West Michigan Far Right Watch for August 22 – 28

Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.

Last Saturday, there was a Solidarity Action in Grand Rapids, where those in support of Black Lives were confronted by a QAnon group claiming to care about the lives of children who are being tafficked. We did an interview with an organizer who talked about their encounter with members of this far right group, along with threats from the GRPD. 

The Acton Institute made our list for the second week, with another article from their Executive Editor, the Rev. Ben Johnson, talking about 5 insights from the first night of the Republican National Convention. The 5 insights are reflective of the ideological positions of the Acton Institute, which included: 

• Christianity and socialism are incompatible.
• Medical innovation saves lives; socialized medicine kills.
• Teachers unions put their members’ interests above children.
• The American Dream is alive and well for the black community.
• The American Dream is indispensable for the rest of the world.

Clearly, the Acton Institute has an extremely different view of the world, but these 5 insights are completely in line with their mission.

Lastly, Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack posted a screen shot of a message from an officer in the Grand Rapids Police Department, a message you can see here on the right.

The Grand Rapids Police Department also posted the following on their Facebook page, dated August 25: 

On Sunday, August 23, a social media post attributed to one of our police officers was forwarded to our Police Department and Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. This matter is now under investigation.  As such, no further comment can be made regarding this matter at this time.

As of this writing, there is still no word on what action, if any, the GRPD has taken on this cops social media posting. What is instructive, are the comments that accompanied the GRPD social media post, which reflects how deeply entrenched White Supremacy is in West Michigan.