While well intentioned, MLive editorial is decades late and still relies heavily on the GRPD for reporting on Public Safety
On Thursday, MLive posted a Letter from the Editor, entitled, When we cover ‘public safety’ rather than ‘crime,’ we give a more accurate picture of our communities.
While I appreciate the sentiment, the Letter from the Editor is deeply problematic and reflects the fact that, like most commercial news media, they internalize the necessity of Police Departments. Let’s talk first about what is problematic in this post, then we can talk about what is missing.
First, the image that the MLive Letter from the Editor is deeply problematic and sensationalizes existing tensions in the Grand Rapids community. The image they used is June 10, where Justice4Patrick activists are seen confronting supporters of Christopher Schurr, the cop that shot and killed Patrick Lyoya on April 4. The setting in the Kent County courthouse, where we see the faces of Black activists, but only the back of a few white police supporters. The photo caption says (in part), “Supporters for Patrick Lyoya exchange words with supporters for Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr inside a hallway after Schurr was arraigned at the Kent County Courthouse.” The context is very limited, thus failing to honestly reflect the reality between how Black activists who have been deeply wounded and outraged by the murder of Patrick Lyoya, and the supporters of Christopher Schurr, which was an overwhelmingly white group that were there to offer support to the cop who killed Patrick Lyoya, but no sympathy for the grieving supporters of young Congolese man that Schurr had murdered.
Second, the Letter from the Editor begins by saying that they cover crime differently now, ever since the George Floyd protests in 2020. This is an admission that for decades prior to May 2020, MLive and the Grand Rapids Press had failed the public miserably when it came to reporting on crime and public safety. In the second paragraph, the writer confessed that, “In July 2020 I announced in a column that MLive was curtailing its routine use of police mugshots in crime stories. That column was my most-read ever and provoked an avalanche of reader emails questioning or supporting the decision.” Therefore, the person who glibly used to cover crimes stories by posting mug shots, is only recently willing to shift his reporting from crime to public safety.
Third, the MLive post then makes an important statement, by writing:
That change was just one facet of evolution of thought and practice within MLive, and journalism as a whole. What crime is covered and how it is presented creates perceptions, can perpetuate stereotypes about marginalized people or communities, and reflects power dynamics involving institutions like police agencies, prosecutors and courts.
Yes, it is about power dynamics from police departments and other institutions that make up the Prison Industrial Complex. However, after this important statement, the post then falls apart, since the MLive writer supports his position by talking about how well MLive has done on reporting since Patrick Lyoya was killed by the GRPD on April 4th. This is interesting, especially since we have written 10 Local News Dissection articles related to the Patrick Lyoya case, specifically because the reporting has been biased and just flat out bad. One article the writer highlights is the profile piece they did on Christopher Schurr, which we responded to. Our response was basically arguing that the MLive profile piece on Schurr not only normalizes White Supremacy, it perpetuates White Saviorism.
Fourth, the rest of the Letter from the Editor, primarily talks about workshops and trainings that some of the MLive journalist have attended, but it is also self-congratulatory with comments like this:
“Public safety’ provides a more holistic look at the criminal justice system, which goes from when the crime was committed to the police to the prosecutor’s office to the judges and all those support systems that exist to help people as they leave prison and reintegrate into society.”
Again, while this is an improvement, it is decades late and it is still limiting, since MLive still sees crime, public safety and violence in very narrow terms. Rarely is there any reporting on corporate or white collar crimes in Grand Rapids, plus the never acknowledge the structural violence that exists, which is way more insidious than the street level violence. For example, Structural Violence can easily be seen in how inadequate most people’s wages are in this society. If people are unable to make a living wage, this is no fault of their own, thus they are forced to live with the structural violence of poverty.
Lastly, MLive, like all of the other commercial news outlets in Grand Rapids, still rely too heavily on the GRPD has the primary source on crime and violence. Not only do they rely on the GRPD as a news source, they rarely question the information or commentary that the Grand Rapids Police Department provides. In just one example, we dissect how the local news often ends up re-printing GRPD Press Releases as news, as they did in early January of 2022.
What the MLive Letter from the Editorial is missing
For years there has been a push to shift from reporting as stenography to investigative and community-based reporting. In addition, good reporters will recognize that there are numerous factors that impact issues like crime, such as political, economic, social and cultural factors that must be taken into account if we are to better understand what causes violence and crime, along with who benefits from it. It’s not enough to simply report that a man raped a woman somewhere in the city, which does provide people with some potentially valuable information to keep themselves safe. However, unless we come to terms with the larger factors that contribute to the normalization of male violence against women – how men are socialized to think about women and women’s bodies, the hyper-sexualization of women’s bodies, how misogyny is embedded in our institutions, etc -, just reporting the facts about a specific case are inadequate.
In Zach Morris’s book, We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just and Inclusive Communities, he acknowledges that we live in a failed state. What Morris means by a failed state, is that too many people do not have their basic human needs met – housing, health care, food, transportation, child care, employment/wages. The result is the Prison Industrial Complex, the War on Drugs, Gentrification, a health care system based on profits over human needs, a dysfunctional transportation system and employment that is based on exploitation.
What We Keep Us Safe advocates, in the face of a failed state, is a care-based strategy for public safety that overturns more than 200 years of fear-based discrimination, othering, and punishment. In addition, the book:
“We Keep Us Safe is a blueprint of how to hold people accountable while still holding them in community. The result reinstates full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized so they can participate fully in life, in society, and in the fabric of our democracy.”
