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.
Fifty-Five years ago hundreds of people participated in what the news media referred to as a race riot in Grand Rapids.
On July 25th, 1967, Grand Rapids police officers arrested several Black youth, when they pulled them over believing they were in a stolen vehicle. One source says that the officers may have used excessive force in dealing with the Black youth, according to an eyewitness account.
News reports on the first day of the uprising never mention the police abuse. Instead the headlines read that, “gangs threaten a riot” and “S. Division beset by young mob.” In fact, most of the Grand Rapids Press coverage focused on the property damage and police arrests, but never on the motives of those who took action.
The first editorial on July 26 at least acknowledges that people in Grand Rapids may have acted in part due to the riot that began on July 25th in Detroit. However, the Press editorial then uses harsh words to condemn those who participated in the Grand Rapids uprising.
The editorial says that, “The great majority in the Negro Community is law-abiding.” This statement alone reflects contempt for anyone who acts outside officially sanctioned behavior.
The editorial goes on to say that, “the lawless behavior of a few Negro citizens has made a mockery of civil rights and that everything that has been done up to this point to improve the Negro’s social and economic standing has been a waste of time, money and effort.” It is as if the civil rights movement consisted of what the White government did for Black people, as if the Freedom Struggle didn’t really exist.
Lastly, the editorial says, “there must be no compromising with the forces of disorder.” The Press editorial writer makes his bias known by saying that anyone arrested should be treated as a criminal and nothing else.
The Grand Rapids Police, along with other area cops and the Michigan State Police made it a point to arrest anyone they could get their hands on who was either engaged in actions they deemed unlawful, even those who violated the curfew that was put in effect on the evening of the 25th.
According to a report put out by the Grand Rapids City Planning Department, there were a total of 320 arrests made over a two-day period. The report, Anatomy of a Riot, stated that 49% of those who were arrested had a prior arrest record, thus the implication that those involved were prone to “criminal behavior.”
The area where the uprising occurred was 131 to the west, Hall street to the south, Wealthy to the north and Lafayette to the east.
Besides the data contained within the report, Anatomy of a Riot spent a great deal of time making pronouncements about living conditions of the Black community, but in a contemptuous way. The report acknowledges high unemployment rates and that many of the households are led by females. “These are families without an adult male to give support, love and guidance to the children.”
What the report does not really address, nor the news coverage, was the legitimate grievances of many of those who took action between July 25 and July 27.
It is important to note that this uprising in Grand Rapids was not an isolated incident. In 1967, there were 40 “riots” across the US and numerous since 1965, including Watts and the uprisings in 1968 after the assassination of Dr. King. However, because the bulk of the uprisings took place in 1967, the federal government did commission a study to investigate the cause(s) of the “riots.”
The report, known as the Kerner Report, does acknowledge the grievances of those who rose up. The report identifies three levels of intensity, each with their own list of grievances:
First Level of Intensity:
1. Police practices
2. Unemployment and underemployment
3. Inadequate housing
Second Level of Intensity:
1. Inadequate education
2. Poor recreational facilities and programs
3. Ineffectiveness of the political structure and grievance mechanisms
Third Level of Intensity:
1. Disrespectful white attitudes
2. Discriminatory administration of justice
3. Inadequacy of federal programs
4. Inadequacy of municipal services
5. Discriminatory consumer and credit practices
6. Inadequate welfare programs
As was mentioned before, most of the news coverage focused on what the GR Press often referred to as lawless behavior, such as property destruction and looting as is evidenced by the photos they printed.
However, it should be noted that most of the fires that were set were of vacant or deteriorated buildings that were owned by White people. One could certainly argue that these buildings were targeted as a means of protesting against the constant exploitation of the Black community by White landlords. A former pastor in the neighborhood where the uprising took place told this writer that there were several houses and an old barn near his church on Buckley street that were set on fire and that these were buildings clearly targeted because of how the landlord treated the Black tenants.
Another interesting aspect of the 1967 uprising in Grand Rapids, was the role played by a group of Black Youth who were part of what was called Operation Task Force. This was a program operating out of the old Sheldon Complex, made up of mostly Black high school student athletes who were tasked with walking the neighborhoods and talking to people to get a sense of what people’s needs were.
When the uprising began, these students in the Task Force were asked to help “calm down” the Black youth who were enraged. Ironically, some of these students were physically assaulted by police officers who did not known that the students were actually cooperating with them. Several GR Press articles were printed over the two-day period about the task force, with one headline reading. “Negro Youths calm crowd.”
On July 27, the Grand Rapids Press ran an interesting story, one that reflected the dominant culture’s fear about urban Blacks. The July 27 story was based on calls the Press writer made to people in communities near Grand Rapids, communities that were almost exclusively White.
A woman from Ionia said, “We heard they were coming here on Tuesday. We all had our guns ready if we had to.” Another White woman in Lowell was quoted as saying, “I think it is terrible. They are destroying their own property – hurting their own cause.” A resident of Saranac stated, “It is a terrible thing to say, too, but authorities should open fire on them, do something drastic to wake them up.” A man from Holland agreed with serious force being used against those rioting. He stated, “The troops should have orders to stop them anyway necessary.”
These statements clearly demonstrate the entrenched White Supremacist attitudes of the day. According to the Anatomy of a Riot report, there were calls from people on the west side of Grand Rapids who wanted to “volunteer as vigilantes” during the uprising. In fact, the report notes that some White people were arrested during the uprising, because they were in violation of the firearms ban that was put in place.
