Countering the GRPD narrative: An eyewitness account of what the GRPD did in downtown Grand Rapids on March 15th

On March 18, I posted a piece regarding the GRPD controlled narrative about what happened in downtown Grand Rapids, where cops were use pepper ball guns to break up crowds after an event.

In that post I wrote: 

In the end, the GRPD used this incident as an opportunity to both control and re-direct the narrative about what happened, taking no responsibility for their use of force, all the while claiming that they have regained the community’s trust. This is yet another example of how Police Chief Eric Winstrom deliberately lies about how the GRPD functions, especially in Black and Brown communities.

Since then, someone has reached out to me with their own narrative and videos, which I want to share here. In a time when the GRPD is claiming that they have the trust of the community, it is vitally important that we provide a counter-narrative to these claims.

“Around 10pm I noticed more activity than usual on the corner of Commerce and Oakes while looking out my window. I’m used to living downtown, and there’s concerts, events, etc. on the weekends, so I assumed there was a concert or event.  Around 11pm, I went to bed. I woke up around 1:30am and noticed a huge crowd outside. I stayed awake until 2:00am scrolling on my phone and noticed loud music and a bigger crowd outside when I looked out my window, I saw tons of people on the sidewalks, and a lot of cool cars coming and going. I’ve seen car shows downtown before, where people would peel our or do donuts in fast sports cars, this was not the case tonight. The cars would just pull to a curb and leave answer a few minutes. 

I became curious and went outside to grab my e-cig from my car in a parking lot across from my apartment building, I stood outside for a bit to take in all the social activity. I saw some pushing and shoving on the northwest corner of Commerce and Oakes, people remained calm and slowly left that area, cars started leaving the area as well.

I went back up to my apartment to observe from my window which was facing Eastward of Commerce Street south of Oakes and noticed a single cop car with its lights on only driving southbound on commerce, north of Oakes. I didn’t see the interaction between that car and the fight, during that time I went to take up my partner to witness with me. I came back to the window and saw cop cars in a V formation driving northbound up commerce, South of Oakes St. Within seconds cop cars came from east and west of Oakes and southbound on commerce, blocking the intersection. Again the crowd remained calm but people slowly fled the intersection. A cop SUV car advanced into the intersection, simultaneously I noticed cops walking and running to the intersection. A man was arrested by a cop and shoved into that same SUV cop car, the cops then dispersed down each street from the center of the intersection, again, everyone was leaving calmly and peacefully. 

I then witnessed a few cops walking south down commerce of Oakes with what appeared to be weapons, people were calmly leaving the area still, what I witness next was and sort of weapon discharging towards the crowd that was walking southbound down commerce.

All in all it was a peaceful gathering with a single fight that broke out that most people ignored and fled from. The police came in slowly on the gathering from all streets to box in the intersection and then began aggressing the crowd, it was very distressing to watch the GRPD violently aggress a peaceful gathering. I recorded as much as I could to support this narrative. 

In one video you can hear me telling my partner to keep the camera on the cops when I noticed they had weapons, and the videos clearly show people dispersing peacefully, and the cops aggressing random ass people for no reason at all.”