Lastly, I think it is worth quoting from the final page of the book, We Keep Us Safe:
“Real safety happens when we bridge the divides and build relationships with each other, overcoming suspicion and distrust. Real safety comes from strategic, smart investment – meaning resources directed towards our stability and well-being. Real safety addresses harms that the current system is failing to tackle, and holds people accountable for those harms while still holding them in community. Real safety results from reinstating full humanity and agency for everyone who has been dehumanized and traumatized, so they can participate fully in society. If we are able to transform our old system and create a culture of caring and healing in its place, we may have an actual shot at creating real democracy for the first time.”
If the MLive writer of the Letter from the Editor is serious about fundamental changes to how journalism is done, then they will need to radically alter how they view public and community safety. This ultimately means they will have to come to terms with the systems of power and oppression in Grand Rapids that are often completely ignored when talking about crime and public safety.
Last month, we posted an article looking at the policy platforms of the candidates for State Senate that were on the ballot for the upcoming 2022 Elections.
We noted that most of the candidates had very limited information about public policy issues, often used vague language for what they stood for and often said things like, “I am running to bring back Michigan Values.” I’m not sure what “Michigan Values” means, but if we look at the history of Michigan, one could say that the values of this state are rooted in Settler Colonialism, theft of land from Indigenous people, systemic racism directed at Black and other BIPOC communities, and giving too much power to corporations and members of the Capitalist Class.
During the next week or so, we will be posting information on the most recent campaign finance data on these same candidates and races for various offices, particularly regarding candidates that are on the ballot for 2022. Today, we will look at campaign finance data for the State Senate races.
Campaign finances can tell you are great deal about who is backing a candidate, who is buying access and who wants to influence public policy if the candidate they are contributing to ends up winning. Campaign finances have always been a tool for the wealthiest members of the Capitalist Class to control the outcome of elections in the US.
In addition, we must always keep in mind that no matter how much money members of the Capitalist Class, political action committees or corporations contribute, it is “protected speech.” This reality underscores one of the fundamental contradictions of US democracy, which is – the more money you contribute, the more protected speech you have. This is just one major flaw of the US electoral process, what Sheldon Wolin dissects in his book, Democracy Inc.: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Wolin provides us with critically important analysis about money in US elections, which ultimately makes a mockery out of the notion of free and fair elections.
Each candidate is hyperlinked to the Secretary of State’s Campaign Finance Data page.
18th District State Senate Race
Thomas Albert (R)
Michigan Laborers Political League $21,000
Several GOP Funding sources, like the Michigan Values Leadership Fund
Self-funding through the Albert Majority Fund
Realtors PAC $8,500
MI Beer & Wine Wholesalers $4,000
DTE $2,500
Nancy Kennedy $2,100
John Kennedy $2,100
Michael Jondernoa $2,000
GR Chamber of Commerce $1,500
Mark Murray $1,000
$0 funds raised
Kai W. Degraaf (D)
$0 funds raised
20th District State Senate Race
Aric Nesbitt (R)
Small Biz PAC $5,000
Michigan Farm Bureau $3,650
GR Chamber PAC $1,000
Michael Jandernoa $1,000
Susan Jandernoa $1,000
Kim Jorgensen Gane (D)
Primarily self-Financed, with a few other large donors
29th District State Senate Race
Tommy Brann (R)
Self-financed $103,750
Michigan Farm Bureau $3,000
Daniel Hibma $2,100
JC Huizenga $2,100
GR Chamber PAC $1,000
MI State Police Troopers PAC $1,000
Mark Murray $1,000
GR Rental Property Owners PAC $500
Winnie Brinks (D)
Teamsters $12,000
MI Regional Council of Carpenters $10,000
MI Beer & Wine Wholesalers Ass. $6,000
GR Firefighters PAC $5,500
MI Credit Union League $4,500
Blue Cross/Blue Shied of MI $3,500
MI Education Association PAC $3,000
Realtors Political Action Cmte $1,600
Home Depot PAC $1,500
GR Chamber $1,350
30th District State Senate Race
David LaGrand (D)
GR Firefighters PAC $12,694
Brinks for MI $10,000
PAC for America’s Future (DC-based) $10,000 https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/future-now-fund/C00654053/summary/2022
MI Regional Council of Carpenters $10,000
MI Education Association $5,000
Stephanies Changemaker Fund $5,000
MI League of Conservation Voters $2,000
Mike Kolehouse $1,000
John Hunting $1,000
Mark Huizenga (R)
Nesbit Majority Fund $14,500
Realtors PAC $12,500
MI Beer & Wine Wholesalers $6,500
GR Chamber PAC $2,300
Nancy Kennedy $2,100
Susan Jandernoa $2,000
Amy Van Andel $2,100
Stephen Van Andel $2,100
Marcia Tubergen $1,500
MI State Police Trooper PAC $1,500
Mark Murray $1,000
GR Rental Property Owners PAC $1,000
Keith Hinkle (R)
Only 10 contributors
33rd District State Senate Race
Mark Bignell (D)
Only 24 contributors, some self-financing
Rick Outman (R)
Health Care Ass. Of MI PAC $8,000
Delta PAC $7,000
Realtors PAC $6,750
MI Petrolium PAC $3,250
Auto Dealers of MI PAC $3,000
JC Huizenga $2,000
Realtors PAC $1,750
MI StateTroopers PAC $1,000
There are several patterns one can see, with large contributions coming from both corporate PACs, Labor PACs, other candidate PACs and a fair amount of self-financing.
There were also numerous members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure making contributions, such as John and Nancy Kennedy, Michael and Susan Jandernoa, Stephen and Amy Van Andel, JC Huizenga, Mark Murray and Marcia Tubergen. In addition, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce made numerous contributions, and not always to Republicans, as in the case of Winnie Brinks.
There were also contributions from PACs that represent hot button issues like policing, with the MI State Trooper PAC making contributions to three GOP candidates, along with the Realtors PAC and Rental Property Owners PAC, since housing is also a critical issue. Again, Winnie Brink received funding from Realtors PAC.
