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An Iowa City councilmember is calling on her colleagues to have a meaningful discussion around abolishing the police, as the city reviews recommendations for restructuring its police department.
An Iowa City councilmember is calling on her colleagues to have a serious discussion about abolishing the police, as part of the city’s efforts to restructure its police force. Councilmember Laura Bergus made her case in an opinion piece published in the Cedar Rapids
Gazette on Sunday.
In her piece, Bergus says the time has come for police abolition to be on the table as a matter of policy discussion, arguing that modern policing is “premised on dominance by force,” and that it leaves many feeling unsafe, with Black and brown people disproportionately feeling the negative, and at times deadly, impacts.
We need to talk about abolishing the police in Iowa City thegazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thegazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Iowa City Council signaled its support this week for an ordinance that would give citizens a longer window in which to file allegations of police misconduct.
It s part of a larger effort to increase civilian oversight of the Iowa City Police Department that came out of a resolution last June intended to address systemic racism.
On Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved the initial reading of a proposal that would double the time from 90 days to 180 days that someone has to file a complaint about an incident involving police. A complainant also would now have 21 days to respond to the police chief s review of the incident, which was not previously permitted. The chief would have seven days to follow up on that response.
When the community in question has a population of just more than 2,000, the turnout is even more impressive. That’s the track Peosta is on these days, and there are good things coming the way of this growing Dubuque County town.
Peosta caught statewide attention following the 2000 Census when it was deemed to be Iowa’s fastest-growing city. In 1990, Peosta had no more than 130 people - just 30 years ago. By 2000, it had jumped to more than 1,000. Twenty years later, that population has doubled, and the vibrancy of the community is obvious.
Developers are doubling down on that anticipated growth and community engagement with several new projects in the works. Construction kicked off recently to transform a vacant lot on the west end of the Northeast Iowa Community College campus into a four-story complex that will house about 190 students. The $14 million project is expected to be completed in August 2022.
Iowa Freedom Riders forms People s Truth & Reckoning Commission press-citizen.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from press-citizen.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.