BUZZ MUSIC GUIDE SEE INSERT
THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY March 29, 2021
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
CU addresses surge in anti-Asian hate
Vol. 150 Issue 44
Students vote on UI Police reallocation cer told us, he told us that he could locate us at any time and that ‘If you make me mad, I can come find you.” Birchmier also said that this officer was charged with sexual assault on several occasions and had been suspended for these cases from 2015 to 2018. The officer wasn’t suspended a f ter the first few offenses due to the protection of the Police Union, an organization that protects police officers from being penalized for misconduct, according to Birchmier. Birchmier says this was one of the ma ny reasons as to why the police are shielded from consequences. According to the Illinois Crimina l Justice Information Authorit y Research Hub, 7% to 10% of police-citizen interactions involve a citizen with a mental health disorder, and that these officers are 1.4 to 4.5 times more likely to use force during these interactions. “ W hen we were looking at the repor ts of UIPD arrests and tickets, we were constantly asking Chief Alice Kerry and other officers if the Black population is only 5.7%, why are they making up 42.6% of the UIPD arrests and tickets?” said Becca Maree, University alum and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations staff member. “I do really feel there is an unfortunate issue going on with the mental health services,” Sean Jung, senior in LAS, said. “It does not have adequate funding and I have first hand felt that.” A lthough Jung recog-
BY NESHMIA MALIK STAFF WRITER
RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI
Students gather and light candles to commemorate the people whose lives were taken on Friday. Students of all different races gather to support each other. BY ALIZA MAJID ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
With the recent shooting in Atlanta that occurred on March 16, an outcry arose regarding the rise in antiAsian hate gaining attention throughout the country. The Atlanta attack has launched protests against the rise of anti-Asian hate because the shooter specifically targeted Asianrun spas with the intent to kill and claimed the lives of six women of Asian descent. The increasing hate crimes committed against Asian Americans have only heightened in the past year or so, and people are discussing how to address this issue on campus. “People have become emboldened by racist rhetoric and use of ‘China virus’ or ‘Kung flu’ to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic;
many people believe this has fueled anti-Asian prejudice and bias this past year, said David Chih, the director of the Asian American Cultural Center. “However, anti-Asian xenophobia and scapegoating certainly is not new.” A summary released by the Stop Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Hate group reported around 3,800 hate crimes from March 19, 2020 to Feb. 8. According to the report, there has been a surge in Asian American discrimination throughout the duration of the pandemic. These numbers are just a small fraction of the racial discrimination people have gone through since the pandemic has started. Asian American students on campus have had
different experiences and reactions to these acts of discrimination. “My initial response was just fear, not necessarily anger,” said Kathy Vo, the president of the Asian A merican Association chapter on campus. “That definitely came afterward, but I think my initial response was definitely fear, and I immediately texted my family members just to get a second reassurance that they were alright.” A study conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism has found that anti-Asian hate crimes have skyrocketed by 149% in 2020 due to the rise of negativity towards Asians once the pandemic began. The attack in Atlanta in particular has amplified the issue of anti-Asian rhetoric in the country. Many people
have highlighted how scared they are to go in public in fear of being harassed. “I walk around and I still feel like I’m not a true citizen during quarantine times,” Vo said. “I was born here . . . down to my core, I’m American, but during quarantine, I walked up and down Green Street and I just feel like I’m being singled out,” Vo said. In order to address this issue regarding anti-Asian hate within the ChampaignUrbana area, various groups have organized rallies and vigils to show solidarity for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. The #StopAsianHate Rally has been organized by the Champaign-Urbana chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice to take place SEE SURGE | 3A
Download our app!
