How best to police the GRPD: Not with incremental reformism, no autonomy and no community control
Last Tuesday, the recently created Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA) presented their strategic plan to the Grand Rapids City Commission. The OPA presented their plan during the City Commission’s Meeting of the Whole, which takes place in the morning.
The OPA’s Strategic Plan is 23 pages long and consists of lots of platitudes about equity and accountability, but is low on content that would actually translate into holding the GRPD accountable. Over half of the document is made up of introductions, overviews, mission statements and principles, before one gets to a real strategic plan.
Starting on page 12, one can read components of the Strategic Plan, beginning with the theme of Change and followed by Accountability, Restorative Justice, Engagement and Empowerment.
Before we provide a deconstruction of the Strategic Plan, we think it is important to point out a major flaw in the work and approach of the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. The OPA is not an independent entity and they make it very clear that they are working collaboratively with the GRPD to achieve the goals they have laid forth. How to they expect to practice accountability if they are not a separate, independent entity? How does the OPA plan to implement real accountability when they are partnering with/collaborating with the very entity they are tasked to hold accountable? The GRPD has their own Internal Affairs, which is supposed to be an accountability mechanism, yet it is simply cops policing cops. How is the OPA going to be any different, especially since they answer to the same City officials?
In the section entitled Change, the first objective is to embed equity into all public safety operations, which is a more benign way of referring to policing. Here, some of the strategies are to 1) Evaluate the racial equity impacts of all public policies and initiatives, and 2) work with other City departments to ensure that a racial equity lens is applied to budgetary requests. It is the policy of the GRPD to disproportionately patrol Black and latinx neighborhoods, so how does racial equity factor in here? Also, on budgetary matters, when the GRPD requests weaponry, how exactly does a racial equity lens work when deciding which firearms, pepper spray or other dispersal weapons the department decides to purchase?
In the 2nd objective, under the Change section, referred to as “innovation and collaboration”, they include ride-alongs with the GRPD, plus reviews and reports on all lethal force used. These are innovative and collaborative practices???
The 3rd objective, under the Change section, is named as creating a path to healthy relationships between police and community. Here they suggest more diversity in hiring, having the OPA respond to all GRPD shootings and work with the GRPD to reimagine policing. All research shows that having a diversity of cops does not lead to greater trust within communities. What does it even mean for the OPA respond to all GRPD shootings and what exactly does reimagining the GRPD even look like? It’s as if they consulted with Richard Florida to write this stuff.
The next section is called Accountability, which also has 3 main objectives. Under the first objective, some of the strategies are to “publish standard operating procedures”, plus to make sure that the OPA has unfettered access to all public safety records. Shouldn’t the OPA automatically have access to all matters of policing? Isn’t that they very reason for their existence? Also, shouldn’t the public have access to this information, especially if the GRPD wants to practice transparency and accountability?
The second objective under the Accountability section has to do with the internal complaint process. Some strategies here are to monitor and review every internal affairs investigation, review changes to Union contracts, and to ensure the findings of the internal affairs are shared publicly. This is one of the few times were the OPA states they will share information publicly, but unfortunately they do not say how this information will be shared with the public. The public should not have to request or hunt down such information online, instead it should be extremely visible and user friendly.
The third objective under the Accountability section are centered around the Civilian Appeals Board (CAB). Some of the strategies are to evaluate conflicts of interest, adjust the time and location of the Civilian Appeals Board meetings to increase community participation, and ensure that the finding of the CAB are reported publicly. Again, more clarity is needed on how this information will be accessible to the public.
Under the section entitled Restorative Justice, there are also 3 objectives. The first objective has tremendous potential, which includes:
- Partner with the City Attorney’s Office to address historical systemic inequities and to create alternatives that can be utilized in addition to traditional prosecution
- Evaluate and recommend the decriminalization of crimes or changes to policies, ordinances, and laws that disparately impact communities of color
- Implement programming that assists formerly incarcerated individuals with re-establishing themselves as productive members of society
- Implement expungement programs and other strategies that increase the ability of community members to obtain employment and housing after obtaining a criminal conviction
In this section, the OPA needs to reach out to the community to solicit ways to achieve these strategies, which should include an evaluation and oppositional approach to mass incarceration, plus an abolitionist approach to Restorative Justice, which would not only benefit those most impacted by mass incarceration, but demonstrate that the way Grand Rapids does policing and the size of the GRPD budget are NOT necessary.
The second objective under Restorative Justice includes, “facilitating discussion regarding understand the racist origins of the historic tension between public safety and race.” This could be an important conversation, but depending on how it is facilitated, by whom, and who would be involved. Too often when cops are present, people don’t feel safe speaking the truth. This discussion should be held throughout the year and they should center community voices.
The third objective in this section is primarily about more data collection on when people are stopped by the GRPD, in traffic or otherwise. We all know what these studies have produced in the past, with damning evidence, but no real outcomes or consequences for the GRPD.