In the aftermath of the 1967 uprising in Grand Rapids there were calls for increased funding for urban youth programs and some concerns about housing conditions, especially of the properties owned by White absentee landlords. Years later there was a new condo project built in the heart of where the uprising took place, between Jefferson and Lafayette, but within a year they built a brick wall around that development to keep out undesirables.
Today, the Sheldon Complex is gone, replace by a government social services facility and the newly gentrified area around the Wealthy/Division area. These new development projects have forced Black and Latinx people experiencing poverty out of the neighborhood, which is one tactic in minimizing the possibility of any future uprisings.
In Part II, we will look at some of the TV coverage of the 1967 riot in Grand Rapids.
Commissioner O’Connor’s fake apology, civility and Business as usual Politics in Grand Rapids
On Friday, three days after First Ward Commissioner Jon O’Connor shouted at protesters and walked out during public comment, he released a statement he claims is an apology.
Here is that statement from Grand Rapids City Commissioner O’Connor:
“I want to apologize to my constituents and the entire city for my outburst and use of inappropriate language at Tuesday evening’s city commission meeting. Like so many others in our community, I am frustrated and unfortunately, I let my emotions get the better of me.
Over the past several months I, along with my colleagues on the commission, have remained relatively quiet at the dais as well as in our public commentary for a variety of reasons. While we all share concerns about what has taken place in our community, the actions of a small activist group have diminished the ability to conduct the business of the city and have created an environment within the commission chambers where any opposing point of view is interrupted, shouted down, or chastised. I have a responsibility to listen to all those who choose to attend and make public comments, regardless of my personal beliefs about what they are saying. The current situation continues to stifle civic engagement and intimidates individuals from participating in the local government process.
This group of individuals and their supporters have crossed a line, making it difficult to seek compromise and pursue positive outcomes for the community. They have come to my home, where my family sleeps, in an attempt to intimidate me, defacing my residence in the middle of the night. These intimidation tactics toward myself and my colleagues are unacceptable and we should not stand for such actions, now or in the future.
I remain committed to working for positive outcomes for Grand Rapids. This is an amazing community with a history of working together in a respectful manner, making hard decisions, and producing results for residents. This is the work I will continue to focus on with my colleagues on the City Commission. Our city, our state and our country have become increasingly polarized and unwilling to seek compromise with civility. In Grand Rapids, however, we must rise above. I am dedicated to this work and invite others to join in a positive and proactive discourse for a better future for all.”
– Jon O’Connor, Grand Rapids First Ward City Commissioner
There are numerous things to say in response to O’Connor’s “apology,” so I will lay them out here:
First, O’Connor says he apologizes for his “inappropriate language” during the City Commission meeting last Tuesday, claiming his emotions got the best of him. This part of the statement is designed to acknowledge that saying the word “fuck” was not ok, only because the Mayor has already been cracking down on public who use these kind of words during public comment. O’Connor, therefore, has to refer to his outburst as “inappropriate language” in order to justify the standard that the Mayor has already set for the public. However, we all know that O’Connor, like most people, when he is not publicly acting as a City Commissioner will let the expletives fly, and using derogatory descriptors directed at organizers and those resisting the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya.
Second, not only does O’Connor refuse to call what Christopher Schurr did to Patrick Lyoya murder, he quaintly says, “While we all share concerns about what has taken place in our community.” The Commissioner, like so many City officials, just can’t bring it upon themselves to say that the GRPD murdered Patrick Lyoya.
Third, O’Connor uses his fake apology to say exactly what he wanted to say, which was to directly blame those protesting the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya and resisting the repressive policing practices of the GRPD used against Black organizers. O’Connor claims that it is his responsibility to listen to all voices, but we all know that he rarely looks at those who are speaking during public comment, is often doing something else while people are speaking their truth and at times will make faces, which only demonstrates his contempt of the public.
Fourth, the First Ward City Commissioner then says that, “this group of individuals and their supporters have crossed a line.” When O’Connor says that people have crossed the line, he means that people have the audacity to question not just the GRPD, but they way the politics is done in this city. Crossing the line means that more and more people are challenging the business as usual way in which GR politics has played out for too long. O’Connor affirms the crossing the line dynamic, because – Holy Shit – people have come to his home to protest. Oh No! O’Connor fails to see that he and other City Officials are being confronted where the live, because we have come to the realization that City Commission meetings are a joke, they are anti-democratic and they will suck the life out of you if you follow their rules. We all know that Grand Rapids City Commissioners make the real decision during the Meeting of the Whole, which is why everything that gets approved during the evening meetings is nothing more than a formality. Public Comment period is also a formality they are legally obligated to have, but such forms of “civic engagement” are shallow and often demeaning.
Fifth, Commissioner O’Connor really ends up using his so-called apology as an opportunity to center himself and other city officials who feel “intimidated” by the actions of protesters. O’Connor’s faux apology is nothing more than his ridiculous attempt to claim victimhood, then to assert his real intent which was to threaten those protesting with further repression by saying, “we should not stand for such actions, now or in the future.”
Sixth, the First Ward Commissioner then wraps up his fake apology with claims of “a history of working together in a respectful manner” because people “have become increasingly polarized and unwilling to seek compromise with civility.” The appeals to civility are always about respectability politics, but the calls for civility are also part a long standing tradition of systemic racism and White Supremacy within the US.
