Marching for workers and immigrant justice, the Cosecha May Day action was met with constant GRPD threats to arrest people

Editor’s note: As a matter of transparency, I was one of the police liaisons for the Cosecha May Day march.

Movimiento Cosecha kicked off their four day strike and boycott with their annual May Day march. The march began at Clemente Park in the southwest part of Grand Rapids, which is the heart of the Latino community.

As people began to slowly trickle in to the park, a group of 10 GRPD bike cops rode in and and positioned themselves across the street from Clemente Park. Several minutes later the two GRPD cops made their way over to the park, ignored the police liaison who attempted to speak with them, and came over to the park pavilion area to address those who came to support Cosecha. 

The GRPD then announced that they were there to clear a path for the march and make sure that our first amendment rights would be protected. Besides being a load of bullshit, this was meant to be a PR stunt for those who were present. A few minutes later they shared their real intention for being at the march, which was to threaten people with arrest. The GRPD cops told the police liaison that if anyone marched in the street they would be arrested. If the started in the street and moved to the sidewalk they would be arrested. If the march included a safety vehicle in the front or the rear of the march, the drivers would be arrested and their vehicle impounded.

Back at Clemente Park, Cosecha organizers providing a framework for why May 1st is an important day for both workers and immigrants alike. This was followed by a local Latino minister offering up prayers for safety and for justice. However, just before the march began, we founded out the legal observers who were present that the GRPD had pulled over the Cosecha vehicle and gave them a ticket for “excessive horn honking.” 

The marching finally got underway, with people walking on the sidewalk down Godfrey to Market Avenue. The GRPD bike cops followed along the route making sure that people did not walk on the street.

The marchers made their way to Wealthy Street and then crossed over US 131 on the Wealthy Street overpass. One thing about the GRPD’s threat of arrest against marching in the street is that they don’t realize that walking on the sidewalk stretches the march further then it would be if people were in the street. I say this only to point out that walking on the sidewalk actually disrupts traffic more, particularly at major intersections and the overpass roads. 

The Cosecha march arrived at the corner of Wealthy and Division, where people gathered in front of the Catholic Diocese building. There were a few speakers at this point, with the main speaker being from Cosecha. The immigrant-led organization chose to stop in front of the Catholic Diocese building to challenge them to take action in favor of immigrants and to publicly oppose the threat of mass deportation coming from the Trump Administration. After reading a statement, Cosecha organizers then took a copy of the statement, in both Spanish and English, and taped them to the front door of the Catholic Diocese building, Martin Luther-like.

At this point the plan was for people to use the crosswalks at the intersection of Wealthy and Division, starting on the east side of the intersection walking south, then cross Division going west, then cross Wealthy going north, etc. Again, since we were walking 2 or 3 abreast, marchers took a while to cross the intersection, which also disrupted traffic. However, those marching only crossed when there was a signal to walk, thus following the traffic signals.

At this point the GRPD were rather enraged at what was happening and they pulled both of the police liaisons off to the side to question them, using bike cops to kettle them from those participating in the march. We were told that we were being detained. Eventually, the police liaisons were let go and the march continued south along Division, then eventually made their way west on MLK Street, back over US 131, then jogging over to Rumsey Street and back to Clemente Park.

Cosecha organizers thanked everyone for coming, talked about the next several days of events/actions, along with announcing the upcoming Cosecha Assembly that will take place on May 16th in the evening at the Linc Up gallery near Hall and Madison SE. Check the Movimiento Cosecha GR Facebook page for updates on the May 16th Assembly, where information should be posted soon.