This past week, students had the opportunity to vote for or against the 25% reallocation of the University of Illinois Police Department’s budget towards resources for the community, students and staff. This referendum was propagated by Def und UIPD, an organization on campus that dedicates its efforts to pushing the redistribution of money from UIPD to the local community and campus necessities. According to a survey put out by Graduate Employees’ Organization and Defund UIPD, about two million dollars are allocated towards campus mental health resources, while about eight million are dedicated toward the police department. This same survey was used to see what students wanted to see more funding in. “It would be great if we could have a referendum that lets us choose where that money goes,” said Drake Materre, University alum and member of the Black Students for Revolution. “We know that is a lofty goal but 25%, two million dollars, that can create community across campus itself because it discusses what all our different students want,” A nother reason that this reallocation is being pushed forward is due to reported misconduct by police officers on campus. C hel s e a Bi r c h m ier, graduate student in LAS, mentioned her experiences taking a required training with a UIPD police officer. “Among many problematic things that this offi-
SEE REALLOCATION | 3A
City of Champaign enforces parking restrictions on Green Street CAMPUSTOWN LOADING AND DELIVERY PARKING OPTIONS
CORRIDOR NO PARKING
SIXTH ST
NO PARKING
WRIGHT ST
STREET
WRIGHT ST
GREEN NO PARKING
SIXTH ST
FIFTH ST
FOURTH ST
HEALEY ST
commercial loading zones Available for trucks and vehicles for food delivery
bagged meters
Available for vehicles for food delivery **Vehicles must be commercially signed**
JOHN ST Source: City of Champaign
JONAH OZER THE DAILY ILLINI
lane of Green Street, in an effort to end the increase A little over a month in illegal parking in Chamago, temporary barricades paign. Now, public offiappeared along the center cials indicate that more BY GEORGE PHELAN STAFF WRITER
permanent solutions will be implemented in order to prevent center lane parking. While the issue of illegal parking on Green Street is nothing new, the increase in delivery orders prompted by the pandemic increased the frequency of centerlane parking, according to Kris Koester, information officer for public works at the City of Champaign. “We’ve seen more delivery activities happening, and instead of using the side streets where there’s loading zones, they would just leave their vehicles in the middle of Green Street,” Koester said. This increase in centerlane parking is not only dangerous because the Green Street center lane’s primary function is strictly for emergency vehicles in
heavy traffic, but it’s also dangerous for drivers and pedestrians, according to Koester. “We’ve witnessed nearpedestrian vehicle accidents, as someone has tried to take off from the center turn lane and not seen a person walking in front of them,” Koester said. “We had one delivery vehicle parked in the center turn lane who opened their driver side door just as a plow was coming through to plow snow off the street.” Alongside the physical lane closure, Champaign also expanded the options for delivery drivers to park on side streets. “We went ahead and designated some individual parking spots as food delivery pickup spots so that smaller vehicles could use those metered spots,”
Koester said. This is to leave loading zone areas open for larger delivery vehicles. Ömer Ece, sophomore in LAS who works as a delivery driver for DoorDash, commented on the importance of Green Street to his work. “Green Street is really useful because it’s right by the apartments and frats or wherever I need to deliver to,” Ece said. The new center lane closure, however, creates an additional delay in a job where time is literally money. “I don’t want to do delivery on Green, because it takes up a lot of time to try and find a place to park and then wait,” Ece said. “It increases a lot of walking distance to park and then go to the restaurant.”
While Green Street is still a valuable place for deliveries, Ece says that the center lane closure makes it more difficult to run deliveries there compared to other locations around town. With regard to the more permanent plan for lane closure, Koester said that Champaign intends to introduce “stick delineators” to replace the barricades. A small round tube affixed to the ground of the center lane, the delineator will be easier for emergency vehicles to bypass them while also deterring nonessential vehicles from parking in the area. These delineators will also be labeled so that they will more clearly “define what that center lane is used for,” Koester said. georgep2@dailyillini.com
You’re here every day for Thai, you might as well live here. DAILYILLINI, DAILYILLINISPORTS
INSIDE
Police
2A
@THEDAILYILLINI, @DI_OPINION, @DI_SPORTS |
Life
&
Culture
4A
|
Crossword
5A
THEDAILYILLINI |
Opinions
6A
@THEDAILYILLINI |
Letters
6A
|
Sports
THEDAILYILLINI
THEDAILYILLINI
1B
4B
|
Classifieds
|
Sudoku
THEDAILYILLINI 4B
|
buzz
6B