
{"id":23163,"date":"2012-01-26T10:25:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T15:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=23163"},"modified":"2012-01-25T19:11:04","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T00:11:04","slug":"council-delays-yates-investigator-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/01\/26\/council-delays-yates-investigator-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Council delays Yates investigator decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Postponing a decision on whether to hire an outside investigator to report on incidents surrounding the Nov. 13 raid of the former Yates Motor Co. building, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously on Monday to refer a petition requesting the investigator to staff. <\/p>\n<p>The town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Community Policing Advisory Committee submitted the petition after the town council referred the review to the committee, voting not to consider a measure proposing an independent review of the events. CPAC members said they felt they needed the assistance of an outside investigator to adequately review the incident, noting the extensive time involved in interviewing involved parties. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For the Community Policing Advisory Committee to effectively do its work, we feel that we need to develop a full and complete factual review of all the circumstances,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d CPAC Chair Ron Bogle said. <\/p>\n<p>Bogle noted that the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request was not a criticism of the internal review conducted by Town Manager Roger Stancil and police Chief Chris Blue \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which stated that the actions of police were the best decisions that could have been made given the information available at the time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but that the CPAC needed additional facts about the incident. <\/p>\n<p>The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s referral of the petition is in accordance with council procedure, and staff will report back to the council at its meeting on Monday. <\/p>\n<p>The committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request did not include a cost estimate of hiring an investigator, and council members said they would like more information before making a decision. However, the majority of council members seemed to indicate that they would not be in favor of hiring the investigator, noting the obstacles that any potential outside investigator would face. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve come to the conclusion that an independent investigator isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to be able to do what I thought it would initially and maybe what the committee is hoping it would do,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d council member Jim Ward said, adding that an outside investigator would not be able to compel witnesses to testify or put them under oath to ensure truthful testimony. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It vexes me for the town to take $15,000 or more away from another program, which is desperately needed, in order to pay for an outside investigator,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d council member Matt Czajkowski said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You could potentially end up with statements that are intentionally false or at lease false \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 by accident, and so it seems like a real risk to me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Council members Laurin Easthom and Lee Storrow said they would support an outside investigator. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The police should not be the total fact-finding committee. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re partial to what happened, which is fine. The town manager is not the fact-finder in this case,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Easthom said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we need to have a separate entity to do that work.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Easthom also said that the CPAC could potentially find an investigator who was willing to work on the case pro-bono. <\/p>\n<p>Concerns have been raised about the police\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to the occupation of the building, which began the night of Nov. 12 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c led, reportedly, by attendees of the Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0and resulted in a dramatic encounter with police the afternoon of Nov. 13, with seven arrests.<\/p>\n<p>Residents have questioned the police\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to communicate with those inside the building prior to the raid, in which a police Special Emergency Response Team brandished long-range rifles and detained those on the sidewalk outside the entrance of the building, including two journalists, before rushing inside.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the public who spoke at Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting were split on the matter of hiring an outside investigator. <\/p>\n<p> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Half of the facts are out there. The other half still lie in limbo, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the other half of the facts that we need to get at,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said resident Barry Freeman, who said he supports an outside investigator. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[The issues] will fester if all of this is not brought to light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Greenslade said he was sitting on the sidewalk outside the Yates building during the raid and had a gun held to his head. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And what was my crime? Sitting on the sidewalk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because of my proximity to this situation \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I had my life put in danger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to move forward until we find resolution as to why this went so horribly wrong this time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added, noting the importance of an independent review.  <\/p>\n<p>Former Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf told the council that she was opposed to hiring an outside investigator and that she felt that she was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153part of a silent majority who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become kind of more and more concerned.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think a lot of us are ready for the community to move on,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some use of force was justified. Whether it was a SERT team, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a police officer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Waldorf said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do think the trespassers should have been asked to leave. I think that that mistake has been acknowledged.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p> Resident Pamela Ransohoff said she does not support the outside investigation. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These people illegally entered the building. It is called lawlessness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The police did their job and they did it well. \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 We hardly have the money to pay $15,000 or more for an outside investigation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><strong>A larger discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A number of council members said the Yates incident and the Occupy Chapel Hill\/Carrboro protest have brought to light the need for the council to have a discussion on civil disobedience and law-breaking. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I personally believe that we have to think about that differently when people are using civil disobedience for a political purpose and to protect that freedom of speech,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Storrow said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153People who entered the Yates building did break the law \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 but I believe that the people who chose to enter the Yates building chose to enter that specific building. They chose to enter that building to make a specific political point.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Last week, Stancil sent the council a memo regarding the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision not to enforce certain ordinances when the Occupy Chapel Hill \/Carrboro movement began occupying Peace and Justice Plaza, citing the need for a council discussion regarding such issues. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Occupy Movement vacated the Peace and Justice Plaza on Jan. 10, 2012.\u00c2\u00a0 The group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to vacate the Plaza presents a timely opportunity for us to consider enforcement of adopted ordinances and established policies and procedures regulating the use of the Peace and Justice Plaza and all other public spaces and facilities,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stancil wrote, continuing, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Moving forward, I plan to ensure that all adopted ordinances and established policies and procedures regulating the use of public spaces and facilities, including but not limited to those mentioned in this report, are enforced by Town staff to the extent possible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In response to Stancil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memo, Occupy Chapel Hill\/Carrboro released a statement: <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We reserve the right of citizens to assemble. We reflect the despair, dreams and sentiments of thousands of town residents angry with economic injustice and inequality at local and global levels. Roger Stancil as town manager is attempting to privatize public space with threats of arbitrary enforcement of ordinances that effectively prohibit free speech and assembly. This is a global issue that the Occupy movement organized to confront.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapel Hill Town Council voted unanimously on Monday to refer a petition requesting the investigator to staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23166,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23163\/revisions\/23166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}