Lastly, there were also candidate that either had most of their funding through self-financing, others with very few contributors and still others will no funding raising at all.
This week we have been posting a series of articles on the 55th anniversary of the riot/uprising in Grand Rapids, which took place from July 25th through the 27th in 1967. Most of the content for these articles is from pervious postings on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, in the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Struggle section. I am interested in this history for several reasons, but mostly because of what we can learn from the past and how it can impact the present and the future.
In Part I, we looked at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. In Part II, we looked at the coverage from WOOD TV8. Part III was a look at the imagery of the 1967 riot in what we are calling Cops, Property and the White Gaze. In Part IV, we looked at a report the City of Grand Rapids produced just after the 1967 riot, called Anatomy of a Riot. In today’s post, which is the last in the series, we look at MLive reporting on the 50th anniversary of the 1967riot, along with what has happened since.
In 2017, on the 50th anniversary of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids, this is what we wrote:
Over the past few days, MLive has been running a series of articles about the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. Next week is the 50th anniversary of the 3 day riot that took place and MLive has been posting several stories, lots of photos and video about the 1967 riot.
There have been some positive aspects of what MLive reporters have done in this series, especially the interviews with members of the African American community that witnessed the 67 riot or those who have researched it.
However, there are also many problems with the MLive series on the 1967 riot. We want to address what is problematic about the coverage and why their reporting perpetuates a tremendous amount of misinformation about what took place in July of 1967.
No Ownership on the part of the GR Press and its role in the reporting in 1967
It is vitally important for us to think about the events 50 years ago in Grand Rapids, to come to terms with its significance, and how the dominant narratives around the 67 riot impact us today.
The Grand Rapids People’s History Project has assembled all the articles and the editorials from the Grand Rapids Press during the 3-day riot in 1967. The articles are in order of appearance between July 25 and July 27.
One thing that is apparent in the Press headlines is how the riot is framed. The riot is framed as violence and the response from the City of Grand Rapids is presented as keeping the peace. This is to be expected, since the dominant narratives about riots affirms the idea that riots are an attack on the social order of the day.
However, as Dr. King so eloquently put it, riots are the “language of the unheard.” In addition, riots are a response to the structural and daily violence imposed by the systems of capitalism and white supremacy on communities of color. Structural violence is the daily oppression that communities of color experience in the form of poverty, lack of adequate housing, poor health care, lack of educational opportunities and environmental racism.
MLive and the continuance of the dominant, white supremacist narrative
Fifty years later and the major daily news source in Grand Rapids is continuing to perpetuate the dominate narrative, which is to say a white supremacist narrative.
The first article in the series is entitled, Grand Rapids 67 riot: when anger, oppression erupted into ‘chaos.’ There are dozens of accompanying photos that solidify the dominant narrative, showing white cops arresting or detaining black suspects.
Several of the African Americans interview for this MLive article do offer some insight into the conditions that the black community were subjected to, but the MLive article also sought to convey the message that things are better now. Things are better now based on what Mayor Bliss is doing with the racial equity initiative, what the Chief of Police is doing with community relations, what data the City Manager has looked at and what an employee of Start Garden has to say about bringing economic development to communities of color. The MLive writer does not investigate any of the claims made by those who believe that things are better now and there is no evidence to support such a claim.
In addition, there is a video that MLive put together, which through the use of archival photos and text essentially affirms what was said in the article. There is some acknowledgement that inequality exists, but that city leaders are “now addressing issues of racial inequity head-on.” Again, no evidence is provided to show how racial inequity is being addressed in concrete terms.
A second article in the series is made up of interviews with five African Americans and two white people who were living in Grand Rapids at the time. I can appreciate the attempt to make these voices public, but there is little historical context to what was shared by these seven people.
A third article in the MLive series looks at how Division Avenue in Grand Rapids has never recovered from the 1967 riot. A variety of people are interviewed, historians, business people and the Grand Rapids Chief of Police. There is some acknowledgement of white flight and disinvestment in the southeast part of Grand Rapids, but there is no acknowledgement of the current gentrification that is happening in and around the area most impacted by the riot in 67. Instead, employees of DeVos-owned entity Start Garden, “are focused on redeveloping Grand Rapids at the micro level by helping small businesses and startups.”
A fourth article in the series makes the claim that the city is doing what it can to address racial inequity. The MLive article gives voice to Police Chief Rahinsky, City Manager Greg Sundstrom and Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss. Of the three, Sundstrom is more honest about the challenges, saying that he didn’t think the problems from 1967 are getting any better today. However, both Rahinsky and Bliss make the claim that the city is addressing these problems and is making headway.
What is problematic about Chief Rahnisky’s claims that the City has been aggressive in finding solutions since the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, is that many in the African American community don’t believe that the city has really done anything to address inequity. In fact, as many in the African American community have been pointing out, the city leadership and the police department continue to downplay the urgency surrounding the numerous and recent incidents of violence by the GRPD.
In addition, the city has failed to take serious the black community’s word on racial profiling by the GRPD, especially motorists. This became evident recently, since the city paid thousands to conduct a traffic study, wherein the results were a confirmation of what the black community has been saying for years.
The current affordable housing crisis and the growing gap between the rich and the poor in Grand Rapids are also evidence that the city is not any closer to achieving racial and economic equity in the past 50 years. The movement by white people back to the urban core areas of Grand Rapids and the re-investment to those areas not only makes rent higher for thousands, it displaces communities of color at a disproportionately high rate.