I highly recommend that people read Alex Zamalin’s book, Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession With Civility. Early on in the book, Zamalin states:
Civility is exalted in the language of slaveholders, segregationists, Lynch mobs, and eugenicists. It is also enshrined in the language of free marketeers and preachers of fiscal responsibility. And, surprisingly, it is elevated in the language of well-intentioned liberals, self-described moderates, and devout progressives. All of them traffic in ideas about public etiquette to declare what counts as good citizenship and what doesn’t. From slavery to Jim Crow, to black ghettoization, to mass incarceration, to police brutality, the idea of civility has been enlisted to treat black suffering with apathy or to maintain an unjust status quo. Worse, it has been a tool for silencing dissent, repressing political participation, enforcing economic inequality, and justifying violence upon people of color.
People with privilege, people with power, and people who work within systems of oppression often will use the notion that those who are dissenting need to be civil, as if that has always been the way you get things accomplished. Remember when the White Christian Pastors wrote to Dr. King while he sat in a jail. The White Clergy were counseling Dr. King to not ask too much or engage in confrontational direct action, which Dr. King ignored by committing civil disobedience. The author of Against Civility, makes the point that throughout history:
Civility hasn’t been the organizing principle of the most successful anti-racist thinkers and movements who have sought to dismantle US racism. They discovered, over and over again, that real political change happens through direct struggle, without obligation to decorum or propriety.
This certainly has been true of the 200 year long Black Freedom Struggle in the US, from slave rebellions, to anti-lynching campaign, resisting Jim Crow policies, the Birmingham Bus boycott, the luncheon counter sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, SNCC, the Poor People’s Campaign, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, the League for Revolutionary Black Workers, and the Movement for Black Lives. The people who were part of these movements, who were part of the Black Freedom Struggle, were what the author of Against Civility calls, civic radicals. The difference between civility and civic radicalism is this:
A politics based in civility makes agreement among participants the prerequisite for political thought, whereas civic radicalism begins with the goal of liberation for all, regardless of who disagrees.
Civic radicalism seems to be what the Justice4Patrick movement and the broader Defund the GRPD goals are rooted in, since they are more interested in collective liberation, rather than compromises that lead us back to business as usual politics.
In the end, we should all thank Commissioner O’Connor for his faux apology, since it exemplifies the very ethos that governs Grand Rapids City officials – deflecting and avoidance of dealing with systemic issues. The First Ward Commission provided us with insight into what those in power think, what they talk about behind closed doors and how they view the current Justice4Patrick Movement. As always, we must not be seduced or fooled by the narratives that emanate for local power structures.
Last month we reported that the US Senate Armed Services Committee, which includes Michigan Senator Gary Peters, voted to increased the US Military Budget by an additional $45 Billion, making it the largest US Military Budget in history.
Last week, the group Public Citizen released a new report entitled, Military-Industrial Complex Campaign Checks Help Explain Bloated Pentagon Budget. This report begins by saying:
Every year, the defense industry donates millions of dollars to the campaigns of members of Congress, creating pressure on the legislative branch to fund specific weapons systems, maintain an extremely high Pentagon budget, and add ever more military spending. This upwards pressure is a constant, no matter what figure is requested by the president for the Pentagon, even though nearly 50% of the current Pentagon budget already goes to private contractors each year.
Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are especially targeted by defense contractors. These committee members determine the amount of money authorized for the Pentagon when the committee marks up the annual Pentagon policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act.
The report from Public Citizen makes it clear that there is a direct correlation between the campaign contributions made by weapons manufacturers and which members of Congress consistently vote for increases in US military spending.
The information included in this new report demonstrates that this is a bipartisan project, with both Democrats and Republicans receiving large sums of campaign funds from weapons makers, as can be seen in the graphic above.
This bipartisan dynamic is strongest within the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, although the Senate Armed Services Committee receives a great deal more of campaign funding from the Military Industrial Complex than the House Armed Services Committee.
In addition, the report breaks down the amount that each member of both the House and Senate Foreign Services Committee members have received from weapons manufacturers, just within the current election cycle (2022). You can see from the chart below that Michigan Senator Gary Peters, who voted for the $45 Billion additional military budget funds, is the 6th highest recipient of campaign contributions from US weapons manufacturers.
As we noted in the previous post from last month about the increased funding for the US Military Budget, Senator Peters even bragged about how this money will help Michigan’s weapons manufacturers. Such bravado is particularly insulting when we look at how many Michiganders are struggling to survive economically, along with the fact that increased US military spending is essentially a big fuck you to any notion of Climate Justice.
GRPD funding sources, police collaborators and the institutionalization of violence workers in Grand Rapids
At yesterday’s Fiscal Committee and later during the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting, there were numerous GRPD funding items that were approved, as you can see from the July 12 Fiscal Committee Agenda packet.
There are a total of 17 items on the Fiscal Committee Agenda for July 12, with nearly half of them involving the Grand Rapids Police Department. While the issue of GRPD funding was the focus of much debate leading up to the 2023 Grand Rapids City Budget approval, we tend to lose focus on police funding for the rest of the year. Some of these funding items are not large sums of money, but the point of looking at these funding items is that the GRPD is woven in to so many aspects of Grand Rapids society, including specific partnerships with community entities, often without public knowledge. Lastly, it is important that we re-name what police officers are in contemporary America. We prefer to identify cops as violence workers, which is a term that David Correia and Tyler Wall use in their important book, Violent Order: Essays on the Nature of Police.