The fourth and final section of the OPA document is entitled Engagement and Empowerment. Under objective one we find, “Create pathways to to elevate community voice in all policing operations” and ways to engage historically marginalized populations to be engaged with the GRPD. I find it hard to believe that this will be taken seriously, since there is very little trust between marginalized communities and the cops, plus what does it even mean to elevate community voices in policing? Frankly, little of this can be taken seriously, not unless the community has real control over policing.
In the second objective with Engagement and Empowerment, there are strategies like a civil rights youth academy for middle schoolers with stakeholders and hosting a Law Day to introduce middle schoolers to policing. Middle school age children should not have to interact with cops and a civil rights academy should also not include police, but could be effective if it was run like the Freedom Schools were during the Civil Rights era.
The third objective in this section all centers around the idea of making all people feel safe at all times. If the city is serious about this, then the GRPD needs to stop targeting people in Black and latinx neighborhoods and stop over-policing people subjected to poverty. The City also needs to actually defund the GRPD and redirect funds to Black residents and allow them to determine how this money would be used. These action would actually help build trust between residents and the City, by moving in the direction of defunding and paying reparations for those who have been affected by policing.
Again, this document from the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability might be seen as an important step forward, but as we note throughout our assessment, the plan has no real teeth to many of the strategies, too much incremental reformism and no autonomy for a community watchdog group to truly function.
West Michigan Far Right Watch for August 22 – 28
Welcome to the next installment of West Michigan Far Right Watch, where we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.
Last Saturday, there was a Solidarity Action in Grand Rapids, where those in support of Black Lives were confronted by a QAnon group claiming to care about the lives of children who are being tafficked. We did an interview with an organizer who talked about their encounter with members of this far right group, along with threats from the GRPD.
The Acton Institute made our list for the second week, with another article from their Executive Editor, the Rev. Ben Johnson, talking about 5 insights from the first night of the Republican National Convention. The 5 insights are reflective of the ideological positions of the Acton Institute, which included:
- Christianity and socialism are incompatible.
- Medical innovation saves lives; socialized medicine kills.
- Teachers unions put their members’ interests above children.
- The American Dream is alive and well for the black community.
- The American Dream is indispensable for the rest of the world.
Clearly, the Acton Institute has an extremely different view of the world, but these 5 insights are completely in line with their mission.
Lastly, Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack posted a screen shot of a message from an officer in the Grand Rapids Police Department, a message you can see here on the right.
The Grand Rapids Police Department also posted the following on their Facebook page, dated August 25:
On Sunday, August 23, a social media post attributed to one of our police officers was forwarded to our Police Department and Office of Oversight and Public Accountability. This matter is now under investigation. As such, no further comment can be made regarding this matter at this time.
As of this writing, there is still no word on what action, if any, the GRPD has taken on this cops social media posting. What is instructive, are the comments that accompanied the GRPD social media post, which reflects how deeply entrenched White Supremacy is in West Michigan.
Black athletes go on strike, forcing white fans to deal with policing and White Supremacy, again!
“Black athletes should take all this fame the white man gave to us because we fought for his entertainment, and we can turn it around. Instead of beating up each other, we will use our fame for freedom.”
The statement above is from former Heavyweight boxer Muhammed Ali in the late 1960s, after the boxing commission had stripped him of his boxing crown.
Yesterday, we witnessed once again how athletes, especially Black athletes, are using the status, their high profiles, their fame, in the cause of freedom. The Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team decided that they could not play their schedule playoff game against the Orlando Magic, just days after the police shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Kenosha Wisconsin.
Instead of playing basketball, the Milwaukee Bucks players read a statement to the news media:
“The past four months have shed a light on the ongoing racial injustices facing our African American communities. Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings.
Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protestors. Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.
When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable. We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement.
We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the officers be held accountable. For this to occur, it is imperative for the Wisconsin State Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction and take up meaningful measures to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform. We encourage all citizens to educate themselves, take peaceful and responsible action, and remember to vote on Nov. 3.”
This action by the Bucks players led to the cancellation of the other two NBA playoff games last night, with player from other teams stating that they were also refusing to play basketball as long as police continue to murder Black people.
This demonstration of solidarity was then taken up by the WNBA, the Women’s National Basketball Association, who also refused to play in the games that were scheduled for Wednesday, August 26th. The WNBA players also released a statement that read:
“We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA and will continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action. What we have seen over the last few months, and most recently with the brutal police shooting of Jacob Blake, is overwhelming. And while we hurt for Jacob and his community, we also have an opportunity to keep the focus on the issues and demand change. These moments are why it’s important for our fans to stay focused, hear our voices, know our hearts and connect the dots from what we say to what we do.”
The ripple effects of solidarity didn’t end there. Several Major League Baseball games were cancelled, because Black players took a stand against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. According to a reporter with ESPN, “Mookie Betts, Dave Roberts, Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen are standing side by side in San Francisco addressing the media. Betts said he wasn’t going to play regardless. Once that was the case, Kershaw said, the team rallied around him.”
