CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The Champaign County Bailout Coalition is kicking off a call-in campaign today aimed at persuading Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Reitz to drop all charges against those who were arrested during protests on May 31.

A press release from CCBC says most of the arrestees were black and were held in crowded cells without proper PPE. The release says the bonds are out of proportion with the charges the people arrested between May 31 and June 1 are currently facing.

This call-in campaign follows CCBC’s June 4th mass bailout, which posted more than $46,000 in bonds for 16 protestors who were unable to cover the Champaign County courts’ high bail amounts. CCBC was able to pay for the release of every protester remaining in the jail thanks to a sizable donation from Chicago Community Bond Fund and intensified grassroots community support. 

“CCBC paid the bonds for impoverished protesters because jail is the worst place a person can be,” said CCBC member John Milano in the release. “Now we’re demanding that their charges be dropped because the court’s draconian punishments are further attacks on Black people in our community.”

In addition to calls to drop the charges against the CU protesters, CCBC is demanding that local officials defund the CU police. This demand follows the April 10th assault by Urbana Police against 21-year-old Aleyah Lewis and the growing support nationwide to reallocate law enforcement funding toward community-based services. CCBC’s demand resonates with Champaign-Urbana community members’ concerns and suggestions around police violence and community safety, which they have been expressing at county board and city council meetings for weeks, with little acknowledgement or accountability from the councils and police chief.

“Defund, divest, disarm police — those are first steps toward investing in the success of Black people in Champaign-Urbana,” Phillip Ernstmeyer, a volunteer with CCBC, said in the release. “Making support for one another the highest priority gets us closer to a world without anti-Black violence. Demanding justice for the CU protesters is one form of that support.”