The first item from the Fiscal Committee agenda that involves the GRPD is item #2, involving $84,000 contract for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids Youth Commonwealth. The GRPD has had a long standing relationship with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids Youth Commonwealth, and is in charge of their Drive for Success Program. The question we should ask ourselves is why is the GRPD involved in a program to teach youth how to drive? Isn’t this a service that could be done by an entity that is not involved in population management and the hyper-policing of BIPOC and poor communities? The irony is, that a disproportionate number of youth who attend the Boys & Girls Clubs are BIPOC youth, which means they will be more likely to be stopped by the GRPD when they are old enough to drive, based on all the recent traffic stop reports.
The second item from the Fiscal Committee agenda that involves the GRPD is a $60,000 contact going to the GRPD to provide “services” to the Children’s Assessment Center, d.b.a. the Children’s Advocacy Center of Kent County. The GRPD, “Detective Bureau provides ongoing expert multidisciplinary investigations of complaints regarding sexual abuse of children.” Again, is it appropriate to have violence workers be involved in investigating sexual abuse of children?
The third item from the Fiscal Committee agenda that involves the GRPD is a contract for $28,750 for TacLogix, Inc. to provide three train-the-trainer training sessions over a two-day period for the GRPD. This training will accelerate the progress of change and will be in addition to the $150,000 allocated for community informed training in the OPA budget, according to the narrative provided in the Fiscal Committee packet. There is no explanation of what TacLogix, Inc. does and who they are. TacLogix does a variety of trainings, which you can find here, and their team is mostly made up of people who have worked in law enforcement at the federal, state and local level. This means that the trainings for the GRPD offered by TacLogix are insular, since it is cops talking to cops, which offers very little opportunity to fundamentally alter or question the function of policing in Grand Rapids.
The fourth item from the Fiscal Committee agenda that involves the GRPD is a $92,200 contract with GVSU Police Academy for new GRPD recruits. The GVSU Police Academy website says their faculty are law enforcement experts, with years of law enforcement experience. Of course, the description does include details of what this expertise is, but more importantly its people who have been violence workers training a new generation of violence workers.
The fifth item from the Fiscal Committee agenda involves policing, but not directly the GRPD. The City has a contract for $65,000 with four Uptown business districts: Eastown, East Hills, East Fulton, and Wealthy Street. Part of that contract is to remove flyers or “handbills” from the area – often political or community-based in nature, along with the removal of graffiti. These are both forms of censorship, with flyers/handbill removal being a low cost way for people to share information on the street level with the public. Graffiti is also often an expressive/artistic form meant to communicate ideas or feelings about the state of the world. What really is the difference between street graffiti and commissioned art work or murals that Grand Rapids seems so fond of?
The sixth item from the Fiscal Committee agenda involves policing or the GRPD is a Salary Ordinance for Employees represented by the Grand Rapids Police Officers Association, specifically Crime Scene Technician/Latent Print Examiner/Police Intern Unit. Crime Scene Technicians, Latent Print Examiners and Police Interns will all be receiving an increase in wages/salary, based on a contractual agreement between the City of Grand Rapids and the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association. This agreement went into effect on July 1st of 2022 for an increase in wages/salary, which will again be increased on July 1st of 2023. The Crime Scene Technicians and Latent Print Examiners salaries range from $57,000 to $81,000 a year in 2022 and will then go up to $58,000 to $83,000 in 2023. Do you think these same salary increases are happening for the City employees? Also, what does this say about how we value violence workers in this society over care workers?
The seventh item from the Fiscal Committee agenda involves policing or the GRPD is the Bid List Resolution, which involves numerous items. One specific item is for bicycles for the GRPD, specifically Volcanic bikes. The City had a contract with Freewheeler Inc. for the not-to-exceed amount of $35,179 for 20 bicycles. Freewheeler Inc is facing supply chain issues, so the GRPD will be looking for other bids for 20 bicycles that will cost the public no more than $36,000. This means that the GRPD will spend $1800 on each of the 20 bikes they plan to purchase.
The last item that includes information from the Fiscal Committee packet regarding violence workers, aka the GRPD, is under the heading, Travel & Funds Report through May 2022. In this section there are itemized public funds to various City Departments and next to the section that says police, it reads:
- Contract Serv-Training $112,461.40
- Professional Development $11,871.25
- Conferences & Travel $190,301.33
- Local Business Expense $694.95
- Food-Beverage $12,502.64
Again, these numbers don’t add up to large amounts, especially considering how large the GRPD total budget is. However, it makes you wonder what kind of Professional Development these violence workers are receiving, how many conferences they attend and what is the benefit to the community, along a fair amount of money for food and beverages. Is the public paying for break room food, vending machines, meals, pizza and donut orders? How about some god damn transparency for once!
As you can see from all the items that were in Fiscal Committee packet, since approved by the Grand Rapids City Commission, there are numerous funding streams for the GRPD, which only perpetuates the institutionalization of this system of oppression and their violence workers known as police officers.
Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce letter is a great example of who and what gets prioritized in community safety
The agenda packet for Tuesday’s Grand Rapids City Commission meeting, included a letter (on page 52) from Joshua Lunger, the Vice President for Government Affairs for the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.
The letter begins with the Chamber representative clearly wanting to frame the downtown business concerns as urgent.
“The Grand Rapids Chamber shares many of the values and priorities set by the City’s Strategic Plan, including goals for economic prosperity and a safe community. Unfortunately, as many of you are hearing, the high rate of shootings, violent crimes, trespassing, harassment and many other unacceptable actions continue to harm businesses and their employees in downtown, neighborhood business districts and other critical commercial corridors.”
