Editor’s note: For sake of transparency, I am part of the GR Rapid Response to ICE project and some of the information included here is based on my own experience of being involved in that work.
Yesterday, another immigrant family was terrorized by members of Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the southeast side of Grand Rapids.
The Spanish language news service, El Informador, reported on the ICE arrests yesterday morning, which included pictures and a video interview.
It was estimated that 9 ICE officers broke in the door of (pictured here) an immigrant family and then pointed their guns at everyone inside, including the children. A member of Child Protective Services had accompanied the ICE officers, with the intent of taking the children as well, but this didn’t happen.
However, ICE officers did take the father, arresting him right in front of his wife and children. Based on a report from an immigration lawyer, the father is now in detention in Battle Creek, at the Calhoun County Jail, which ICE is using for arrests made in West Michigan.
This kind of repression from ICE is taking place on a weekly basis in West Michigan. The GR Rapid Response to ICE group is receiving calls about ICE arrests or ICE intimidation on a regular basis. What is happening is nothing short of terrorism. Immigrant families are the targets of state terrorism, which traumatizes families, separates families and creates a climate of fear throughout the immigrant community.
So, how can those of us who have racial and class privilege be in solidarity with immigrants who are experiencing this kind of terror? There are several ways people can practice solidarity with immigrants.
- Like the Facebook page for GR Rapid Response to ICE. This will help keep people in the loop about the work of the group, along with regular updates about families who have been impacted by ICE arrests.
- You can attend the next GR Rapid Response to ICE training, which are being offered monthly. This is for people who want to take a more active role in trying to prevent ICE arrests and to offer concrete forms of support to families impacted by ICE.
- Attend one of the fundraising events that the GR Rapid Response to ICE is hosting, so we can all contribute to the financial support that families impacted by ICE need. The next event is May 17, with details at this link.
- You can share this card, which provides information for immigrants on what to do if ICE shows up. Calling 211 can get you connected to the GR Rapid Response to ICE group, which can mobilize people to take action.
- Donate when you can and ask your friends to do the same. Check the GR Rapid Response to ICE page for ways to donate.
- There is a new Community Bond Fund that has been established, which will be used for immigrants who can be bonded out from detention to be with their families. More information on this effort will be coming soon on the GR Rapid Response to ICE page.
- Have a conversation at your church, synagogue, mosque or temple about offering sanctuary for those being targeted by ICE repression. Two months ago, IUC Ministerios Ríos de Agua Viva / Joy Like a River UCC, declared themselves a sanctuary. We need many more religious institutions to do the same. Contact Reverend Justo González, II at 716-989-9207, cell or jgonzo2@michucc.org, for those wanting to become a sanctuary.
- We all need to educate ourselves on US immigration policy, both historically and in the present. We need to be informed about what the US government has done and is doing when it comes to immigration.
- Lastly, for those of us who want to support the powerful immigrant-led movement, known as Movimiento Cosecha GR, contact them to get involved in their efforts to win respect, dignity and permanent protection for all immigrants. For there to be immigrant justice, the movement must be led by immigrants. Allies should always work to center the voices and lived experience of the immigrant community.
Betsy DeVos Watch: Another speech at a religious university founded by Billionaire Christian Tom Monaghan
As we reported on in December, Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education has a penchant for speaking at organizations or educational institutions that shares her ideological perspective.
It seems clear by now that DeVos choses to speak in public at places where she is welcomed, because virtually every other place she has given a speech has been met with significant resistance.
Therefore, it is no surprise that on May 5th, Betsy DeVos chose to give a commencement speech at a University that shares her values. The Secretary of Education spoke at Ave Maria University last week, a conservative Catholic university that was founded by Domino’s Pizza CEO Tom Monaghan.
Just days before Betsy DeVos delivered the commencement speech at Ave Maria University, it’s president, Jim Towey, wrote an article on the school’s blog, entitled, Why We’re Honored To Host Betsy DeVos At Our University’s Commencement. In that article, Towey was hyper-critical of the Obama administration’s policies that were adopted through the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Towey then goes on to write:
One of the biggest threats to Ave Maria and other higher education institutions in the Obama era was the 2011 OCR directive on how colleges were to proceed in investigating Title IX sexual assault claims on campus. While the goal was widely supported – to ensure colleges “take immediate and effective steps to respond to sexual violence in accordance with the requirements of Title IX” – the implementation and fear of a forced settlement agreement meant that university officials everywhere scrambled to hire “regulatory czars” and more staff to deal with the mountain of new requirements. By government edict, the evidentiary standard on sexual assault cases was lowered to a “preponderance of the evidence test” and any college with a higher standard or other safeguards for the accused had to amend their procedures and rules . . . or else.
