Deconstructing the Michigan State Police official statement on the death of Samuel Dajon Sterling 

Last Thursday, the Michigan State Police released an official statement regarding the killing of Samuel Dajon Sterling. Their statement is both infuriating and instructive, so I thought it would be useful to deconstruct the statement.

First, the headline of the statement reads – Fatal Officer-Involved Incident in Kentwood. This phrase, “officer-involved incident” is the police department’s way of attempting to control the narrative from the get go. Such a phrase signals a sense of neutrality, plus it avoids the harsh reality of what actually happened. 

The first section of the statement says: 

Yesterday, a member of our department was involved in an incident that ended with the loss of life. As an African American male and a father, it’s not lost on me that this is the death of another young African American male following an interaction with police. 

As the Director of the Michigan State Police, I want to assure the community that we see you, hear you and will thoroughly and expeditiously investigate the incident. 

The beginning of this statement is nothing short of virtue signally, since Col. James F. Grady II wants us to believe that he can relate to the death of Samuel Dajon Sterling. However, we shouldn’t buy this shallow sentiment, since it once again tries to control the narrative, but it also redirects our attention away from the fact that the Michigan State Police killed Samuel Dajon Sterling. In addition, the beginning of this statement does not present the facts of what happened. The Comrades Collective statement made it very clear about what happen. They began their recent statement by saying:

The Michigan State Police murdered Samuel Dajon Sterling by ramming him into a wall with an unmarked police cruiser. The Michigan State Police officer driving the car, then backed up, causing Samuel Dajon Sterling to slide under the car, then the cop ran over Samuel Dajon Sterling’s body again.

Next, when the cop statement says, “I want to assure the community that we see you, hear you and will thoroughly and expeditiously investigate the incident,” you know they are engaging is double speak. The police don’t ever hear or listen to the community, and they only time they see the community, especially the African American community, is as suspects and criminals. 

The next section of the Michigan State Police statement reads: 

A full investigation of yesterday’s incident is underway. The investigation, which is being conducted by investigators from a neighboring MSP district, will be thorough and objective. Our role is to be finders of fact and to compile those facts in an objective manner. 

What we know at this time is limited and still subject to change. There is much investigative work yet to be done and I ask that we let the investigation proceed before drawing any conclusions.

Ok, so how in the hell is it ok that the Michigan State Police is going to investigate themselves? Why is there no outside forensics or legal team that is tasked to do the investigation? When they say, “Our role is to be finders of fact and to compile those facts in an objective manner,” they are again engaging in double speak, since we all know that police departments get to decide what they consider to be facts and what is ignored.

In the third section of the Michigan State Police statement, they then present their reason for targeting Samuel Dajon Sterling. 

Our initial investigation shows that the MSP Sixth District Fugitive Team along with members of the Kentwood, Wyoming and Grand Rapids police departments, Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) and U.S. Marshals Service, were working a fugitive arrest operation in Kentwood yesterday in an attempt to locate and arrest Samuel Sterling, who was wanted on multiple warrants. 

Preliminary reports indicate officers observed Sterling at a gas station at 52nd Street and Eastern Avenue, putting air in a vehicle’s tires, and upon approaching him, he fled on foot. 

Several officers pursued him on foot, while one MSP officer in an unmarked vehicle drove parallel to him. They ended up converging in the parking lot of Burger King on Eastern Avenue, where the vehicle driven by the MSP member struck Sterling. 

The bulk of this section of the statement reveals the cops motives for wanting to arrest Samuel Dajon Sterling. First, this is the police version, which the news media has been reporting as fact. Second, why do you think an African American might want to flee when being confronted by cops? African Americans and other BIPOC communities are the target of police repression, which often results in death, so for Samuel Dajon Sterling to flee the scene was a reasonable course of action. Third, cops hate it when people don’t obey them. In this case, the Michigan State Police were so enraged that Samuel Dajon Sterling chose to flee, that they rammed him into a wall with a police cruiser, then backed up, then ran over his body.

The Michigan State Police statement concludes with these final two sentences: 

Emergency medical support was summoned to the scene and transported Sterling to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries and passed away.  

The MSP member driving the vehicle has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Michigan State Police statement does two things in their closing comments. First, by stating that emergency medical support was called, they want to demonstrate that they care about people. Maybe, just maybe they shouldn’t have rammed Samuel Dajon Sterling into a wall with their cruiser in the first place. He wasn’t armed and was not a threat to anyone. Secondly, they are attempting to say that there are some consequences for the cop who was driving the car that rammed Samuel Dajon Sterling into a wall. The cop who is temporarily suspended will probably still receive pay. This is NOT a consequence, this is a weak attempt at throwing a bone to the community who is outraged and traumatized over the murder of Samuel Dajon Sterling. 

Ultimately, the statement released by the Michigan State Police was nothing more than an attempt to divert the community’s attention. The statement engages in virtual signally and double speak, while justifying the involvement of 5 separate law enforcement agencies to arrest someone they had warrants on, only to end up killing Samuel Dajon Sterling. In the end, nothing will fundamentally be done about the fact that another Black man has been killed by the police, especially since police killing of Black people is now the norm. The only way to not normalize the police killing of Black people is to build a movement to defund the police and invest in BIPOC communities.