The letter then goes on to list 13 separate incidents in the downtown area, involving some theft, but mostly incidents where there was public defecation, people shouting and causing a disturbance, someone using drugs in a business restroom, public masturbation, and a “camp” that was set up in a wooded area near a business.
Many of these incidents did not require the GRPD to be present, as there are numerous other services, organizations and entities that can deal with many of the conflicts or issues mentioned in this letter. Having heavily armed violence workers, as known as cops, show up to deal with issues of are community mental health, substance abuse, people who are houseless, are not only unnecessary, they often make the problems worse by escalating the conflict. We encourage people to read the report, Cops Don’t Stop Violence, co-produced by the Community Resource Hub and Interrupting Criminalization.
The GR Chamber letter does acknowledge the additional resources allocated by the City for Mental Health and the HOT Team, but those effort almost always include the GRPD to accompany mental health or social workers. Having police accompany those who have training and lots of experience with mental health, substance abuse and housing issues, simply creates a more hostile, intense or traumatic environment for people who are struggling.
The GR Chamber letter ends with the following paragraph:
That being said, it takes a long time to build a reputation as a clean, safe city and only a short time to lose it. We know there is not an easy fix or we’d already have done it, but I feel compelled to share it with you and increase awareness of the serious nature of what people are experiencing. The general feedback I get from many is that problems are getting worse and they don’t expect this to change. I look forward to further discussions and working with you and all stakeholders to promote the vibrant, safe environment that everyone in our community deserves.
These comments from the GR Chamber representative illustrates some clear contradictions. First, they say want a safe environmental for everyone, yet there are literally thousands of individual and families that are struggling with the cost of rent, food insecurity, unjust wages, and the structural racism that exists in this city. People can never be safe if they don’t have their basic needs met.
Second, the GR Chamber of Commerce has consistently opposed raising the minimum wage and does not support a living wage. The Chamber also supports rental property associations and housing developers, which dictate the cost of housing in this community, which excludes a significant percentage of the population. Over a decade ago, the GR Chamber gave birth to the group, the West Michigan Policy Forum (which is now an autonomous group) which is made up of the Grand Rapids Power Structure and has pushed legislation that benefits their interests, which are the same interests as the GR Chamber of Commerce – eliminating business taxes, privatizing the public sector, opposing labor unions, using public money for private sector-led development projects, etc. All of these things listed here make it impossible for thousands of people in Grand Rapids to have their basic needs met, thus contradicting the notion that the GR Chamber wants everyone to feel safe.
Third, the GR Chamber of Commerce has leverage with City officials, since several members of the current City Commission has received campaign contributions from the GR Chamber or prominent members of the local chamber. These contributions not only buys the GR Chamber and its prominent members access to politicians, it usually translates into action on the issues most urgent to them, such as creating spaces for people to purchase and consume.
Lastly, it is hard not to recognize that the GR Chamber primarily represents the professional and business class to the exclusion of working class people and large sectors of the BIPOC community which has to deal with the harsh realities of racial capitalism. I would argue that the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, with their primary commitment to free market capitalism, has actually helped to create the social and economic conditions that result in people being homeless, struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues, along with perpetuating Structural Racism, all of which has come back to hit the GR Chamber right in the face. The people that the GR Chamber of Commerce are complaining about in their letter to the Grand Rapids City Commission are in many ways are the collateral damage create by the free market capitalism that the GR Chamber and its members push on the rest of us.
The GRPD was monitoring the Civil Disobedience Training in Grand Rapids on Sunday, attempting to undermine it
On Sunday afternoon, I was co-facilitating a workshop on Civil Disobedience in Grand Rapids.
The training was designed to provide skill sharing to those who attended on the purpose of Civil Disobedience and how it can be used as an effective form of Direct Action to push for social change within any movement for collective liberation.
This particular training was primarily for allies who are involved in or want to be involved in the Justice4Patrick Movement. The GRPD has been targeting Black organizers, so if allies can be trained in direct action tactics, it can take some of the heat off of Black organizers who are at greater risk of State Violence in Grand Rapids.
There had been a Facebook event for the training for the past three weeks, but Friday, the location host of the training received a voicemail from the GRPD. Here is a transcription of that voicemail:
“This is Captain Terry Dixon of the Grand Rapids Police Department. Hey, just giving you a call in reference to your event, taking place on Sunday regarding civil unrest. Just have a few questions about it and if there was anything that law enforcement can do to come along side that in anyway. My telephone number is 616-456-4489. Have a blessed day.”
There are several things worth mentioning in regard to this message from the GRPD, which I will address here. First, the fact that the cop referred to the event as “civil unrest” is either willful ignorance – since the event page clearly stated this was a Civil Disobedience Training – or it was a feeble attempt to reframe the intent of the training from civil disobedience to civil unrest.
Second, the phone call from the GRPD Captain is a clear sign of the fact that they are monitoring the activities of grassroots dissident groups and movements, particularly those that are making demands for radical social transformation.
Third, the monitoring and surveillance by the GRPD of dissident groups is nothing new in Grand Rapids. Since the 1980s, I have been directly aware of this dynamic, where the GRPD is either monitoring dissident activity or has sought to infiltrate it. In the 1980s, while being involved in the Central American Solidarity and Sanctuary Movement, the GRPD was constantly monitoring our activity, both our literature (there was not internet then) and our public acts of resistance, which often involved Civil Disobedience. During the US invasion and military occupation of Iraq, we were able to submit a Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) to see what the GRPD was doing in response to anti-war organizing, which involved monitoring, surveillance and infiltration.