This clear overreach by social engineering zealots in the upper echelons of the Department defeated the laudable intent of protecting students from sexual assault and bringing justice to perpetrators. OCR boasted at the end of Obama’s eight years that it had “proactively initiated” over 200 investigations and received a record-breaking 76,022 complaints. Maybe so, but the dragnet also surely victimized students wrongfully accused of sexual assault. In addition to being denied their right to due process, they have and will suffer immeasurably from the ordeal. Many colleges chose not to defend their practices but instead took the equivalent of a “plea deal” by signing “resolution agreements” to escape OCR’s investigative tentacles.
Towey also writes about the abomination of gender identity that now operates outside of the male and female gender framework. The Ave Maria University president said that the idea that people can self-identify on their gender, “sent shivers to any faith-based or other college like ours who values religious liberty and devotes a great deal of study to theology and the “assigner” who created us.”
With this kind of worldview, you can see why the university invited Betsy DeVos to give their commencement address.
Again President Towey gushes over the Secretary of Education, in his introduction of her before the commencement speech. Towey even thanks Dick DeVos for accompanying his wife to the campus and praises their commitment to family values.
DeVos didn’t have much to say in her commencement address, other than to highlight and honor Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa, both examples of conservative Catholic values in the 20th Century.
However, DeVos does acknowledge the founder of Ave Maria University, Domino’s Pizza CEO Tom Monaghan. Monaghan has supported conservative and rightwing Catholic groups for several decades.
I first became aware of Monaghan’s politics in the early 1980s, when he was deeply involved in an Ann Arbor-based group called the Word of God (also often referred to as WOG). The Word of God group was connected to the Catholic Charismatic movement, which wedded Catholicism and Pentecostalism. In addition, the Word of God community was very involved in supporting the conservative catholic community in Central America in the 1980s, which opposed the influential Liberation Theology movement.
Monaghan provided financial support to the conservative Catholic movement in Honduras and Nicaragua in the 1980s believed that the US government needed to support the terrorist group known as the Contras. According to Russ Bellant, author of The Religious Right in Michigan Politics, Monaghan was quoted in the early 80s as saying about the need to support the Contras, “Talk about dominoes if we lose! It’s going to be El Salvador, it’s going to be Panama, it’s going to be Mexico. We could have a Soviet client state along our border.”
In addition to funding the Word of God community in Ann Arbor and founding Ave Maria University, Monaghan also founded the group known as Legatus. Legatus is an organization made up of Catholic businessmen, which refers to itself as Ambassadors for Christ in the Marketplace.
Legatus is also based in Ann Arbor and has chapters all over the US, including in Grand Rapids.
Once again, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos gave a speech at a religious university, that; 1) shares similar conservative values, 2) is openly supportive of the Department of Education’s watering down of civil rights and the undermining of Title IX provisions, and 3) was founded by a billionaire Christian businessman, just like members of the DeVos Family.
On Monday, it was announced that former National Security Council aide, Oliver North, will be the new President of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
This choice by the NRA, in many ways, makes a great deal of sense, considering the status that North has within right-wing circles. North is often seen as a “true patriot” by those who identify as conservatives, since he has been a staunch supporter of US imperialism in countries like Vietnam, El Salvador, Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition, North embraces many other conservative values, such as his support for the anti-abortion group, the National Right to Life. In fact, North was the featured speaker at a Right to Life conference held in Grand Rapids in 2002. North’s visit was greeted by several dozen protestors outside of DeVos Hall.
However, North is best known as a member of President Reagan’s National Security Council in the 1980s and specifically for his role in orchestrating the illegal Contra war in Nicaragua, which led to his conviction of drug and arms dealing in what was known as the Iran Contra Scandal.
As one of Reagan’s National Security aides, North was deeply involved in the US campaign to destabilize the Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. After the US Congress passed the Boland Amendment, a series of laws that were passed which prohibited the US government from providing military assistance to the Contras.
Oliver North and other members of the Reagan Administration, along with the CIA decided to circumvent the US Congress and find ways to provide military support for the Contras in their effort to overthrown the democratically elected Nicaraguan government.
The result of North’s involvement of the illegal weapons sales to the Contras is that tens of thousands of Nicaraguan civilians were murdered during that 10 year bloody counter-insurgency campaign. The Iran Contra scandal was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the US role in committing war crimes in Nicaragua.
Oliver North’s role involved the selling of weapons to the government of Iran, whom the US considered an enemy at the time, using the money from those sales to purchase other weapons, along with using drug money to also purchase weapons that were used by the Contras.
The Washington-based National Security Archives has thousands of declassified documents on the Iran Contra scandal and specifically documents pertaining directly to Oliver North, which you can find at this link. Many of these documents rely on Oliver North’s diary and memos from that period in the mid-1980s, such as this document about a meeting that North had with Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who was deeply involved in cocaine trafficking with the Colombian Drug Cartels.
