Graduate Employees’ Organization Demands Parkland College Fire Former Champaign Police Chief Finney
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, April 22, 2022
Contacts:
Anna Flood and Chelsea Birchmier
Solidarity Committee Co-Chairs
solcomm@uigeo.org
Owen MacDonald, Angela Ting
Communications Officers
commcomm@uigeo.org
Graduate Employees’ Organization Demands Parkland College Fire Former Champaign Police Chief Finney
Champaign-Urbana, IL - On April 21st at 11:30 AM, members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) attended a community-led protest at Parkland College calling for the immediate removal of Former Champaign Police Chief Robert T. Finney from Parkland College’s teaching staff.
While Officer Finney was police chief, from 2003 to 2012, incidents of police brutality and misconduct against Black residents were brought against the Champaign Police Department. On October 9, 2009, Finney and Officer Dan Norbits were responsible for the murder of 15-year-old Kiwane Carrington. On March 30th, 2007, under Finney’s jurisdiction, CPD Officers Justus Clinton, Andre Davis, and Shannon Bridges racially profiled and brutalized 17-year old, Brian Chesley–he sustained injuries that hospitalized him. Shannon Bridges later became responsible for hiring Finney at Parkland.
“We never got justice for the traumatic situation that changed a lot of my close friends' and families' lives. For Parkland to hire him knowing he was a part of the problem is a slap in the face to our community and does nothing but reopen wounds that were never fully healed,” said Jamie Gatson, local hip hop emcee and friend of Kiwane Carrington.
GEO supported the campaign in support of justice for Kiwane Carrington in 2009 and is currently involved in a community coalition effort to demand that Parkland President Tom Ramage immediately fire Finney.
“As a graduate worker and labor union member, I am outraged by Parkland College admin hiring former Champaign Police Chief Finney, whose reign of terror wreaked havoc on the lives of Black, Brown, and working class people throughout Champaign-Urbana. The resources currently being wasted on a racist, murderous officer should be invested in services that benefit the Parkland and CU community,” said Chelsea Birchmier, GEO Solidarity Committee Co-Chair.
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and a more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
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