The City of Grand Rapids needs to take seriously the platform of the Movement for Black Lives, which has laid out an ambitious and just vision for how to achieve justice, which are laid out here. However, I don’t think people should expect the city to embrace such a vision. What will likely happen is what has always happened is for African Americans to take matters into their own hands and challenge this system of white supremacy and managerial racism in Grand Rapids. How they chose to do it is another matter, but it seems that the current state of emergency might call for another uprising, like in 1967.
The 2020 Uprising in Grand Rapids
No one could have predicted that the police murder of George Floyd would have sparked a national uprising against the oppressive way that policing in done in this country. The uprising not only mobilized millions, it brought with it a deeper analysis of the Prison Industrial Complex, an analysis that came out of the work that Black writers and organizers had been doing for decades, which was rooted in an abolitionist perspective. With this abolitionist framework, the Movement for Black Lives was also calling for the Defunding of the Police across the country.
The Grand Rapids commercial news media again, demonstrated their allegiance to centers of power and systems of oppression, by relying primarily on the voices of City officials and business owners in downtown Grand Rapids. GRIID conducted a 5 day study of the local news coverage just after the May 30th uprising, which we wrote about on June 5th.
The sources cited from each commercial news source, also indicates which voices were centered in the coverage of the protests and government response over the 5 day study period. Government and police voices are the most dominant, with business and clean up voices combined taking up the next most space, with protesters being the least important. In addition, the protester voices that did appear in the commercial news sources we documented, were voices that were primarily after the uprising/riot took place, always with the news media framing these protest voices as “peaceful” and almost completely avoiding the larger structural issue of White Supremacy. What should have been an opportunity to amplify black voices, resulted in the same voices that are always centered – state voice, business voices and cop voices.
Internalizing the values of the System
This brings us to the larger issue of how these news stories were collectively framed. Media framing is often described as the angle or perspective from which a news story is told. While news is often thought to be objective and value free this is rarely if ever the case. In fact, what media researchers have been saying for decades is that commercial news sources tend to internalize the over-arching values of the dominant culture and the larger systems of society, which are fundamentally systems of oppression.
This means that the coverage of what took place in Grand Rapids since last Saturday, was framed through the dominant social, cultural and political values. For example, protesting can only be viewed through the lens of peaceful or non-confrontational, when in fact a great deal of public dissent and protest has been very confrontational throughout US history and often operates outside of the legal framework – civil disobedience, insurrection, uprisings, strikes and occupations are all part of how people have protested/dissented. Therefore, to create the good/bad protester framework in just dishonest.
Another major value that the commercial news media has internalized, is the fact that they rarely recognize structural violence or structural looting. Every day in Grand Rapids, black people are are subjected to poverty, police harassment/intimidation, limited resources, limited choices, redlining and gentrification, yet these issues are rarely acknowledged. Therefore, when people rise up and demonstrate their collective anger and pain, the commercial news media sees vandalism and disrespect for the law, when in fact what is often happening is a collective response to the the oppression of White Supremacy, Capitalism and State violence. The City of Grand Rapids brings the National Guard in to “restore order,” when in fact the order they are restoring is racial injustice, a massive wealth gap, despair and whiteness.
Looking at these news stories collectively affirms our analysis and demonstrates that the commercial news media in Grand Rapids plays a major role in how the dominant culture views West Michigan. We need to come to terms with the fact that are growing number of people, especially black people, who are tired of living under the boot of West Michigan Nice.
Lastly, we need to honestly think about how the trial of former GRPD cop Christopher Schurr will play out, especially if he is found not guilty of murdering Patrick Lyoya. Once again, the economic conditions of thousands in Grand Rapids, with the ongoing impact of the pandemic and the structural racism that plagues Grand Rapids are the kinds of conditions that could lead to another riot/uprising, especially if Schurr is found not guilty in the murder of Patrick Lyoya. We cannot, and should not, expect the commercial news media in Grand Rapids to provide honest and in depth reporting should another riot occur. In fact, what should be apparent to those involved in the Justice4Patrick Movement, is that we need to create and promote our own narrative and not allow systems of power and oppression to dictate what is happening right now in Grand Rapids. This should be one of the most important lessons we can learn from the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids.
This is the second in a series of WANTED posters, looking at individuals, families and organizations in West Michigan that have contributed significantly to the criminalization of abortion and the undermining of reproductive justice.
Peter Cook, now deceased, was the former President of Great Lakes Mazda in Grand Rapids, as well as being the former Director of Michigan National Bank. While Cook never reached the same level of wealth that his contemporary Rich DeVos did, Cook was a multi-millionaire.
Cook had a long history of being part of the far right, from the Council for National Policy to the anti-public education group TEACH Michigan, Gospel Films, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Mackinac Center, and the Acton Institute.
Then there are the groups that Cook contributed to that played a significant role in pushing an anti-abortion agenda, groups such as Michigan Family Forum, Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and Right to Life Michigan. His funding of these organizations eventually led to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, thus criminalizing abortion.
Like the DeVos family, Peter Cook funded an anti-abortion agenda both through his foundation, the Peter and Emajean Cook Foundation and through his campaign contributions over the years to GOP candidates and incumbents.
We encourage you to share this poster and consider directing some of your rage at the recent US Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v Wade towards the Cook Family Foundation, since both Peter Cook and his wife are no longer living.
Sources used:
The Religious Right in Michigan Politics, by Russ Bellant, 1996.
This week we will be posting a series of articles on the 55th anniversary of the riot/uprising in Grand Rapids, which took place from July 25th through the 27th in 1967. Most of the content for these articles is from pervious postings on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, in the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Struggle section. I am interested in this history for several reasons, but mostly because of what we can learn from the past and how it can impact the present and the future.
In Part I, we looked at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. In Part II, we looked at the coverage from WOOD TV8. Part III was a look at the imagery of the 1967 riot in what we are calling Cops, Property and the White Gaze. Today, we want to look at a report the City of Grand Rapids produced just after the 1967 riot, which they called Anatomy of a Riot.
