Agitation Rising previously reported that the Bloomington City Council would have to approve the EAGLE intergovernmental agreement between the McLean County Deputies Office and the Bloomington Police Department (BPD). This is not the case. The EAGLE agreement requires each agency funds its own equipment and training. Funding for BPD’s SWAT team has already been appropriated by the Bloomington City Council, and the agreement would not require additional funding for BPD.
Agitation Rising also implied that Task Force 6 had its own separate SWAT team. This is untrue. Task Force 6 relies on the SWAT teams of its constituent members.
Stats from the McLean County Jail, accurate as of March 21st, 2023:
Jail population: 216
Proportions by gender: are female: 35 (16%) are male: 181 (84%)
Proportions by race: Black: 110 (50%) Other Minority: 13 (6%) Persons of a Colonial Complexion: 96 (44%)
Number of people over 50: 25 (12%) Number of people sentenced: 13 (6%) Number of people pretrial (felony): 186 (86%) Number of people pretrial (misdemeanors): 8 (4%) Number of people pretrial for drug offenses: 67 (31%) Number of out of county residences: 68 (31%) Number of people prescribed mental health medication: 65 (30%)
Average Population Data between December 1st, 2022-March 21st, 2023
Several McLean County Republicans, like Sheriff Jon Sandage and District 10 County Board member Chuck Erickson, claim District 7 Board Member Sharon Chung repeatedly, viciously, and with extreme malice attacks the Sheriff every chance she gets. Agitation Rising investigates these claims only to discover the SHOCKING truth!
As DSA BloNo hemorrhaged active membership, the trend was for autonomous groups to form in its absence.
Afro-Socialists & Socialists of Color Caucus continues to exist. They are a space for people of color to organize autonomously. They continue to focus on base building by performing events and outreach to the community: swim lessons, COVID-19 vaccine clinics, fine art events, etc. Their email address is afrosocblono@gmail.com.
The Bloomington-Normal Tenant’s Union is an organization created to provide resources to tenant’s and defend tenant’s rights, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are a vehicle for renting class solidarity and empowerment in the BloNo IL area.
BloNo is home to its very own chapter of the Communist Party USA. During the flooding that occurred last summer, Summer 2021, their members volunteered helping many people whose basements had flooded get the problem fixed (the BN Tenant’s Union was also involved in this effort). Furthermore, the CP continues outreach to the community by holding monthly family picnics during warmer weather.
The BloNo Socialist Feminists group aims to educate the Bloomington-Normal community on issues that affect marginalized genders and building solidarity through awareness, advocacy, and empowerment. Their past work includes outreach to the community through public events, addressing food insecurity, and public education.
The BloNo Socialist Feminists is a group that grew out of DSA BloNo’s Socialists-Feminist Working Group. Like Afro-Soc, they are completely autonomous from DSA.
Currently, their Facebook page is the best way to contact them.
The Central Illinois solidarity-Research Collective (CIRC) is dedicated to helping organizations & individuals request information from public bodies. CIRC is intended to be a resource for all Leftists across Central Illinois and is not limited just to the Bloomington-Normal area. This research is important to guarantee transparent & accountable government. Every person has a right to access most government records. CIRC specializes in requesting police records and helping individuals file complaints again local law enforcement. CIRC is also involved in lobbying legislation and educating the people on changes to various laws and statutes. CIRC is an all-volunteer organization.
CIRC grew out of DSA Blono’s Solidarity Research Working Group. Like Afro-Soc and BloNo Socialist Feminists, CIRC is completely autonomous from DSA.
Those looking to get involved in CIRC should fill out this contact form and someone will be in touch with them. No previous experience doing research is required. Individuals can also email the organization at cisolidarityresearch@gmail.com. GET INVOLVED IN CIRC!
If you’d like your organization added to this list, please send an email to zgetco@gmail.com with your org’s name, contact info, a short description of the group, and any active projects the org is engaged in.