In 2018, during an action organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE, the GRPD did nothing to stop or pursue someone who have driven their car into protesters, significantly injuring one. A few weeks later, Movimiento Cosecha GR held a Press Conference about that action. While setting up for the Press Conference, two GRPD officers showed up asking if we needed any assistance. Organizers with Cosecha told them to leave, which they promptly did. After the Press Conference the GRPD was waiting in the parking lot and corralled one of the news reporters so they could give their version of what took place during the action where the cops allowed a motorist to run into protesters.
One last example, if from another FOIA request having to do with the lead up to and the day of the May 1st, 2019 march that Movimiento Cosecha GR had been organizing since 2017. From that FOIA, you can see that the GRPD was threatening to use chemical agents and other non-lethal munitions on the mostly immigrant population that showed up that day.
Fourth, the voicemail from the GRPD is not only an act of intimidation, it is an act of State Violence. The intent of the GRPD cop’s call to the training host was to send a message that they are watching, monitoring and will likely have a presence at or near the training that day, possibly even attempting to infiltrate the skill sharing event.
Lastly, the fact that the GRPD left a voice mail, based on a Facebook event post – and possibly the monitoring of communication between the groups involved – provides further evidence that the GRPD serves to protect the interests of the systems of power and oppression that run Grand Rapids. Any threat to those systems, whether it is a march, a training or various forms of direct action, will not be tolerated. The GRPD, like all police departments, are not primarily interested in preventing crime, they are interested in suppressing acts of dissent, which threaten business as usual in Grand Rapids.
This is the first 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.
The DeVos family has probably done more than any single family in West Michigan to contribute to the criminalization of abortion. The DeVos family undermines the efforts of reproductive justice through their money and political influence.
First, the DeVos family funds the anti-abortion movement through their foundations – the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, the Dan & Pamella DeVos Foundation and the CDV5 Foundation. The DeVos family has been consistently the largest funder of the anti-abortion movement from West Michigan, which not only has included funding to groups like Right to Life, it means funding “pregnancy resource centers,” and other groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the Acton Institute, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Council for National Policy, the Federalist Society, Hiilsdale College, and many other groups that include opposition to abortion as part of their work/mission. To see the history of their foundation contributions, you can download our document, a DeVos Family Reader.
Second, the DeVos family has provided millions of dollars to political candidates and to the Republican Party, which has consistently opposed abortion and have weakened women’s access to abortion at the state level for the past four decades. According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, between 1999 and 2016, the DeVos family contributed $81 Million to the Republican Party. In 2018, the DeVos family contributed $11 million, leading up to the 2018 Election and in 2020, GRIID documented that they contributed $12.7 million in the 2020 Election. This means that the DeVos family has contributed a little over $100 million since 1999 to Republican candidates, all of whom are endorsed by Right to Life and are staunchly committed to opposing abortion.
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 DeVos family. We know where they live and where their headquarters are located in downtown Grand Rapids.
Over the next few weeks, we will be posting information and links to candidate websites and/or social media pages so that people can see what their policy positions are and what they say they will do if elected.
So far we have looked at the candidates and their policy platform information for the 3rd Congressional race, the State Senate races, and the State Representative races. Today, we will look at those running for seats on the Kent County Commission.
We do this in part, since we cannot rely on the dominant commercial news media to provide this information or any robust analysis of the policy platforms of those running for office.
In late July we will also be posting information on campaign financing for these same candidates, so that people have as much information as possible about candidates before the August Primary and the November 2022 Election.
Now, personally I identify politically as an anarchist, so I don’t put much stock in representative democracy or the electoral process. However, I do think it is important for people to think critically about the political/electoral process that currently exists.
In today’s post, we look at Kent County Commission races. As a Kent County Commissioner, these candidates will be voting/deciding on a wide range of critical issues, such as, funding for the Kent County Jail, which has a disproportionate number of Black and Latinx inmates. Then there is the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, which continues to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, by notifying ICE and holding undocumented immigrants until ICE decides what to do with them. Kent County Commissioners could also take a position in support of undocumented immigrants who want to obtain a driver’s license, since they are currently prohibited from doing so. Kent County Commissioners will also decide on important issues like affordable housing in this area and not contribute to the gentrification of neighborhoods. Kent County could promote the idea that everyone should make a livable wage, which is roughly $20 an hour for a single person to afford the basics in this area. Kent County Commissioners will make important ecological decisions, around how to effectively deal with PFSA’s that are in the water and soil in Kent County because of corporate malfeasance, along with a more robust policy to deal with corporate polluters, the protection of the Grand River, and preventing the use of chemical fertilizers, which will impact the main water supplies in the area. Kent County has yet to offer concrete policy decisions on the matter of structural racism in this area, even though they have been presented with a proposal to adopt a Racism is a Public Health issue framework.
As an anarchist, I believe that my aspirations and the desire to work towards Collective Liberation is rarely reflected in the electoral/representative democracy process. Where are the candidates who are publicly anti-capitalist and anti-racist? Where are the candidates that oppose the homophobic and transphobic policies and practices in this country and in this community? Where are the candidates that are anti-colonialist, who believe that Indigenous sovereignty and land should be a priority? Where are the candidates that are committed to reparations for Black people? Where are the candidates who believe that housing, income, education and health care are fundamental rights? Where are the candidates who are committed to resisting the current climate crisis and oppose things like the Enbridge Line 3 and Line 5? Where are the candidates that want to deal with root causes of problems, instead false solutions perpetuated by charitable groups and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex? Where are the candidates that not only support labor unions but actively work to support workers to create workplace democracy? Where are the candidates who support reproductive justice? We all deserve a better world and we need to support politics that dismantles systems of power and oppression, not perpetuate them.