It’s been 55 years since hundreds from the black community rose up in a three day riot against racial injustice in Grand Rapids.
In 1967, there were 44 cities that experienced a racial uprising, including Grand Rapids. Like all across the country, the black community in Grand Rapids suffered from high levels of poverty, unemployment, limited educational opportunities, poor housing and little political power. On July 25th, Grand Rapids police pulled over a car with several black youth, and in front of several witnesses, used “excessive” force against those same black youth.
This was the spark that ignited an entire community’s rage over decades of institutional racism and exploitation. Some in the black community smashed windows of white owned businesses, while others set fire to abandoned or rundown buildings owned by white absentee landlords. An estimated 320 arrests were made during the three days that rioting took place, with most of the arrests involving members of the black community.
However, there were several white people who were arrested, according to a report published just months after the 1967 riot, entitled, Anatomy of a Riot. According to the report, published by the Grand Rapids Planning Department, most of the white people that were arrested, was because of weapons charges. Apparently, there were several white residents who wanted to use the riot as an opportunity to shoot black people. The report notes that some of the white people arrested were armed because they “wanted to protect their property.”
There were even a few groups (the report refers to them as gangs) of white people who roamed the streets on foot and in cars, particularly from the west side of Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids Police Department even received calls from white people wanting to “volunteer as vigilantes.”
It’s Their Behavior, not the System
In the last section of the Anatomy of a Riot report, they make some recommendations about what could be done to prevent future responses like the 1967 riot.
Income – The report states that there is a need to provide full employment to people in the black community, so they they can take care of themselves. The report doesn’t say anything about wages, just employment, as if any job will suffice. The report also acknowledges that there are few black owned businesses and no black run financial institutions. Looking at the economic reality for blacks in Grand Rapids today, not much has changed, based on a report acknowledging that Grand Rapids is one of the worst cities for blacks to live in.
Housing – The report acknowledges that more black people should be provided the opportunity to own their own homes. However, the report also states, “At the same time, to stop deterioration, the prices of ghetto property have to be determined by the supply and demand of the open market.” Ironically, the same mentality exists today, which is why a disproportionate number of African Americans are being priced out of the housing market in Grand Rapids.
However, the report does suggest that local government needs to better serve the black community. The report states:
“The residents of the inner city must feel that the local government is their government. This is best shown when their problems and suggestions are considered as seriously as those of others in the community. A reputation for being concerned and doing everything possible for the inner city will go a long way toward the opinion that, unlike most American cities, the government of Grand Rapids considers these people first class citizens.”
In this whole section of the report, the section on recommendations, is completely devoid of any systemic analysis. In addition, institutionalized racism and White Supremacy are completely omitted from this part of the report, which is to say that those that prepared the report believe that while society can do better, the problems facing the black community comes down to its behavior.
So it has been nearly a half a century since the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. So, what lessons can we learn from how the dominant culture responded to this racial uprising that took place 55 years ago?
First, not much has changed in terms of the quality of life for the black community in Grand Rapids. Almost every indicator in terms of quality of life has not changes much. Whether it is income levels, employment, housing, health care or incarceration rates, the black community continues to be disproportionately impacted in a negative way in each of these areas.
Second, the news media and public opinion continue to reflect White Supremacist values. The problems in the black community, we are told, are the fault of the black community. Things like institutionalized racism don’t really exist, we just need more diverse representation in our organizations, in government and corporate board rooms. However, the real lesson to be learned is that white people and white dominated power structures are resistant to change. The 1967 Riot says more about white people and our unwillingness to come to terms with White Supremacy.
Lastly, black anger and black rage are not allowed. As in the 1967 riot, black people today are constantly being told to be patient and to work to change things through proper channels. Join a non-profit, vote or start your own business, but stop blaming it all on racism are the mantras of today. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would disagree with this sentiment and had his own important take on what a riot really is, when he said – “It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.”
In June, the Coalition for Community Owned Safety began collecting signatures on a petition they are circulating that would, amend the Grand Rapids City Charter to replace certain mandatory budget appropriations in subsection (f) and, instead, require the City to appropriate no less than 9.8% of the General Operating Fund for affordable housing, mental and physical health, environmental sustainability, police accountability, and economic growth of communities with disproportionately high gun violence, unemployment, and child poverty. For the complete language of the petition campaign, go to this link.
This campaign to change the Grand Rapids City Charter would change the language from the 1995 campaign which institutionalized a minimum of 32% of the City’s budget to go to the GRPD. That campaign was utilizing the fear mongering campaign that was passed in 1994 at the federal level, known as the Crime Bill, which also institutionalized more funding for policing, even though violent crime was in decline.
Ever since the May 31st, 2020 Uprising in Grand Rapids, there have been calls to Defund the GRPD. In July of 2020, some City Commissioners proposed to reduce the GRPD funding to the 32% minimum per the 1995 City Charter change, but the City Manager and City Attorney stepped in to prevent such a vote from happening. This call continue, but was escalated after the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya in April of 2022.
The Coalition for Community Owned Safety, which involves the ACLU of Michigan, Urban Core Collective, NAACP of Greater Grand Rapids, and LINC UP. Shortly after they began their campaign to collective signatures to amend the City Charter, there have been at least two organized efforts that we know of to oppose thing campaign.
The first organized campaign was started in February of 2022, called SafeGR.org People living on the westside of Grand Rapids were receiving political mailers calling on people to oppose the petition campaign to amend the City Charter. The SafeGR.org campaign has very little information on their webpage. There is a contact page, a PO Box listing and this brief text:
Our great city is home to a diverse group of people. We come from all walks of life, economic backgrounds, and places all over the world. We deserve a city and neighborhoods that are safe, welcoming, and prosperous.