In addition, while the NFL is not yet playing games, teams are in the midst of practicing, in preparation for the regular season to start. Yesterday, the New York Giants delayed their scheduled practice, because the players wanted to have a frank conversation about the police murder of Jacob Blake. On Tuesday, the Detroit Lions football team decided to cancelled their practice as a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
It seems that athletes across the country are using their fame, as Ali once said, to not only protest yet another police murder of a Black person, but by refusing to play, they are going on strike. Professional athletes are employees of the team owners, thus their collective refusal to play, which will financially hurt the owners, is essentially a strike.
These actions and statements by professional athletes is forcing more and more of America to have to come to terms with White Supremacy, and not just the White Supremacist practices of the police, but the White Supremacy of lawmakers, businesses and other sectors of society that continue to ignore the demands from the Movement for Black Lives.
Such actions by professional athletes is nothing new. In fact, Black athletes have been making demands for decades, whether we are talking about Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier to the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which went public with their platform during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The 1968 protest was made famous when John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their fists during the awards ceremony. Carlos and Smith were part of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which was organized by Dr. Harry Edwards. Their demands during the 1968 Olympics were:
- South Africa, a country under white minority rule, was uninvited to the summer games.
- Muhammad Ali’s world heavyweight boxing title was restored. It had been stripped because of his refusal to take part in the military draft in the United States.
- American Avery Brundage stepped down as president of the International Olympic Committee
- More black coaches were hired, especially for Olympics teams.
- The New York Athletic Club was boycotted for its membership policy prohibiting Puerto Rican, black and Jewish members.
These kinds of demands were wide ranging and international in scope, just as the Movement for Black Lives have been.
However, a major issue is not just what Black athletes are doing to protest, but what response will there be from white people. According to Dave Zirin’s powerful book, A People’s History of Sports in the United States, when Jack Johnson (a Black boxer) beat Jim Jeffries ( a white boxer) in 1910, there were race riots across the US, with white people attacking Black neighborhoods.
Jackie Robinson received death threats when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, as did Hank Aaron when he was getting ready to surpass the career home run record that had been previously held by Babe Ruth, in 1974. We saw the white vitriol on display when Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel before an NFL game, in protest of the police murdering of Black people. And we see how white people have been responding to the most recent uprising that began shortly after a cop in Minneapolis murdered George Floyd.
We should never doubt the courage and conviction of Black people who have been fighting for centuries against a system of White Supremacy. Where there are serious doubts, is whether or not white people will fight alongside Black people and work to dismantle the system of White Supremacy that permeates all of our institutions. As the old labor song goes, Which side are you on my people, which side are you on! It is past time for White people to get on the side of freedom.
Update: As of this writing, early Thursday morning, it is being reported by several sources that during the NBA players meeting, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angels Lakers will strike for the rest of the season and until there is significant change. LeBron James, with the LA Lakers said that the two LA teams will remain on strike until NBA owners take action!
Campaign Finance records show that the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association recently contributed money to two local Democratic Politicians
Shortly after the national uprising against the police lynching of George Floyd, we posted an article about which area politicians had been receiving funding from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association (GRPOA) PAC since 2014.
There were several candidates who received contributions from the GRPD union who were running for office as City Commissioners or Mayors, which are non-partisan races. However, in most of the partisan races, the GRPOA PAC has overwhelmingly contributed to Democrats. This was the case for 2020 so far, based on data from the Michigan Secretary of State, with the two candidates taking contributions from the GRPD union being Democrats.
Kent County Commissioner Carol Hennessy and State Senator Winnie Brinks both took $500 contributions from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association (GRPOA) PAC.
I sent an e-mail to both Hennessy and Brinks, asking the following question:
I saw that your re-election campaign received $500 from the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association PAC earlier this year. The US is in the midst of one of the largest social movements in history – the anti-police violence/Defunding the Police movement. Considering this fact, why would you take money from a police union?
One could certainly argue that neither Hennessy or Brinks would need the $500 from the cop union to run an affective re-election campaign, so why would they accept this money?
In addition, as we reported, the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association endorsed the far right candidate for the 3rd Congressional seat, Tom Norton.
One would think that the since the GRPOA endorsed a far right politician would be enough of a reason to not accept any campaign contributions from them, but here we have two Democrats taking money right in the midst of a massive social movement, which is calling for the Police to be Defunded.
As of this writing, I have not heard back from Commissioner Hennessy, nor from Senator Brinks.
We were recently able to access the 2018 990 documents from the various DeVos family foundations, through GuideStar.org. These foundations include, the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation, the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, the Dan & Pamela DeVos Foundation and the CDV5 Foundation.