The contentious debate around qualified immunity will be introduced at the McLean County Justice Committee this Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021.
Qualified immunity is a Supreme Court legal doctrine that protects individual officers from being held personally responsible if they violate a person’s rights. The bar is so high for proving an officer’s actions disqualify them from qualified immunity, that unless a previous court ruled that the exact same actions with the exact same circumstances were unconstitutional, qualified immunity will hold regardless of the underlying constitutional merits of the case.
Sheriff Sandage has said he worries if qualified immunity is abolished, no one will ever want to be an officer again. Police unions have claimed it would become open season on officers being sued for frivolous issues. Normal Police Chief Rick Bleichner opposed abolishing qualified immunity as well.
McLean County Justice Committee Chair & Board Member for District 10, Chuck Erickson
The chair of the McLean County Justice Committee Chair, Distict 10 Board Member Chuck Erickson, introduced a resolution affirming the boards unwavering & uncritical support of law enforcement in response to Governor J.B. Pritzker signing criminal justice reform legislation in late-February. Included in the resolution is support for qualified immunity.
The law HB 3653 does not get rid of qualified immunity, but it does create a commission to study the issue and bring forth an opinion. It seems some fear it is inevitable that qualified immunity will be abolished.
Now, some individuals who are far more perfidious than I, will allege that abolishing qualified immunity will have a “chilling” effect on police officers and limit their ability and/or willingness to respond to critical incidents without hesitation. These are split-second decisions after all. Mistakes happen right? Why should police have to worry about frivolous incidents?
However, the “chilling” effect simply doesn’t hold temperature. Law professors Joanna Schwartz & Seth Stoughton carefully explain why this is.
“The Supreme Court’s constitutional standards make ample allowance for officers to make reasonable mistakes. When assessing the constitutionality of a stop, the Supreme Court has said that officers must act reasonably, but, ‘[t]o be reasonable is not to be perfect, and so the Fourth Amendment allows for some mistakes on the part of government officials, giving them ‘fair leeway for enforcing the law in the community’s protection.’ For that reason, officers can constitutionally stop or frisk someone when they have ‘reasonable suspicion,’ and that that low bar is met so long as there is a ‘moderate chance’ that the officer’s suspicion is correct. An officer can get a warrant or arrest someone when they have ‘probable cause,’ which requires only a ‘fair probability’ that they are right.
In short, officers have plenty of leeway to make mistakes without violating the Constitution. For example, courts have held that officers act constitutionally when:
-officers arrest the wrong person, so long as their mistake was reasonable; -officers execute a search warrant on the wrong apartment, so long as the apartment numbers were similar; -officers pull someone over for having an air freshener attached to their rearview mirror and not having a front license plate—neither of which was illegal—so long as the officer had a reasonable but mistaken understanding of the law
Qualified immunity does not protect officers who make reasonable mistakes because reasonable mistakes do not violate the Fourth Amendment in the first place. Instead, qualified immunity shields government officials from liability when they have acted unreasonably (taking into account the deference that the Supreme Court has built into that term)—so long as there isn’t another court decision holding virtually identical facts to be unconstitutional. Insisting that officers are so afraid of the consequences for their unreasonable actions that they will refuse to do their job demeans officers”
Furthermore, McLean County already has indemnification & duty to defend clauses in their union contract. Regardless of qualified immunity, those legal mechanisms still exist to protect officers. There are legitimate reasons to indemnify and defend officers. But, is blanket indemnification truly the right way to go? If something similar to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Elijah McLain occurred here, does the county really want to pay out taxpayer dollars to acts that are unreasonably unconstitutional? Perhaps a mechanism whereby in certain particularly egregious instances, the county could opt-out.
All this being said, this is simply a non-binding resolution. The county does not actually have the power to unilaterally grant their officers qualified immunity, especially if the state chooses to abolish it in the future. This resolution seems to be a performative stunt by Sheriff Jon Sandage, States’ Attorney Don Knapp, and Republican County Board members to show they support law enforcement and anyone who disagrees with this resolution does not.