Below are the candidates for the 21 different Kent County Commission seats. In looking at all of their campaign platform/policy pages, no one stands out as embracing positions that many social movements have been demanding, although a few candidates do mention some of those demands, without providing solutions or commitments. The language for many of the candidate platforms are often vague, and almost always the candidates avoid language that seeks to work towards structural or systematic change. There are also 9 Democratic Candidates and 6 Republican candidates which had no online platform information.
Kent County Commission District 1
Jerry Berta D
No online platform
Ben Green R
https://www.votebengreene.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BenGreeneMI
Mark Jordan R
https://www.facebook.com/BenGreeneMI
Kent County Commission District 2
Rebecca Diffin D
No online platform
Thomas Antor R
No online platform
Kent County Commission District 3
Janalee Keegstra D
No online platform
Mark Laws R
No online platform
Jennifer Merchant R
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080382173562
Kent County Commission District 4
Judy Wood D
No online platform
Katie DeBoer R
https://www.facebook.com/katie4kent
Diane Jones R
https://www.dianejonesforcommissioner.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dianejones2014
Kent County Commission District 5
Vanessa Lee D
https://www.facebook.com/Vanessa-Lee-for-Kent-County-Commission-106779902041903
Stefanie Boone R
https://www.facebook.com/booneforkcc/
Dave Hildenbrand R
https://www.davehildenbrand.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MIDaveHildenbrand
Kent County Commission District 6
Nicholas H. Vander Veen D
No online platform
Stan Stek R
https://www.facebook.com/StanStek/
Kent County Commission District 7
Sue Merrell D
https://electsuemerrell.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Nov8.2022
Stan Ponstein R
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063712706170
Kent County Commission District 8
Jennie Chatman D
No online platform
Dan Burrill R
https://www.danburrillforkent.com/
https://www.facebook.com/danburrillforkent
Kent County Commission District 9
Chip LaFleur D
No online platform
Matt Kallman R
Kent County Commission District 10
Julie Humphreys D
https://www.facebook.com/kentcommissiondistrict10
Emily Post Brieve R
https://www.facebook.com/CommissionerBrieve/
Bill Hirsch R
https://www.facebook.com/BillForKCC
Kent County Commission District 11
John Considine D
No online platform
AJ Hoff R
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082071813687
Lindsey Thiel R
https://www.facebook.com/CommissionerLindseyThiel/
Kent County Commission District 12
Monica Sparks D
https://www.facebook.com/MonicaSparks4KCC/
Adam R. Palasek R
No online platform
Lee White R
https://www.leewhiteforcommissioner.com/
Kent County Commission District 13
Michelle McCloud D
https://www.facebook.com/mccloudkcc13
Tom McKelvey R
https://www.mckelvey4commissioner.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ElectTomMcKelvey/
Nick Prill R
https://www.facebook.com/Nick4Kent/
Kent County Commission District 14
Carol Hennessy D
https://www.facebook.com/CommissionerCarolHennessy
Jerri Schmidt R
https://www.jerrischmidtforkentcounty.com/
Kent County Commission District 15
Lisa S. Oliver-King D
Brian Boersema R
No online platform
Kent County Commission District 16
Melissa LaGrand D
https://www.melissalagrand.com/
https://www.facebook.com/VoteMelissaLaGrand
Jim Talen D
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100080597371234
John Brooks Twist R
No online platform
Kent County Commission District 17
Tony Baker D
https://www.facebook.com/CTETonyBaker/
Victor Williams D
https://votevictorwilliams.com/
https://www.facebook.com/votevictorwilliams
Jason Gillikin R
No online platform
Kent County Commission District 18
Stephen Wooden D
https://www.stephenwooden.com/
https://www.facebook.com/votewooden
Tim Allen R
Josie Kornev R
https://www.facebook.com/josieforkent
Kent County Commission District 19
Dave Bulkowski D
https://davebulkowski.squarespace.com/
https://www.facebook.com/davebulkowski
Kris Pachla D
https://www.facebook.com/krispachla
Jeremiah Bannister R
No online platform
Samuel R. Carstens R
https://www.carstensforcommissioner.com/
Kent County Commission District 20
Ivan Diaz D
https://www.facebook.com/people/Ivan-Diaz-for-Kent-County-Commissioner/100078727971393/?ref=py_c
Elisa Rodriguez R
No online platform
Kent County Commission District 21
Charles Howe D
No online platform
Alan Bolter R
https://www.facebook.com/votebolter
Walter Bujak R
The 2023 State Budget is receiving bipartisan support, with several issues being highlighted by Gov. Whitmer and other State Legislators.
One are in particular that will receive millions more in public money is the Michigan State Police Department.
In a statement released by State Senator Mark Huizenga, he highlighted funding for police and corrections, stating:
“…..and funding to train and hire 170 state police troopers and train 800 corrections officers.”
State Representative David LaGrand, also had positive words for the 2023 State Budget funding for policing in Michigan:
“I am very glad to support the budget we passed today. I’m especially proud to see that several of my priorities are part of the final budget, including funding for public safety. We’ve included grants for community policing….”
The 2023 Michigan Budget includes the following for policing. After each funding allocation, GRIID provides some commentary.