We have been tracking the DeVos family foundations for years, since it provides useful information on how the family strategically uses their money to influence the world around us. It is important to recognize that when people generally think of philanthropy, they think of money going from those with tremendous wealth to non-profits who provide needed services in the community. While there is some truth to this, what we will demonstrate in this series of articles, is that the DeVos family uses their foundation money to primarily wage ideological and class warfare.
In Part I of this series, we looked at how the DeVos family foundation funded and influenced educational institutions in West Michigan and across the US. In Part II, we looked at how the DeVos family foundations funded far right Christian organizations, and in today’s post we want to take a look at how these same foundation have funded Think Tanks and other groups that influence public policy, along with organizations that practice far right and Neoliberal policies. In Part III, we looked how the DeVos foundations are funding far right think tanks and other public policy influencing organizations. Today, we want to focus on how much the DeVos foundations have contributed to organizations which they have created themselves during the 2018 fiscal year alone.
AmplifyGR – $62,994 – The DeVos-created AmplifyGR was born in secrecy, with millions being spent to purchase land in the Boston Square area of Grand Rapids, before the organization revealed its plans to the public. GRIID has posted nearly two dozens articles about AmplifyGR and what is so problematic about what their longterm plans are for the mostly Black neighborhood.
ArtPrize – $900,000 – We have also written extensively about ArtPrize, from multiple angles, but one thing is clear that ArtPrize has financially benefited the DeVos family and their closest allies in the Grand Rapids area.
Believe 2 Become – $688,529 – One non-profit director told us that AmplifyGR was created by the DeVos family, since the Believe 2 Become project had not brought them the results fast enough. Even so, Believe 2 Become has been a tremendous vehicle for the DeVos family, providing an opportunity in insert Christianity into the GRPS and to promote business class values and “talent development.”
Christian Leadership Institute – $837,000 – Richard DeVos Sr. mentored the founder of the Christian Leadership Institute, which develops Christian leaders in the same ideological framework that drives the DeVos family.
Gatherings of Hope – $888,471 – Gatherings of Hope (GOH) was created specifically through the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation, to develop local Christian leadership, to document what social services that churches were providing and how best to connect those services to people. GOH does nothing to dismantled the systems of power and oppression, which cause individuals and families to seek out the services that these churches offer.
Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders – $100,000 – The GRIL is an outgrowth of the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative, which says that their goal is to, “make a positive impact on the lives of disadvantaged, urban youth by investing in their leaders.” Essentially, this project is designed to get urban youth interested in Christianity and capitalism, without questions the larger systems of power and oppression that created their “disadvantage.”
edNet – $330,527 – edNet was created as a way to infiltrate public schools and to pull teachers away from participating in unions. Read our assessment of what is problematic about this DeVos-create entity.
Start Garden Foundation – $230,000 – Start Garden, was created by Rick DeVos as a venture capitalist project that the son of Dick & Betsy could run. The project has shifted in recent years by attempting to win over Black and latinx residents to the joys of entrepreneurism. Here is just one of the critiques we have written about Start Garden.
West Michigan Aviation Academy – $832,000 – This school is a pet project of Dick DeVos, in part because of his interest in flying, but more importantly his commitment to privatized education. In 2019, Dick got mad because Gov. Whitmer was against an increase in funding of charter schools, with public money.
In the end, besides the millions of dollars that the DeVos family foundations have contributed to organizations that embrace their ideological and capitalist class values, they have made it a goal of theirs to create their own organizations that can promote the ideological and class warfare they are waging against us, without all the messiness that comes with organizations that the DeVos family can’t always control.
In Part V of this series, we will look at which non-profits in Grand Rapids received funding from the DeVos foundations and how that prevents them from challenging power and oppression.
Interview with student organizer from the Sunrise Movement, which protested outside of Betsy DeVos’s home
On Thursday, members of the Sunrise Movement organized a demonstration outside of the multi-million dollar mansion of Dick & Betsy DeVos. About 40 people with the Sunrise Movement took part in the action.
The action was part of Sunrise’s Wide Awake direct action program, a homage to the mid-nineteenth century abolitionist movement that disturbed the sleep of government officials who resisted abolition. The same method of nonviolent direct action is necessary today, Sunrise says, because “ While they profit, we lose sleep, our teachers and students have to choose between an education and their health. While the stock market booms, public schools all over the country are losing funding if they don’t open and teachers are tasked with the impossibility of teaching a full curriculum while supporting students in a pandemic”.
According to the group’s Media Release:
The rise in Covid-19 case numbers across the United States, the global leader in infections and deaths from the virus, have many students and educators concerned about plans to return to in-person education in the fall. There are fears that such a return to in-person
instruction would inevitably lead to more cases, placing further strain on an inadequate healthcare system and ultimately resulting in more death. Many have raised the concern that those most affected by a return to school will be those from impoverished, disadvantaged, and marginalized backgrounds where parents don’t have the flexibility to keep their children home in a hybridized model.