However, it must be noted that the Reagan administration convinced Oliver North to be the fall guy in the Iran Contra scandal. North did his duty and was then pardoned by the Bush administration just a few years after his indictment. National Security Archives Director Tom Blanton, provides this short explanation for how the Reagan administration was able to divert attention away from the role that administration played in the drugs and weapons trafficking they were involved in during the 1980s.
Therefore, it makes complete sense that the NRA would make Oliver North its new President, not just because of his blind support for guns, but because he has a history of arms trafficking and collaborating with US administrations to protect those in power.
On April 25th, MLive posted an article about the City of Grand Rapids agreeing to spend $150,000 to study whether or not residents trust the GRPD. In that same article, the reporter provides statistics which suggests that the GRPD is understaffed.
The very next day, the same MLive reporter wrote a follow-up article, entitled, Would hiring more officers solve Grand Rapids’ police-community struggles?
However, instead of trying to answer the question posed in the MLive headline, the reporter essentially provides a platform for Police Chief Rahinsky, a police consultant and several City Commissioners to advocate for adding more cops in Grand Rapids.
One way that MLive provides a platform for Rahinsky is with the video below, where he is asking for an an increase in police officers, something he admits he has been doing for four budget cycles.
One thing that is instructive about Rahinsky’s comments is that he wants more community policing specialists. These kind of cops are assigned to specific neighborhoods and play the role of cop, social worker and community outreach person. At least this is the language that the police department uses. As Rahnisky has stated before, these kind of community neighborhood officers would be building relationships with people, so they would know the community better.
This all sounds nice, but it is also deceptive. The type of policing that Rahinsky is asking for is just another version of the “Broken Window” type of policing. The Broken window theory of policing was first laid out by criminologists James Wilson and George Kelling in 1982. This type of policing says that when a window is broken in a neighborhood and is left unattended, it will “unleash people’s latent destructive tendencies.”
Alex Vitale, in his groundbreaking book, The End of Policing, says of the broken window theory of policing:
If cities want to establish or maintain crime-free neighborhoods they must take action to ensure that residents feel pressure to conform to civilized norms of public behavior. The best way to accomplish this is to use police to remind people in subtle, and not-so-subtle ways that disorderly, unruly, and anti-social behavior are unacceptable.
Vitale goes on to say that, “Broken windows policing is at root a deeply conservative attempt to shift the burden of responsibility for declining living conditions onto the poor themselves and to argue that the solution to all social ills is increasingly aggressive, invasive, and restrictive forms of policing that involve more arrests, more harassment, and ultimately more violence. As inequality continues to increase, so will homelessness, and public disorder, and as long as people continue to embrace the use of police to manage disorder, we will see a continual increase in the scope of police power and authority at the expense of human and civil rights.
Instead of providing some insight into even the possibility of reducing or even eliminating the police department, the MLive reporter has internalized the normalcy of policing. There are no real critical voices in the article and no one outside of government is sought out as a source to provide a counter to Rahinsky’s narrative.
Author of numerous books that critique the history and function of policing, Kristian Williams, makes it clear that community policing is a form of counter-insurgency warfare. What Williams means by this is that community policing specialists, what Rahinsky is wanting to add to his department, would be people who would spend more time in the community, gaining the trust of people for the primary purpose of gathering intelligence on those who operate outside of social norms, which is to say, outside of the parameters that systems of power have determined for us.
Operating outside of what systems of power have determined is exactly why the Cosecha GR May 1st march was so heavily policed and why the police were so incensed that the march organizers would not share their plans with the cops.
One last point about the MLive article is that is also never even explores why the GRPD uses one-third of the entire city budget. If we allow ourselves to engage in radical imagination, they we might begin to envision that if marginalized communities had more wealth and were more self-sufficient, there would be no need for policing. When people’s basic needs are met, pathological social behavior will decrease. If people were not worrying about housing, health care, education and meeting all their nutritional needs, there would be no need for cops.
White Supremacy permeates just about all institutions in the US, whether we are talking about the state, corporations, religious institutions, the media and non-profits. Some of this is evident to most people, but a great deal of White Supremacy is subtle. In fact, it is safe to say that White Supremacy often is not recognized because it seems so normal.
One way that White Supremacy appears “normal” to the general public is the way the law enforcement operates. As we reported during last week’s May 1st immigrant-led march, there was a tremendous amount of police presence – on foot, on bicycle, on horseback and in cruisers.
The GRPD had sent out a press release earlier that day, with the following comment from Police Chief Rahinsky:
“Our goal is for Movimiento Cosecha to be able to communicate its message and exercise it First Amendment right in a peaceful manner,” GRPD Chief David Rahinsky said in a news release.
A more honest statement from the GRPD would have been:
Do as we tell you and we won’t arrest you during the march. However, any other time we won’t hesitate to stop people, as them their immigration status and arrest them for driving without a license and take them to the Kent County Jail. (The Kent County Jail has a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE, to alert them when undocumented immigrants come in so ICE can put a hold on them and take them to detention.)