- $9.2 million to support a Trooper Recruit School (general fund) anticipated to graduate 50 new troopers in addition to the 120 troopers that are anticipated to be hired and trained using existing attrition savings. This investment allows the department to increase enlisted strength to nearly 2,200 while continuing to increase the diversity of uniformed personnel. GRIID Comments: More funding to recruit more cops does not translate into safer communities. Over and over again, the public is mislead into believing this major fallacy of more police, safer communities. See the report, Cops Don’t Stop Violence.
- $3.7 million to improve Data Collection during Traffic Stops (general fund) through the development of new tracking and documentation systems including a benchmarking dashboard and increasing data collected during traffic stops to allow for easier review and analysis of traffic stops made by the State Police. These improvements will build upon the recommendations of the recent Michigan State University Traffic Stop Study. GRIID Comments: Last year, the Michigan State Police had conducted a traffic stop study, which concluded there was racial disparity by their department. Despite this, the public will provide more money to tell us what we already know about policing, traffic stops and racial profiling.
- $3 million to expand Training and Professional Development (general fund) to provide training on cultural competency, implicit bias, and decision-making to expand positive interactions between department members, minority groups, and the diverse communities that the department serves. GRIID Comments: There are numerous studies demonstrating that racial sensitivity and cultural competency training for police departments are ineffective. As Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing states, “Diversity and multicultural training is not a new idea, nor is it terribly effective. Most officers have already been through some form of diversity training and tend to describe it as politically motived, feel-good programming divorced from the realities of street policing. Researchers have found no impact on problems like racial disparities in traffic stops or marijuana arrests; both implicit and explicit bias remain, even after targeted and intensive training. This is not necessarily because officers remain committed to their racial biases, though this can be true, 19 but because institutional pressures remain intact.”
- $1.8 million to establish a Victim Services Program (general fund) that will support 14 full-time Victim Advocates across the state. These positions will serve to support victims’ needs early in their interactions with the criminal justice system while also building partnerships with community organizations in support of victim advocacy. GRIID Comments: There should be funding for victims of crime, but it should not go to the Michigan State Police. Funding for crime victims should go through the Department of Social Services.
- $1.1 million to increase the department’s capacity to Prevent, Detect, and Investigate Cybercrimes (general fund). This investment will support statewide investigatory assistance and digital forensic examinations to further the department’s position as a leader in areas of cyber security, computer crimes, and digital evidence. GRIID Comments: Cyber crimes prevention, detection and investigation should also not be done by the Michigan State Police. Such categories are nothing more than justifications for police departments to receive more funding.
- $1 million for Trooper Recruitment (general fund) to broaden the racial, ethnic, and gender makeup of the department to make it more representative of the communities it serves. This investment will support digital marketing campaigns, recruiting events, and improved public relations to assist the department in achieving its recruiting goals for enlisted positions. GRIID Comments: Recruiting and hiring more cops based on gender, race and ethnicity will NOT address the deep seated lack of trust between the police and the public. Do you think it matters that having a Black cop arrest you, beat you or shoot you is any better than a white cop doing the same?
This comes to about $20 million, which is on top of the massive amount of money the Michigan State Police receives as part of their standard operating budget each year. Have we learned nothing in the past few years? More and more of the public are demanding defending of police departments and the re-allocation of those funds to go towards community needs such as housing, health care, food security and education. The 2023 Michigan Budget demonstrates once again that more money for cops is a bipartisan project.
Skill sharing and Direct Action: Civil Disobedience Training set for Sunday, July 10 in Grand Rapids
The late, great radical historical, Howard Zinn, once wrote:
As soon as you say the topic is civil disobedience, you are saying our problem is civil disobedience. That is not our problem…. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.
Zinn was not writing these words as some theoretical reflection, he was writing them in the context of the way that the system was dealing with members of the Black Freedom Struggle, along with those resisting US Imperialism in Vietnam. Zinn also wrote these words just after he arrested in November of 1970, where is was protesting at a US Military base, attempting to stop a load of soldiers who were being sent to Vietnam.
Civil Disobedience has been a centuries old tactic, used by political dissidents and other revolutionaries who were committed to Direct Action as a primary strategy for social change. People resisting wars have used it for over a century in the US. Black activists and white allies used it during the 1950s – 1970s part of the Black Freedom Struggle. Some example from then were – Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus, the lunch counter protests, the freedom rides, and marches that were not sanctioned by the authorities.
Civil disobedience has been used by the group ACT Up, the Environmental Justice Movement, the Central American Solidarity Movement, the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Disability Justice Movement, and so many more.
The power of civil disobedience is the intention defiance of the law, to not only amplify the issue that people are protesting, but to disrupt the business as usual approach to protesting.
On Sunday, there is a Civil Disobedience training being offered in Grand Rapids, which you can sign up for by going to this link. The training will include role playing, Civil Disobedience 101, jail solidarity, courtroom solidarity and media messaging.
This particular training is for allies who can leverage their privilege in the Justice4Patrick Movement that is currently happening in Grand Rapids. Those who participate in the training might be asked by Black leadership to use the skills learned for an action. BIPOC people are also welcome to participate, but the intention is to get more allies committed to this kind of Direct Action, in part, as a way to take some of the pressure off of Black organizers that are being targeted by the GRPD.
The training lasts two hours, but you need to register for the training by sending an e-mail to sjeff987@gmail.com.
Lastly, the training is intended to be a safe space, so no cops, no cop sympathizers, no racists and no other forms of oppressive behavior will be tolerated. If you plan to attend this training, you will need to either know people who are already part of this movement or bring documentation/evidence that you are connected to those in the movement.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 