I have not been able to find out any information about this group, after looking through numerous channels and I did send them a message asking for more information, but received no response.
The other organized effort to oppose the petition campaign by the Coalition for Community Owned Safety, is purely an online effort I have seen on Facebook for the past several weeks by the group known as Mighty Michigan. According to the group’s website it states:
Mighty Michigan is dedicated to building a freer, more prosperous Michigan. As you know, entrenched politicians and special interests have controlled Michigan’s government for too long – and we’re working to change that.
The same page says, “Mighty Michigan is sponsored by the nonprofit American Culture Project, a national leader in research and civic engagement in the Midwest and throughout the country.” The American Culture Project comes off as a non-partisan, non-profit groups that claims to empathize with regular people. They also have campaign in Florida, Ohio and Michigan.
However, according to SourceWatch:
“The American Culture Project (ACP) is a 501(c)(4) right-wing nonprofit officially registered as the Americans for Government Accountability. According to a fundraising proposal obtained by The Washington Post, ACP was created “to address the right’s gap of cultural influence” and plans on “building a permanent, growing community focused infrastructure to take back the commanding heights of culture that determines electoral outcomes.”
In addition, according to an article in the Anchorage Daily News:
Undisclosed on the Facebook page is the nonprofit’s partisan goal. Arise Ohio and similar sites aimed at other politically pivotal states are part of a novel strategy by a little-known Republican-aligned group to make today’s GOP more palatable to moderate voters before the 2022 midterms by reshaping the “cultural narrative” on hot-button issues. That goal, laid out in a private fundraising appeal sent last month to a Republican donor and reviewed by The Washington Post, relies on building new online communities that can be tapped at election time, with a focus on winning back Congress in 2022.
In regards to Mighty Michigan/American Cultural Project opposition to the Grand Rapids petition campaign to amend the City Charter, they say:
The proposal uses a sleight of hand to avoid spelling out its goal of defunding the police. This is because the new 9.8% spending requirement on other priorities leaves no alternative but to slash law enforcement spending. Simply put, if this ballot proposal were to pass, it would mean a reduced public safety presence in Grand Rapids neighborhoods.
This campaign seeks to use the language of Defunding the Police as a fear tactic, just like the GOP and the Democratic Parties have been doing since this became a rallying cry from the Movement for Black Lives, which has an excellent toolkit on how to do a Defund the Police campaign in your community.
The Facebook ads from Mighty Michigan not only urges people to oppose the Coalition for Community Owned Safety petition drive, they invite people to send messages to Grand Rapids City Officials, with their own petition campaign, as you can see here on the right. This petition can be signed by anyone no matter where they live, but it also has no legal weight, unlike the petition campaign to Amend the Grand Rapids City Charter that the Coalition for Community Owned Safety is circulating. In fact, the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association, which is the GRPD union, linked the Mighty Michigan campaign on their Facebook page on July 17, along with limiting who could comment on the post, which seems to be a relatively new tactic on their part.
At GRIID, we highly encourage people to sign to Coalition for Community Owned Safety petition, which you can access from the coalition groups – CLU of Michigan, Urban Core Collective, NAACP of Greater Grand Rapids, and LINC UP. You can also help circulate the petition by getting copies at any of the offices of the coalition groups.
We also think it is important to be aware of and understand that there are at least two organized efforts to oppose this grassroots effort. As with any organized opposition, we must always ask ourselves, what is it that they find so threatening about the Coalition for Community Owned Safety petition and what is motivating their opposition. Based on the Mighty Michigan/American Cultural Project, their motivation is both political and partisan, plus their tactic is to use fear and misinformation.
This week we will be posting a series of articles on the 55th anniversary of the riot/uprising in Grand Rapids, which took place from July 25th through the 27th in 1967. Most of the content for these articles is from pervious postings on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, in the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Struggle section. I am interested in this history for several reasons, but mostly because of what we can learn from the past and how it can impact the present and the future.
In Part I, we looked at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. In Part II, we looked at the coverage from WOOD TV8. Today, we want to look at the imagery of the 1967 riot in what we are calling Cops, Property and the White Gaze.
In today’s post, we wanted to share a selection of photos from the Grand Rapids Press that were taken in late July of 1967 during the three days of the Black uprising in Grand Rapids. The photos are instructive, since most of them deal with White owned property, police protection of White owned property or Grand Rapids cops policing the Black community.
These photos could collectively be identified as utilizing what some social theorists refer to as the White Gaze. The White Gaze, “is described as looking at the world through the eyes of a white person who has undertones of, or is blatant in, their racism,” as is defined by George Yancy, Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University.
The photos definitely reflect the White Gaze, not just because they were taken by a white photographer, but because they reflect visually constructed reality as presented through a white lens.
The first photo (seen above) is from S. Division in Grand Rapids, where we see white business owners/workers outside of D”Amico’s Super Market cleaning up after windows had been broken. This image also includes the presence of a white cop with a rifle held in such a way as to make it clear who he is there to protect.
The next photo (seen below) is an image of Grand Rapids cops using tear gas in a predominantly Black neighborhood near the corner of Jefferson and Pleasant SE. The tear gas was used to disperse a crowd of people who had gathered.
The third photo in this selection (seen below) shows a house on Jefferson near Buckley SE that was on fire. Neighbors who lived in that area during the 1967 uprising told this writer that houses were often targeted, because they belonged to white absentee landlords. The house that is on fire was torn down and that lot on Jefferson is still vacant to this day.
The next photo (to the right) shows Grand Rapids cops cornering Black people near the corner of Wealthy and Division. Despite the fact that this was predominantly a Black neighborhood, Black people were not permitted to freely move about, especially during the three days of rioting in 1967.
