on Saturday, June 20th from 1 PM till 2 PM at the corner of Kimball and Grove Street in Elgin. We will wear masks and we will stand at least 6 feet apart for social distancing. But we will be passionate in our celebration of Juneteenth, the festival that commemorates the end of slavery in 1865. We stand in support of the Movement for Black Lives. We call for the Defense of Black Lives, for De-funding the Police*, and we call upon Donald Trump to resign the presidency.