The issue was addressed by one of the speakers, Siena Ramirez, a high school student and Sunrise organizer from the Grand Rapids area, “Betsy and our institution of education have built their foundations on giving away BIPOC bodies that aren’t theirs to give away”. The bucket banging, cheers, and applause that followed her statement suggested that the pain she felt was shared.
We had the opportunity to interview Siena once GRIID had heard about the action at the DeVos mansion in Holland.
GRIID – What was the primary motivation for your protest outside of the DeVos home in Holland?
Siena – Our motivation is definitely rooted in the reality that time and time again billionaires, such as the DeVos family, profit at the expense of all of our lives. While this is the reality, our movement is dedicated to creating a new day and in turn a new reality where we no longer suffer at the hands of billionaires. A lot of us are also students and teachers that understand in-person schooling directly endangers us, our families and the public and we believe Betsy needs a wake up call.
GRIID – What are the main issues you have with DeVos as Secretary of Education?
Siena – I think a really big issue with Betsy is that she is forcing us back into schools with extremely unsafe conditions where the most vulnerable folx will be affected (low-income, BIPOC and marginalized districts and students), we’ve also seen her threaten to take funding away from schools with already stretched budgets, if they choose not to return to in-person instruction. Betsy has essentially engineered this crisis, falling asleep at the wheel, at the cost of thousands of students’ and teachers’ lives. Even before her call to return to in-person schooling, we’ve seen her efforts to funnel public funding into charter schools, taking money away from districts that need that funding the most. Betsy hasn’t listened to us, the students and teachers on the front lines, we are the folx she is supposed to serve yet all she has done is deepen and design this crisis.
GRIID – What connection, if any, do you see between the DeVos push to re-open schools and the capitalist class push to re-open the economy in the midst of a pandemic?
Siena – I think DeVos has been advised that without reopening schools completely, the economy will be devastated by the loss of parents who need to stay home to care for their young students. We are also heading into another recession, that could be exponentially worsened by the loss of so many workers, Betsy would rather see profits than protect us from being exposed to COVID-19 in our schools nationwide. This is also connected to the capitalist class exploiting workers by exposing them to COVID-19 in their rush to reopen the economy, so I believe there’s a heavy connection.
GRIID – Did you get any kind of response from DeVos or her handlers for the protest? Did the police show up? and what did think about the article that MLive ran?
Siena – As far as I know, nobody associated with DeVos have commented. The police were definitely around, no sirens or arrests but quite a few cop cars were paying attention to us. I think the article did a good job of articulating why we’re angry but I also think it left out a major part, that being we see how this crisis, Betsy’s support of privatization of education and essentially the whole reason she’s even the Secretary of Education is directly tied to capitalism in this country.
For additional analysis of the policies that Betsy DeVos has initiated in her position as Secretary of Education, go to our Betsy DeVos Watch section.
Grand Rapids participates in statewide Solidarity Action, GRPD threatens activists with arrest
On Saturday, there was a solidarity action in downtown Grand Rapids, which coincided with actions across the state that was initiated by organizers in Detroit called Detroit Will Breathe.
The event took place right where the Rosa Parks statue is in downtown Grand Rapids, which information booths, sign holding a speakers. I was only there for the first hour, but there was plenty of activity and some tensions because of another “rally” that was taking place just south of the solidarity action, along Monroe.
The other “rally” was part of the Save the Children Movement, which, as the New York Times has pointed out, has been hijacked by QAnon followers.
I was able to interview someone who was doing crowd safety for the solidarity action, who talks about his interaction with some of the Save the Children people and then a brief interaction from a cop with the GRPD, who threatened to arrest people, specifically a young latinx organizer. Here is that interview.
The Solidarity action that took place across the state also had a list of demands, which continued to reflect how numerous movements have been working together since the pandemic hit and after George Floyd was lynched by a cop in Minneapolis. These demands are important and reflect a growing sense of urgency of not wanting to simply return to normal after the pandemic or after the 2020 elections.
Demands
1. No Federal Agents – We demand the immediate withdrawal of federal agents from our communities including DEA, CBP, ICE, ATF and all other vigilante federal law enforcement agencies. Federal agents act with impunity, violating our right to privacy through mass surveillance, and criminalizing poverty. Programs such as Operation Legend allow federal agents to terrorize immigrant communities with deportation under the guise of crime control by local police cooperating with ICE. In Black communities, the use of federal agents to address crime is a hollow response from the federal government that is intended to further incarcerate and impoverish Black people. We demand the federal government instead use the funds to support social and community services that lead to a higher quality of life and ultimate crime reduction such as public education, libraries, community centers, mental health services and more.
