“Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” ― Bruce Lee
ANNOUNCEMENTS
(Notes provided by the unorthodox and unconventional Paul Conforti)
Robb thanked everyone for their participation in our annual fruit fundraiser. As Chief Fruithead he is looking forward to early January when everyone has submitted their fruit money and he can enjoy being retired again.
Our next meet is an evening affair at Jennifer Shelby’s home this Thursday 12/17 at 5pm (the morning meeting will be cancelled that day). Please contact Jen to let her know if you are coming to her house, if you have kids, if you are bringing those kids, if you are planning to have kids in the future, and what age your kids will be as of this Thursday.
Jen’s contact info:
2105 Bristol Rd, Champaign (pretty close to Devonshire & Prospect).
Home: 351-9119
Cell: 840-4290
Side dishes are welcome – Jen even has tons of crackers she can offer to go with your side dish. Our next morning meeting will be Thursday, Jan 7th in the Skyway room.
PROGRAM
Our December 10th presentation was by Urbana Police Chief Patrick Connolly. Chief Connolly began his law enforcement career in 1977 serving six years as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Investigations. In 1984, Connolly left active military service to develop Champaign County’s first Intensive Probation Supervision program. In 1988, he began his career with the Urbana Police Department, and since that time has touched every division within the department including patrol, criminal investigation, two specialized narcotics units, two first line supervisory positions, two commander level positions, the METRO/SWAT Commander, Assistant Chief and for the past five years as Chief of Police.
The primary focus of Chief Connolly’s presentation was the recently formed Area Law Enforcement & Community Coalition Partners (ALECCP). While overall crime in Campaign-Urbana is down, gun violence across our community has increased at a disturbing rate. The ALECCP has worked diligently for months developing coordinated tactics and strategies to take action against those engaged in criminal activities.
Chief Connolly spoke about the interesting genesis of the ALLECCP, modelling from two primary police departments: Peoria, Illinois and High Point, NC. The implementation of these plans started with a book published in 2011: Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America by David Kennedy (the book is available on Amazon).
Chief Connolly revealed that roughly 60 folks in Champaign County are responsible for 75% of the violent crime. The book confirmed everything already known by law enforcement: most crime, particularly serious crime, is committed by relatively few people in relatively few places. And of those relative few, even fewer are what we would be considered “hardcore.” The police know those people and those places.
Older strategies like repeat offender programs and “hot spot” policing have typically only focused on law enforcement. David Kennedy’s approach takes law enforcement to areas previously not fully considered. What if we could bring down violence and eliminate drug markets without making arrests? And what if it just wasn’t law enforcement doing it but the whole community that is impacted by serious crime, including the offenders themselves? And what if it could work no matter where, as long very basic principles were followed?
One review of the book nicely summarized Chief Connolly’s message: “David Kennedy shows that the cops, the shooters, the victims, the families, the communities, all start from the same human place. These are similar people trapped in extreme circumstances, not a radically and permanently different type of person. Kennedy shows how many features of the “inner city wasteland” of our public discourse—e.g., the “super-predators” who don’t fear death and prison and the “value-free” families that rear them–are figments of our public imagination, products of our own ham-handed anti-crime tactics. He shows why our blindness to these things has prevented real changes, and he shows what those changes can be.”
We will be hearing more how organizations such as Rotary as well as the greater CU community can support the ALECCP over the upcoming months.
Chief Connolly ended his talk with a Q&A about other community law enforcement priorities. Non-lethal tasers was part of that discussion. Chief Connolly gave several real life situations in which tasers saved both perpetrators and potential victim’s lives. He is looking to expand the number of tasers currently in use from six to twelve.
Urbana Police Chief Patrick Connolly’s contact information: 217-384-2331 and connolpj@urbanaillinois.us
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| Dec 17th | Dec 24th | 31-Dec | Jan 7th | |
| Introductions | Meet in the | No | No | Ata Durukan |
| Invocation | evening at | Meeting | Meeting | Ben Mast |
| Greeters | Jen Shelby’s | This | This | Ata Durukan |
| house for | Week | Week | Andrew Kerins | |
| Song Leader | CUSR Holiday | Mary Hodson | ||
| Notetaker | Party | Perry |
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UPCOMING SCHEDULE
December 17th – No morning meeting; evening Holiday Party to be held at Jen Shelby’s house
December 24th – Christmas Eve, no meeting
December 31st – New Year’s Eve, no meeting
January 7th – Randy Hauser, Horticulture and Natural Areas Supervisor, Champaign Park District, will discuss Spring garden planning (meeting in Skyway)
January 14th – Andrew Ferguson, son of Robin Ferguson, will speak about his experience as an RYE in Poland
January 21st – TBD
January 28th – TBD
February 4th – Dr. Matthew Winters, Associate Professor of Political Science, UIUC, will present What Works in International Development: The Latest Evidence
February 11th – TBD
February 18th – Ray Cunningham will discuss North Korea
