City of Rock Island Human Rights Commission met Oct. 17.
Here is the minutes provided by the commission:
I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
The meeting was called to order at 6:05 P.M. by Vice Chairman Janet Lockhart Johnson.
The following commission members were present (P); excused (E); and No show (NS) :
| June 2019 | June 2020 | June 2021 |
| Vince Thomas | Christiana Headley | Thurgood Brooks |
| David Levin | Quincy Davis | |
| Jason Lopez | Gregg Hampton | |
| Clayton Peterson | Janet Lockhart Johnson | |
| V S (Vacant) | ||
| Allison Wright |
III. PUBLIC COMMENT none
IV. MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
A. Marabelle (?) former Rock Island City Council member has expressed a desire and has
completed an application for the Human Rights Commission.
B. Jason Lopez is investigating the possibility of someone from the relatively new organization CLOCK.
C. Clayton Peterson verified that Rev. Becky David is not available as she recently moved to Moline, IL.
V. CURRENT COMPLAINT: 64-2019-EKR filed 05-16-2019
A. Commission members Levin and Hampton met with 4 members of John Deere at the Lane and Waterman offices. This grievance will progress to stage three by October 30, 2019, and our complainant has been put back on first shift. More to come on this complaint. The meeting was about 1 hour and many provoking inquiries were made by commission members Levin and Hampton. This from Levin
B. This note from Hampton after the meeting and forwarded to commission members: They did explain the department creation issue is being worked out at the union “step” level and the They step 3 is meant to happen on Oct 31st.
It may be possible there was favoritism for one individual, but based on information we have we do not believe we can determine it was or is racially motivated.
However, when we told them about Elton’s encounter with his supervisor about being told he’d be written up for not going to the volunteer work, they were very concerned and would like him to use the hotline and complaint avenues available to him to report that encounter. They were not aware of it as he did not report it as of yet to anyone other than us, and it was not a part of his official submission, but was said to us at our interview of him. It was the first time they were hearing that.
My and David’s recommendation is that we “close” the case as “unable to determine racial motivation in the creation of 917 and its effects on the shift placement of Elton Robinson.” And also ask Elton to submit his complaint about the personal encounter he had with his manager to the JD hotline and/or HR that was created for those purposes, and if there is no positive result from that, he submit a new complaint with us regarding that specific encounter.
He should be able to easily narrow down what day and time it happened as it directly relates to a planned event that happened.
VI. NEW BUSINESS/COMPLAINTS
A. 65-2019-PR filed 08-24-2019 Complaint was filed by a grandmother on behalf of her granddaughter in regards to a rental unit and a trained Emotional Support Dog. It is a fair housing issue.
B. 66-2019-KC filed 08-24-2019 Complaint was filed by the mother on behalf of her daughter in the same regard to 65-2019-PR. This in reality is the same complaint as the previous one just filed by another person other than the person with the handicap. We assume that the mother has no guardianship over the adult daughter at this time and the daughter should file the claim.
1. Jason Lopez spoke with the complainant (grandmother in 65-2019-PR) and this is a Fair Housing Issue. The grandmother does not, however have custody or any legal authority in the care of her granddaughter. Our question at this time: should the complainant be the filing the Human Rights Complaint. Jason will seek legal advise as to how to proceed.
2. Motion made by Clayton Peterson to seek legal advice and to follow the criteria to proceed as suggested by legal. Second David Levin. Consensus
3. Commission member Levin submitted from the Illinois Realtors the following: Fair Housing and Service or emotional Support Annimals and whether the landlord can deny an otherwise qualified applicant on that basis. The general answer to that question, is no. A person with a service or emotional support animal must not be denied housing on that baisis. The landlord or property manager could be facing a fair housing complaint case. A service or emotional support animal, when it comes to housing, is not a pet. Therefore, no pet policies and pet deposits do no apply. The landlord or property manager could charge the terminating teneant for any actual damages caused by the animal, after the fact.
C. 67-2019-RLG filed 09-06-2019 Complaint is about a public housing eviction. The complainant allowed her boyfriend to stay with her in the public housing. Commission
member Thurgood Brooks met with the complainant who wishes to have her eviction revoked. It seems they had scheduled an appeal of the eviction, at which time an altercation between the boyfriend and girlfriend happened. We believe this is enough to warrant the eviction via rules of the Housing Authority. This interview was with the mother and not the complainant.
1. Mr. Brooks will follow the lead of the other complainant in that the interview should have been with the complainant
2. Motion made by Janet Lockhart Johnson that we follow the guidelines prescribed by legal and will follow there recommendations.