2. No School Re-openings until there are no new cases in the state – In Detroit, three students have tested positive for COVID-19 out of the 280 students who were tested in the summer school program. Now the district following guidance from the state plans to continue with in person classes. This is an experiment on Black and Brown children which puts their lives at risk for no other reason than to get their parents back at work and restart the economy. Black and Brown children must not be sacrificed for economic gain. The state legislature has consolidated control over the public school system in Michigan by defunding and marginalizing Black majority school districts since 1994. The push to open schools in Detroit is a result of the district being targeted by the state and insufficiently funded. Classrooms were overcrowded and inadequate for learning before COVID -19 and In a moment in which social distancing is imperative for preserving human life, children and their families are being forced to subject themselves to possible infection.
3. Defund the police and the DOC – The Michigan State Police budget will reach $726 million dollars in 2021. That is a $33 million dollar increase from 2018. This ever increasing investment into police forces has not made our communities safer. ¾ of a billion dollars for military grade equipment, surveillance technology, and the hiring of more officers has not solved issues of public safety in Black and Brown communities, it has only made them worse through police violence and the defunding of social and community programs needed to improve quality of life. Through the use of fusion centers, like those in Detroit and Lansing, the MSP has participated in a federal incursion into the state of Michigan. We demand the MSP halt its joint operations involving federal agents. We demand that the MSP be immediately defunded and those state tax dollars be used for housing, education, and social services. It is a blatant injustice that the MSP budget is $276 million dollars more than what the state spends on education.
The Michigan Department of Corrections has an annual budget of $2 billion dollars and Governor Gretchen Whitmer has proposed a $100 million dollar increase in 2021 and 2022. This continued investment in mass incarceration by the state of Michigan has devastated Black and Brown communities. We demand that the state halt investment into the 33 state corrections facilities and immediately release all those who have been convicted of nonviolent offenses. We demand that the state of Michigan reallocate these funds to the communities that mass incarceration has destroyed. These funds must be directed back into communities in the form of education, housing, and guaranteed employment for the formerly incarcerated.
4. No evictions in the state of Michigan-provide rent relief – As the statewide ban on evictions has been lifted 75,000 people across the state are facing eviction.The state’s poorest Black and Brown communities are facing massive evictions, such as in Detroit, where nearly 4000 evictions have been filed with the court and are awaiting hearings. This is an attack on Black and Brown communities and an attempt to further gentrification efforts which will ultimately lead to mass homelessness and devastation of Black and Brown families. We call for the suspension of rent until 60 days after the pandemic has cleared and the allocation of funds to pay the surplus of rent.
5. Immediately release of all undocumented immigrants and non violent offenders being detained in the state. Make Michigan a Sanctuary State – On June 7th, The Detroit Free Press Reported “There are currently 63 ICE detainees at three county jails in Michigan — St. Clair County, Morrow County, Calhoun County — who have tested positive for coronavirus, according to ICE statistics. There are 3,113 ICE detainees nationally who have tested positive.” The continued detaining of undocumented people and children is inhumane, and particularly disgusting during a pandemic.
4,037 prisoners in Michigan have tested positive, with 68 deaths reported. The continued detainment of Black and Brown people in unsanitary conditions without access to quality healthcare has led to an infection rate higher than that of the state. We see this along with the detainment of non-violent offenders as a furthered attack on the lives of Black and Brown people and demand their immediate release.
West Michigan Far Right Watch for August 14 – 21
Today we begin a new kind of post, where we look at the far right in West Michigan and what they are up to. These posts will be brief, with less analysis than what GRIID usually provides. However, we believe it is important that we keep tabs on the far right in this area and provide a summary of what they are up to and what kind of messages they are promoting in this community.
Within the last week, we wrote about a Students for Trump Rally that was held last Saturday in downtown Grand Rapids. Charlie Kirk, with Turning Point USA, was the keynote speaker for this rally and we provided some background on Kirk’s promotion of White Supremacy.
Last Saturday, we also saw the Proud Boys marching in Kalamazoo. We wrote a critique of how the commercial news media reported on the Proud Boys and how the police only arrested people who were there to confront the racist Proud Boys.
Then on Monday, the far right Think Tank known as the Acton Institute, posted an interview with the Executive Editor of Acton’s main publication, the Rev. Ben Johnson. Johnson was interviewed on the Lars Larson Show, which is a far right radio program that can be heard around the country. Listen to what Rev. Ben Johnson has to say about Black Lives Matter and how much he dismisses this movement.
We plan to post future installments of West Michigan Far Right Watch, so if our readers come across something about the Far Right in West Michigan, please let us know. It’s important that we know what those who seeks to do harm are up to, to provide an analysis of this harm and to encourage the community to actively resist the far right in this community.
Reflecting on lessons learned from offering Sanctuary to Central Americans in Grand Rapids in the 1980s
I was recently interviewed by a Doctoral candidate at Harvard, who has been interviewing people about the Central American Sanctuary Movement. Our conversation was lively and it got me thinking and reflecting on the the process and work of doing Sanctuary in the 1980s in Grand Rapids.
What follows is a recounting of the Sanctuary work of the Koinonia House, which I was a part of. A version of this post will also be included in the forthcoming book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids.
