The Alestle Vol. 74 No. 16

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LOCAL BAND PLANNING EP RELEASE page 4

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COUGAR BASKETBALL TO HAVE A BUSY SEASON page 7

vol. 74 no. 16

The Student Voice Since 1960

MLK celebration urges audience to act

News in brief ROTC Cadet club hosts fundraiser for cadet after shooting

taking capitol offense Several local organizations hosted a protest last Tuesday urging Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to resign. Hawley was the first U.S. senator to challenge the electoral college results, and is widely criticized for raising a fist in support of the protesters who stormed the Capitol building last week. I Khoi Pham / The Alestle

Student and faculty thoughts on riot DALTON BROWN copy editor

The world watched as the Capitol building was stormed, but not everyone saw the same thing — from historians to student protesters, here’s what some on campus thought about what unfolded in Washington, D.C. Matthew Petrocelli, professor of criminal justice studies, said he thinks President Donald Trump was responsible and should face the full extent of the law. “I think that any fair read-

ing of what [Trump] said and what he did there under the law qualifies as incitement, which is a crime,” Petrocelli said. “I mean if we don’t impeach a president of the United States for inciting an armed coup … what do we impeach a president for, then?” Sophomore political science major and president of Turning Point USA’s SIUE chapter Sophia Pritchett of Staunton, Illinois, said she thought the president chose his words poorly, but didn’t act maliciously. “I don’t necessarily think he incited violence, but he definitely could’ve worded stuff different-

ly,” Pritchett said. “Whether he would’ve prevented it, I’m not sure, because I think the people who did do that stuff on Capitol Hill were quite upset that he lost the election.” To stop Trump from calling for further unrest, Facebook and Twitter announced they would suspend him from their platforms indefinitely. History professor Bryan Jack said he thought these actions were too little, too late. “I think when he was continually putting out false information, especially on Twitter, that Twitter was marking as ‘disputed’ see CAPITOL on page 2

NICOLE BOYD copy editor

With the recent shooting of SIUE nursing student and ROTC cadet Moneer Damra, the ROTC Cadet Club is hosting a GoFundMe fundraiser titled “Do it like Damra.” These donations will help with the costs of his upcoming medical expenses and offset the costs of travel and lodging for his out of state family, according to the ROTC Facebook page. Their Facebook page also said Source Juicery will be donating $3 to the official GoFundMe page for every comment on their post. Damra was shot in the neck on Jan. 14 in what police believe to be a random act of gun violence and remains in critical condition. He continues to receive treatment for his injuries at a regional St. Louis hospital. For those who are coping with this recent event, SIUE’s Counseling Services can serve as a short-term option. For more information on the fundraiser, go to the ROTC Cadet Club Facebook and Instagram pages.

The Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion hosted a virtual event to celebrate Martin Luther King ,Jr. Day, during which speakers called out issues within SIUE and drew attention to King’s unpopularity during his lifetime. Assistant political science professor and keynote speaker Timothy Lewis said in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King told evangelical ministers and American citizens they were lying to themselves if they thought the legal system in America moved society toward justice. Lewis asked if Americans keep the same way of thinking today. “In this reflective, celebratory moment, honoring the titan of terminology himself, we need to ask ourselves the question, ‘Are we lying to ourselves?’ Because America’s so whitewashed by false notions of American exceptionalism that we cannot see the truth,” Lewis said. “Are we really claiming racial progress when blunt force has been the leading cause of death for Black people since the slave patrols? Are we really claiming racial equity when systemic racism allows hospitals to offer lower quality of care to Black people in the middle of a pandemic when Black people are dying at three times the rates of [white people]? Are we claiming a justice system when a Black woman can be shot to death in her bed and we charge the officer who shot the drywall, not the officer see MLK on page 8

New bill could eliminate Illinois cash bail system SIUE community reflects on to be incarcerated,” Criminal Jus- From the data we have right now JOHN MCGOWAN inauguration day, President tice Professor Kevin Cannon said. from the places that have done it, reporter Opponents of the bill have it’s promising,” Erwin said. Biden’s promises to the country A new Illinois bill, titled HB said safety issues may arise from Other changes brought along JOHN MCGOWAN KRISTINA JOHNSON reporters

Despite worries of a repeat of the storm on the Capitol, President Joe Biden was inaugurated Jan. 20. With his inauguration came promises to reunite a divided nation and undo many actions of the previous administration. Some people at SIUE are looking forward to a new start in 2021, starting with the inauguration of a new president. Senior Community Outreach Chair for College Democrats of SIUE Evan Senat, of Belleville, Illinois, said she is looking forward to what Biden’s administration has planned for the country. “I think he [President Biden] has enough of the world watching that everyone is holding him to a higher standard than they did Trump,” Senat said. “I really just hope he is taking that seriously, but I have hope that he is.” Senat said she and the rest of the College Democrats of SIUE

have very similar views on what they believe is important for the future of our country. “We as a group [College Democrats of SIUE] are very excited to have more distribution of vaccines in the near future, as well as having our country rejoin the Paris Climate agreement because climate change is a huge deal to our future as a country,” Senat said. Senat said the introduction of Vice President Kamala Harris as the first female vice president in U.S. history is a positive representation of the Black community. “I personally feel very strongly about everything that has happened this summer with the Black Lives Matter movement,” Senat said. “I do feel like since we have Kamala Harris as VP and she is a form of representation of the Black community, that’s going to benefit our fight in the long run as well.” After the riots in D.C., the see INAGURATION on page 2

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3653, was recently passed by the Illinois General Assembly. It aims to reform the criminal justice system by abolishing cash bail by 2023 — through the Pretrial Fairness Act — among other changes. It is now up to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign it into law. With these changes in effect, court judges would be unable to detain most people. According to the bill, “detention only shall be imposed when it is determined that the defendant poses a danger to a specific, identifiable person or persons, or has a high likelihood of willful flight.” This aspect of the bill is intended to combat discrimination. “The cash bail system has consistently been shown to create a disadvantage for those in the lower class economically, and being detained prior to trial has consistently been shown to increase the likelihood of being convicted of whatever offense you’re charged with — and then if you are convicted, it increases the likelihood that you are going

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fewer being detained. Cannon said evidence doesn’t point to that. “There have been plenty of studies that have shown that a person who is awaiting trial does not have a great likelihood of committing another offense before that trial, so the need to incarcerate them may not be there,” Cannon said. If the bill is signed by Pritzker, Illinois will be the second state to have passed reform at this level, following in the footsteps of New Jersey. After reform passed in 2017, New Jersey has seen a 20 percent decrease in its jail population. Social Work Professor Jennifer Erwin said this may be one of the first few steps of reform across the nation. “I think the more data we get that shows [passing reform does not lead to an increase in crime and people not showing up to court dates] the more likely other states are going to be to follow along — if the data shows that …

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by the bill are restrictions to violent police behavior like chokeholds, requiring police to wear body cameras, the ban of the purchase of certain types of military equipment by police departments and more rights for those detained. This new bill comes in the wake of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. According to Assistant Sociology Professor Ezra Temko, the bill wouldn’t have happened without them. “People might ask about ‘why did this happen now?’ I would just say that this is part of the context of the Black Lives Matter protests from this past summer, and this attention to racial justice that creates a more permeable status quo in terms of people being able to act and move forward with policies that in other environments may struggle a little bit more,” Temko said. Those interested in all the potential changes caused by the bill can read it on the Illinois General Assembly website.

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