The Bloomington-Normal Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America released this statement encouraging the community to leave a public comment for the Justice Committee & contact County Board members to state their opposition to this resolution.
“The Bloomington-Normal chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America strongly oppose the judicial doctrine of qualified immunity. Qualified immunity does nothing but protect bad officers from accountability by preventing victims of police violence & their families from receiving just compensation for blatant constitutional violations. After a year of uprisings by Black Liberation activists & supporters of police accountability, it is in extremely poor taste to turn around & support gross abuses & violations for the police.
We would also like to point out this body does not have the power to enact qualified immunity protections for officers. Furthermore, McLean County already has indemnification & duty to defend clauses in both the Sheriff Deputies & Corrections officers union contract, which protect officers from frivolous litigation. Ending qualified immunity will not alter those protections.
Qualified immunity is bad policy, and it makes all police officers look bad by protecting the worst among them. It encourages officers to be reckless and creates a culture of impunity something which our own local sheriff has brazenly flaunted. The working people of this state support police transparency & accountability. Vote no on this resolution.”
Email Action: email camille.rodriguez@mcleancountyil.gov and admin@mcleancountyil.gov with “Public Comment for Justice Committee Meeting” BEFORE 4:30 PM on MONDAY March 1st. and tell the county board to “VOTE NO on resolution supporting Qualified Immunity.” Contact County Board members.
I recently discovered that additional cases of COVID-19 in the McLean County Jail occurred back in late November. Since the story broke, there has been no announcements from the Sheriff’s office about whether there are any current cases, how often testing is occurring, and what’s being done to mitigate spread.
I am calling on the County Board to pass a resolution asking the Sheriff to report all COVID-19 cases in the jail promptly & accurately. This should be the bare minimum, but apparently it needs to be specified.
Because of the Illinois constitution, County Boards have very little actual authority over the Sheriff’s Office. This allows the Sheriff to operate with almost impunity. However, the board members have a duty to the tax-payers to be fiduciary shepherds for the jail; which they can’t do that if they don’t have the proper information. It’s time for them to prove they are concerned about a transparent & accountable government. While they cannot force the Sheriff to cooperate, a resolution requesting that information shows a clear message.
We should all be able to agree that transparency is key to effectively overcoming this pandemic. The people demand accurate and prompt information, especially regarding tax-payer funded liabilities like the jail. It is unfortunate the Sheriff has chosen to conceal & prevaricate on such an important issue.
Contact your county board members & ask them to pass a resolution seeking transparency & accountability at the jail. I encourage you to e-mail the County Administrator for public comments at both the McLean County Health Committee & Justice Committee.
Email public comment statements to County Administration at admin@mcleancountyil.gov. E-mailed Statements will be placed in the official minutes, even if the statement reads longer than the individual/group time limit (5 minutes for individuals or group spokesperson). All requests will be taken in the order in which they are received, and the total time allowed for public comment at Committee meetings per County Board rules is 30 minutes.
According to a FOIA I received yesterday, the number of inmates infected has risen to 5 as of August 6th, 2020.
“As of August 6th, we have… had 5 positive tests on inmates.”
When I first read this, I initially thought of all tests done on inmates five returned back positive. Of course, that is not what I asked for: I specifically requested the number of inmates who had tested positive, not the number of positive tests performed on inmates.
I contacted the jail FOIA officer, Mary Lou Allman, to clarify. She told me this is the information she received from medical staff so it must mean the numbers have risen to 5 inmates. Hopefully, this was a mistake but considering how lax Sheriff deputies and jail staff are about wearing masks, I wouldn’t doubt if the number continues to rise.
Furthermore, it confirms the jail did not start properly testing until the Pritzker administration required it in order to transfer inmates to IDOC.