In the late 1970s and 1980s, US funded counter-insurgency wars were being waged in El Salvador and Guatemala. Activists along the US/Mexican border began to see a sharp rise in the number of political refugees entering the country.
As communities began to offer safety to these refugees, they realized that all of them had a similar narrative. Each of the refugees told them that they fled their country because they either witnessed the torture and murder of family members or they themselves were torture survivors.
The US financed death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala were the primary source of the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people coming from Central America in the 1980s. US activists began to hear these stories in greater numbers and since the Reagan administration did not acknowledge Salvadoran or Guatemalan refugees as being political refugees, the Central American Sanctuary Movement was born.
The Central American Sanctuary Movement was begun by US faith-based communities that believed that they should offer sanctuary for their fellow humans who were fleeing violence, even if it meant violating US laws.
Beginning in the Southwestern part of the country, Sanctuaries began popping up, where faith-based groups began to house people fleeing violence and to provide them with a forum to tell their stories.
Soon there were hundreds of places declaring themselves a sanctuary for Central American refugee, with three places declaring in Michigan themselves a sanctuary – Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids.
The Grand Rapids Sanctuary was run by members of the Koinonia House, of which I was a part of. The Koinonia House was a housing collective that had begun in 1984 and did much of their organizing around resisting US Policy in Central America. We had participated in numerous protests, marches, letter writing campaigns and even engaged in civil disobedience at local Congressional offices. However, we all felt that something more needed to be done and we decided that we needed to use our collective privilege to practice radical hospitality for those who had fled their countries because of the US-backed repression in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The seven of us, who were members of the Koinonia House, decided in the fall of 1985 to be part of the Central American Sanctuary Movement and traveled to Chicago to meet with the national coordinator of the project, the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America.
One major aspect of becoming a Sanctuary was the need for those seeking to declare themselves a Sanctuary to obtain support from the community, especially in the form of letters. Such letters were a sign that Koinonia House would indeed be trusted with doing the work and it signaled to the federal authorities that those who signed the letters stood with the members of the Grand Rapids Sanctuary. After soliciting letters, Koinonia House received nearly two dozen endorsements from churches, community organizations, university groups, individuals and parents with whom we had developed a relationship with. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church was one of the organizations to endorse our efforts. Here is what they said:
We feel strongly this is the loving and compassionate response which the church should and must take in this situation, and sanctuary has long been established within the history and tradition of the church. So we support your compassionate and courageous stand, and are ready to support you in whatever way is possible.
Once the Koinonia House had significant community support for becoming a Sanctuary, we set a date to declare ourselves as a place that would defy the federal government and provide sanctuary to Central American refugees.
We declared ourselves a Sanctuary in the fall of 1986 on the steps of the Gerald R. Ford Federal building in downtown Grand Rapids, as it was custom to make this kind of a declaration public. Members of the Detroit and Lansing Sanctuaries were present, with Fr. Dick Preston leading a ceremony to honor the public commitment being taken by our community.
Several months later, the Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America contacted us to let us know that they had 2 Indigenous families from Guatemala in need of Sanctuary.
In April of 1987, six adults and one child arrived in Grand Rapids at the Koinonia House. A few days later a press conference was held on the front porch of the Koinonia House and this marked the beginning of several years that the Grand Rapids Sanctuary offered a safe haven for those who were fleeing violence in Central America.
Once the families arrived, we gave them time to get settled in. However, after a few weeks of becoming acclimated to West Michigan, we began organizing speaking opportunities for the Guatemalans living with us in sanctuary.
The Central American Sanctuary Movement had two main goals. First, was the commitment to offer a safe place for people to live who were fleeing political violence. The second part of the work was to try to influence public opinion and eventually change the national policy around US support for the counter-insurgency wars in Central America.
We never fully knew how much we were under surveillance, but within the first month of offering Sanctuary to the Guatemalans that had arrived, two FBI agents showed up one day at our door. Not knowing who they were, the Guatemalans let them in. I was upstairs doing some work, when one of the Guatemalans came to get me. The FBI agents introduced themselves and then said, “So, what’s going on here?” I responded by saying, “Since you are FBI, we have to assume that you know exactly what is going on here. However, if you don’t have a warrant, then I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Right at that moment there were several friends who had stopped by, so we invited them in and told said in a loud voice that the FBI agents were here to harass and intimidate us. Fortunately, the FBI agents left. This was a clear lesson about the importance of being public about the Sanctuary work and how being public and visible could prevent us from being arrested and the Guatemalans from being deported.
Over the next several years the families who were in sanctuary in Grand Rapids spoke on campuses, in churches and with community-based organizations. The Guatemalans shared their personal stories and discussed how US policy was creating more terror and violence in their country. Speaking publicly for those in Sanctuary in Grand Rapids was never an easy task. The Guatemalans who were in Sanctuary in Grand Rapids spoke Qanjobal, one of 23 Mayan dialects. Therefore, those who spoke did so in Spanish, which was their second language. Quite often the Guatemalans in Sanctuary would say that there are certain words in Qanjobal that didn’t translate well, which made it difficult for them to articulate their experiences completely.