D. 68-2019-JHL filed 10-05-2019 Jason Lopez provided a summary of the complaint against Hy Vee and the shoplifting arrest. He wishes as resolve his felony arrest reversed. It was noted that many agencies mentioned are not in existence.
1. Secretary Peterson will compose a letter to the complainant who has asked (page 6 2nd to the last paragraph) not to involve local authorities without first a response from the Department of Human Rights in Illinois (Federal Branch). This letter will include the address information for the DHR Illinois.
E,F,G,H,I,J and K. tabled.
E. Official e-mail addresses. Tabled
F. Discuss commission requirements including: Tabled
1. Attendance benchmark for commission members.
2. Number of meetings per year
3. 72 hour cancellation if no business
4. No show attendance 3 times with removal from the commission
G. Establish a month to discuss our Rolls and Goals
H. Suggested that we have a social outing to get acquainted.
I. Subpoena powers the pros and cons
J. Current Commission members interview new members before they commit to the commission, for overview and maintain a commitment standard.
K. Establish attendance records (P) present, (E) excused, (NS) no show.
L. (originally I) member
I have seen hate move into my neighborhood.
An Essay to the Human Rights Commission of Rock Island IL, by Jason Lopez
Data shows an increase of hate based actions, prejudice based actions, and discrimination in the USA following Obama becoming President. The first African American President seems to have created a dichotomy in people of our nation that then looked upon the Obama Presidency a milestone of a society, or a deterioration of society. Hushed voices began to talk in the workplace, and social media comments strayed far from (quote) “PC” (that is Polite Conduct) and into a darkness not seen since the Woodrow Wilson Presidency.
A new era of hate was among us. Verbal attacks, violent attacks, and mass killings by those that feel threated by the notion that any and all minorities were coming to sit at the dinner table of power began to gain renewed traction.
As an armchair historian I can know that in our country’s past, there have been many times where the move toward equali9ty and equity have been met with resistance. While sometimes resistance was violent, many times it was in the form of laws, or codes that restricted the upward movement of minorities. Flash mobs and writing or publication have also been common to denote the resistance existed and could take action at any time.
We can more easily see violent resistance in the attacks, shootings, and bombings when we read our news feeds. Somewhat hidden however, is the online activities of the growing resistance to acceptance and integration of minorities. This somewhat hidden group expounds hate as the norm and solution to a problem they see as taking hold of our nation. They applaud each other’s posts and comments online then quickly move from generalizations to stereotypes and then prejudices. Like neutrons in an uncontrolled nuclear reactor, they bounce these ideas off each other getting more and more agitated in the process until the result is very undesirable.
Their influence isn’t limited to those that actively chose hate. These people are masters at renaming hate, making hate more socially palatable. For instance, instead of saying that they hate all Muslims in the USA, they may point to an area of a town known for its high Muslim population and simply state that they hate all the people that live in that part of town. When pressed as to why, they may invent some reason such as poor home maintenance or poorly kept yards. Suddenly all Mexicans crossing the border become Rapists crossing the border. This has nothing to do with the undocumented crossing itself but instead an allegation that the crime of rape has been or will be committed. It’s easy to hate someone for being a Rapist, a little less easy to hate someone for being Mexican.
As a human rights commission we must be prepared for a possible spike in complaints filed. We would probably do well to look into community outreach as well. For example the Rock Island Milan School District 41 has implemented a cultural competency team that consists of stakeholders. I have cast s line to gauge the Superintendent’s willingness to consider one of the Human Rights Commission members to be on this team. Or at least visit with this team regularly. In fact, maybe short regular visits with the Chief of Police, Community Caring Conference, Project Now, local churches, equal rights groups, and other organizations regularly in contact with the people of Rock Island would be helpful to our citizenship. Simply knowing we exist to serve Rock Island residents may be a comfort in these troubled times our nation faces.
I have seen hat move into my neighborhood. My property was targeted by a neighbor that tossed racist literature onto my property for me to find. Which neighborhood is next for this type of literature to be distributed to? What happens to me or others like me when the act of distributing racist literature is no longer satisfying to these people?
Our Commission must be prepared to uphold justice using means appropriated to us. Our community must be prepared to deny a foothold to these actions that threaten to undo any progress of equlity, equity and inclusion that has been made. Jason Lopez
VII. PENDING COMPLAINTS
1. none
VIII. FURTHER EDUCATION
None
III. ADJORN
https://www.rigov.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_10172019-468
Alerts Sign-up