This fifth photo (see below) from the selection shows Grand Rapids cops going through the trunk of someone’s car. People coming in and out of the neighborhood that they lived in during those three days of rebellion in 1967, were subjected to constant surveillance and harassment by the cops.
The last photo seen here below is of a Grand Rapids Police Officer, who “poses” with people along Division Avenue during the uprising of 1967. This image is particularly telling as it represents the arrogance of White Supremacy, with a White cop posing amidst Black people who were confronted by the brutality of this system.
Again, these images from the Grand Rapids Press, were primarily consumed by a white readership, which is why it is important to reflect on the power of the white gaze.
In Part IV, we will look at the City of Grand Rapids report that came out after the 1967 riot, entitled, Anatomy of a Riot.
On Monday, MLive reported that Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. (DGRI) is looking to expand their boundaries in order to capture more tax money for development.
The MLive article states:
Tim Kelly, president and CEO of Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., said his organization is exploring whether to expand the DDA’s tax collecting boundaries to include the area around 201 Market Ave. SW, the site of a proposed 12,000 seat amphitheater and other potential development.
Later on, the article clarifies that there will be additional development projects such as apartments, retail space, parks and trails.
In addition, the MLive provides readers with this bit of information:
The DDA doesn’t collect tax revenue from the site now because it’s owned by the city of Grand Rapids.
However, by adding the property to the DDA’s tax capture plan, the DDA could begin collecting revenue from the site should it one day come on to the tax rolls.
If the property wasn’t added to the DDA but went on the tax rolls, property tax revenue from the site would go to the the city of Grand Rapids, Kent County, Grand Rapids Community College, and The Rapid.
This last sentence should raise eyebrows and concerns from anyone who is interested in seeking any kind of equity, since as the article makes clear, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) uses the property tax revenue from the downtown area and they get to decide how that money is use, which is always to further development plans in downtown Grand Rapids.
Now, maybe people have been aware of this fact, that the DGRI, through the use of the DDA, are able to capture property tax revenue and use it solely for the benefit of the downtown. The DDA website affirms this by saying:
The Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is a funding tool Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. administers to help catalyze public and private investment in Grand Rapids urban core. Funds go to help expedite private development projects, put underutilized property back to productive use, build streets and public infrastructure, as well as maintain and expand parks and other public amenities.
This means that a 9 member board of the Downtown Development Authority, a group of people that are appointed and NOT elected, get to make these decisions about property tax money. On top of that the DDA Board is made up of the Mayor of Grand Rapids, former Kent County Commissioner Jim Talen, the President of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, a corporate lawyer and 5 business representatives, two of which work for the DeVos family – Greg McNeilly and Richard Winn.
This also isn’t the first time that the DGRI/DDA boundaries have expanded, such as in 2016, when they proposed to expand an additional 200 acres.
Unfortunately, this issue is completely off the radar for most people, people who are just trying to figure out how to pay the bills with all the increases in gas, food and housing costs. And this is exactly why people should be aware, concerned and organized to oppose the DDA expansion. We need to demand that the DGRI/DDA not be allowed to expand and should give up their ability to capture property tax revenue that they then have control over.
If the City of Grand Rapids and the people of Grand Rapids want property tax money, which is PUBLIC MONEY, to be used for affordable housing, to lower the cost of mass transit or to provide economic relief to the thousands of families in this community that are struggling to survive, then that is exactly what this public money should be used for. The members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure and other wealthy elites can actually practice free market capitalism and pay for their own damn development projects without using public money. They will just have to wait for people to spend money at their establishments to make the money back that they invested in, just like everybody else. This is a great example of how participatory budgeting could be applied to meet the need of the most vulnerable in this city.
This week we will be posting a series of articles on the 55th anniversary of the riot/uprising in Grand Rapids, which took place from July 25th through the 27th in 1967. Most of the content for these articles is from pervious postings on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, in the Civil Rights/Black Freedom Struggle section. I am interested in this history for several reasons, but mostly because of what we can learn from the past and how it can impact the present and the future.
In Part I, we looked at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids. Today in Part II, we want to look at the coverage from WOOD TV8.
Today, we are posting footage from channel 8 that includes at the beginning a story done by reporters in Detroit during the 1967 riot in the Motor City, followed by footage with no commentary, an interview with the Grand Rapids Chief of Police and an interview with a Grand Rapids Business owner, whose store was attacked during the riot. The footage seems to go back to Detroit briefly, with the channel 8 reporter commenting, then followed again by footage in Grand Rapids without any commentary.
There is some footage of people who had been arrested, but no one who was arrested and no one from the Black community was interviewed about what started the three day riot nor what conditions the Black community were living under prior to the riot in late July of 1967. The video footage lasts a total of 11 minutes and 8 seconds and is a good indication of how the riot was reported on by commercial media at the time. The transcript for the channel 8 coverage is after the video.
The first clip with sound is with the Grand Rapids Police Chief in 1967. He reads the following statement:
Chief of Police – Speaking on behalf of Mayor Sonnevelt and City Manager Nabers, we are proposing to establish a prohibited area near the southeast end, in the districted bounded on the east by Madison, on the south by Cottage Grove, on the west by the expressway and on the north by Wealthy.
We ask all people and we particularly place emphasis on all people, to please refrain from going into the area with the limits I have just described. In addition, we are also closing the exit ramps, I repeat, only the exit ramps on the 131 expressway, Burton St on the south and Pearl St on the north. So, for the benefit of those motorists bound north or south on 131, do not plan on getting off on any exits from Pearl on the north to Burton on the south.
Reporter – Chief have you heard any word about any National Guards troops coming into town?