Another lesson learned had to do with how those of us with privilege take little things for granted, especially when it came to the constant terror that the families in Sanctuary had experienced. For example, one day, after being at a local hospital with one of the families, we were walking outside to get to one of the surface parking lots. While making our way to the car, one of the hospital helicopters was approaching, and just like that, the Guatemalan family took off running. It did not dawn on me immediately, but I soon realized that their experience of helicopters was one of terror, since gun fire would come from the helicopters in their communities as part of the US counterinsurgency war.
After a decade, the families were eventually able to gain legal status with the assistance of some amazing immigration lawyers. The two original families that were part of Sanctuary, had more children and those children are now in their 30’s. In 1992, on October 12, Indigenous People’s Day, we signed the title over to the Guatemalan families as a small way of making restitution for the 500 years of genocide that we all have benefitted from.
One of the original Sanctuary families still lives in the house and often uses that space as a place for new Guatemalan families to come to, get settled and save up money that would allow them to find their own place. This family has has been practicing radical hospitality, demonstrating the very solidarity we had set out to practice in 1987 when our house participated in the Central American Sanctuary Movement.
Betsy DeVos Watch: Department of Education affirms its commitment to supporting religious education with public money
In early July, we posted an article about what the Supreme Court ruling in the Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which essentially rules that public money can be used for faith-based education, and what it could mean moving forward with Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education.
Last week, Betsy DeVos affirmed her department’s commitment to making sure that faith-based education programs and schools will benefit from this administration. DeVos stated:
This Administration will continue to protect the religious liberty and First Amendment rights of every student, teacher and educational institution across the country. Too many misinterpret the ‘separation of church and state’ as an invitation for government to separate people from their faith. In reality, the First Amendment doesn’t exist to protect us from religion. It exists to protect religion from government. Today’s guidance reaffirms our commitment to protecting our first liberty and ensuring that discriminatory restrictions on access to federal grant funding are no longer tolerated.
Such a proclamation from the Secretary of Education makes it pretty clear where she stands on this matter. The danger with this Supreme Court ruling was reflected in a recent ACLU position, which states:
The court’s ruling could effectively mean that, when states offer school vouchers or similar funding involving indirect aid — such as Montana’s tax credit scholarship program — they now must extend the aid to religious schools, too. This is despite the fact that millions more in government funds will be diverted from public schools as a result, and taxpayer dollars will be used to support religious indoctrination and training for future religious leaders and adherents. This also means that the government will fund discrimination against minority-faith and LGBTQ students and job applicants, as well as students and prospective employees with disabilities, whom many religious schools refuse to admit or hire. Indeed, earlier this year, the court heard arguments in two cases that could expand the ability of religious schools — the very same ones that often receive voucher funding — to discriminate in hiring and firing based on any ground the schools want, including race and ethnicity.
In her recent affirmation of Department of Education support for faith-based education, DeVos included a list of guidelines her department will use to guide faith-based educational systems. Those guidelines include:
• Affirms that religious organizations are equally eligible to participate in ED-administered programs as their secular counterparts
• Affirms that financial award decisions are made based on merit, not based on an organization’s religion, religious belief, or the lack thereof
• States that religious organizations receiving federal financial assistance under a Department program must comply with program-specific legislation and regulations, but clarifies that these organizations may continue to carry out their missions and maintain their religious character. However, direct federal financial assistance may not be used for religious worship, religious instruction, or proselytization
• Reminds states that they may not use discriminatory Blaine Amendments to deny faith-based organizations contracts or grants, as this violates Department regulations against discrimination on the basis of an organization’s religious character or affiliation
• Affirms that students and/or borrowers seeking to participate in Department loan programs and beneficiaries seeking to participate in Department social service programs will not be penalized or singled out for disadvantages on the basis of religion
• Clarifies the role of the Department’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives (CFOI) as a Department office that collaborates with faith and community leaders to maximize participation of religious organizations in Department programs while eliminating barriers in the grantmaking or regulatory process to safeguard religious liberty
These guidelines are highly problematic and it will be interesting to see if this ruling will increase the amount of faith-based educational programs/schools applying for public money. In addition, when we say faith-based educational systems, we really mean Christian, since we all know that Betsy DeVos and the DeVos/Prince families have a deep commitment to ultra-Conservative Christian values. This issue of using public money for faith-based schools and educational programs is not getting the attention it should be, but make no mistake about it that groups like the Great Lakes Education Project, are working hard to make sure that the candidates they are endorsing in Michigan (all of the GLEP-endorsed candidates won their primary in Michigan), will be committed to channeling public money to religious schools.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 