Chief of Police – I have just been advised by operations in East Lansing that there is one battalion of National Guardsmen that has been released and will be available in Lansing. However, I was also reminded that in addition to our request, they have similar requests in Pontiac, Flint and from Lansing, so we are going to cut this pie four ways.
Reporter – How long will you keep the particular area sealed off?
Chief of Police – Until such time that we feel that conditions are such that can be opened for general usage.
Reporter – How many officers will you have out there tonight?
Chief of Police – We will have an excessive, we would like to think, an excessive amount of police out there tonight.
Next story, also an interview with the Grand Rapids Chief of Police.
Reporter – But you have requested National Guard Troops?
Chief of Police – Yes, very definitely. The City Manager and I have both talked to the Governor’s office and they are attempted to send to us National Guardsmen to take care of the some of the needs.
This brief interview with Grand Rapids Chief of Police is followed by some brief footage of property destruction in Grand Rapids (image above) and then cuts to an interview with a business owned identified as Mr. Chester.
Reporter – Mr. Chester, what happened here last night?
Business owner – We had all of our windows of our front office broken in, rocks thrown threw them, everyone of them destroyed. And then in the back of our plant they had a fire started, but fortunately there was no damage to speak of.
Reporter – Do you have any estimate as to the damage that was caused?
Business owner – Not yet, but is can be anywhere…..there were 9 panes and each of these panes can cost over a $100.
Reporter – What is your reaction to this whole disturbance last night?
Business owner – Sickening, needless to say and very disappointing.
Reporter – What are your plans now? Will you remain open?
Business owner – We plan on remaining open and doing business as usual.
Reporter – What happens if they come back tonight and do some looting tonight?
Business owner – We’ll do our best to be back in operation tomorrow morning.
There is about another minute of footage with no sound, footage of property destruction and police presence, like this image of cops in front of the Firestone garage on Wealthy St and LaGrave.
One thing that we can learn from this news coverage from WOOD TV8, is that they decided to center the voices of white politicians and white businesses owners, with no commentary from the affected Black community. This is a dynamic that permeates Grand Rapids-based news outlets even through today.
In Part III, we will look at images from the 1967 riot, what we are calling Cops, property and the White Gaze.
Last week, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg held a press conference at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport to announce, “an $8.68 million federal grant that will help fund Gerald R. Ford International Airport’s concourse expansion,” according to MLive.
The MLive article went on with the following comments from Buttigieg:
“As part of the terminal gate expansion project here, this grant is going to help to fund eight new passenger boarding bridges so that this airport is able to handle more travelers and so that they can walk or roll more comfortably from their gate to their plane. It’s going to make traveling better. It’s going to allow Grand Rapids to accommodate that increasing passenger growth and support the economic opportunity that is emerging across West Michigan.”
Ok, so let me get this straight. Buttigieg was in town last week to announce that $8.68 million in public money was going to be used to expand the Kent County Airport, which somehow “supports economic opportunity.” After reading the rest of the MLive article I could not find anything to substantiate the claim that the airport expansion will support economic opportunity for people living in West Michigan. Not surprising, the Kent County Airport Authority makes the same claim in their mission statement:
Our mission is to create an exceptional travel experience for our passengers, and growth and prosperity for all of West Michigan.
The question still remains, how will airport expansion economically benefit people and create prosperity for all of West Michigan? The reality is that airport growth does not provide economic growth nor prosperity for everyone living in West Michigan, but it does provide economic opportunities to the business class in West Michigan.
Let’s face it, while regular people use the airport for visiting family or for going on vacations, the primary use of any and all commercial airports are by the business class. This sector of society, which always is the primary beneficiary in a Capitalist economic system, uses air travel as a means to meet with other members of the business class to find ways to make more profits and the use more public money that will benefit the private sector. If you look at who sits on the Airport Authority Board of Directors, you can see how the business community and their interests are represented.
Air travel, airports and Climate Injustice
Then there is the issue of the environmental and climate impact of air travel. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute recently wrote:
Between 1970 and 2019 in the United States, engine and design technology advances, improvements in air traffic operations, denser seat configurations, and higher passenger loads together reduced the energy intensity of air travel, expressed as British Thermal Units (BTUs) per passenger mile, by 77 percent. In the last two decades, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from commercial aviation worldwide grew at a slower pace than the growth of the industry, but emissions from aviation have accelerated in recent years as increasing commercial air traffic continued to raise the industry’s contribution to global emissions. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), global CO2 from commercial aviation was 707 million tons in 2013. In 2019 that value reached 920 million tons, having increased approximately 30 percent in six years. The United States, with the world’s largest commercial air traffic system, accounted for 202.5 million tons (23.5 percent) of the 2017 global CO2 total. EPA reports that commercial airplanes and large business jets contribute 10 percent of U.S. transportation emissions, and account for three percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas production.
Globally, aviation produced 2.4 percent of total CO2 emissions in 2018. While this may seem like a relatively small amount, consider that if global commercial aviation were a country in the national CO2 emissions standings, the industry would rank number six in the world between Japan and Germany.
If we are serious about fight Climate Change and promoting Climate Justice, then celebrating the expansion of the Kent County International Airport is antithetical to Climate Justice.
In addition to rejecting and exposing the notion that airport expansion and increased air travel will bring propensity to all of us, we need to come to terms with the fact that the US Airline Industry is a highly subsidized industry. The airline industry also is a major campaign contributing sector, according to The Center for Responsible Politics, which also does its own share of lobbying to Congress. Such lobby has paid off in recent years, resulting in the airline industry receiving a $54 Billion bailout during the global pandemic in 2021.
Unfortunately, the commercial news media won’t be discussing these issues, they just provide us with celebratory news coverage and lots of pictures of people who represent the ruling class, which are the same people who will primarily be benefiting from the Kent County Airport expansion.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 