Why do I say that the GRPD practices White Supremacy? Using the definition of White Supremacy that Elizabeth Martinez uses:
We can then conclude that the main function of law enforcement is to maintain and defend a system of wealth, power and privilege. Those marching on May 1st were challenging that system.
One of the great falsehoods of American society is that the job of police officers is to protect the public. This simply isn’t true most of the time. Sure, police might at times keep the general public safe, but throughout history police departments have functioned to monitor, harass, contain and arrest those who pose a threat to the system of wealth, power and privilege – which have been primarily social movements, often led by communities of color – the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the American Indian movement, the Chicano movement, the environmental justice movement and the LGBTQ movement.
Law enforcement uses two main strategies when dealing with social movements. The first strategy is called the Negotiated Management Strategy, which are also referred to as Command and Control techniques. This is when police attempt to negotiate actions, always with the goal to manage it, which is exactly what happened during the May 1st march.
You saw this during the march in terms of the police presence everywhere, always framed as they were there to keep people safe. However, the result was just the opposite, especially for the immigrant 
community. The police presence only made people feel anxious, afraid and intimidated. This intimidation was communicated to those of us who were acting as Marshals during the march, when the police WARNED us before the march ever started that they would arrest people if we deviated from the route they create.
The police were also using social media to communicate their own messages about the May 1st march, with both a written narrative and pictures. You can see above that their pictures of cops on horseback seem rather benign, when in fact people felt threatened all day when they were near the horses.
The GRPD posted 11 separate Facebook posts about the May 1st march, but the most egregious post was the one on the right here, which creates a narrative of how great the cops were at keeping the peace, even when the marchers deviated from THEIR attempt to dictate the route.
A second strategy that cops use is called the Escalated Force Strategy. This is where the state uses surveillance, infiltration, negative press, pre-emptive arrests, protest zones and the use of less lethal weaponry to suppress public resistance. Elements of this strategy have been used with Movimiento Cosehca GR, but the likelihood that the GRPD will continue to tolerate disobedience from the movement will result in the increase of repressive tactics.
News Media as a tool of White Supremacy
As expected the major local news agencies were present during the May 1st march. Their coverage of the march was fairly predictable, in that they relied heavily on the police department to provide them with information.
Several news agencies used quotes from the GRPD press release before the march started and they created visual images of the march route, based specifically on what the police said it was going to be.
MLive and the three local TV stations all framed the march as being “peaceful,” which is code in the news media for when protestors don’t do any property damage. What this type of a narrative does is that it completely ignores the inherent violence of law enforcement. The cops were there fully armed with mace, tasers, clubs and guns. The police were intimidating people by their very presence, how they spoke to people and how the officers on horseback made people feel. Cosecha GR had roughly 25 marshals that day, whose job was to keep people safe. They didn’t need the cops to be there. Cosecha GR is a non-violent movement.
In addition, the local commercial news media used commentary from the police department, like this comment from Sgt. Cathy Williams, who said on a report from WOOD TV8:
“We met our goal and that’s the bottom line. Everyone was safe here today. No officers got hurt and no marchers got hurt.”
The channel 8 reporter also stated up front that the police that they were not getting the cooperation from the marchers the way they wanted. But everyone was safe and no one was arrested. This continues the narrative that the police are there to keep people safe and that we all should obey the cops.
White Liberals and White Supremacy
Another manifestation of White Supremacy were how numerous white people were acting during the May 1st march. First, there were several white people who were gathering signatures for a Michigan ballot initiative. These white signature collectors, who are getting paid to do this work, were asking people, “Are you a registered voter in Michigan?”
First, this says that the white folks collecting signatures were completely unaware of their own white privilege. Did these people not know that as people were undocumented or those with temporary residence status, which the state prohibits from voting? Some people might say this was well intentioned on the part of the white signature collectors, because they thought that those attending the march would enthusiastically sign a petition to increase the minimum wage in Michigan. White liberals need to stop doing this. If you want to support immigrant struggles, then come and support immigrant struggles. White people should not push their issues on immigrants, they should stand in solidarity with them by asking how the immigrant movement what they need.
Another example was White people who identify as socialists who were there passing out their own literature. Some were even asking for contributions for their organizations. Again, if you want to be in solidarity with one of the most marginalized groups in West Michigan, show up for them by not using events like these as a way of distributing your own propaganda. People carrying socialist signs might think it is radical, but in this instance only signs that center immigrants and immigrant rights would be a show of solidarity.
So, while there may be fundamental differences between cops, the news media and white liberals, they all ended up practicing and promoting White Supremacy by their actions.
We want our children to be a priority: Parent of GRPS Special Education student speaks out
The following interview was recently conducted with Brenda Bierens, a parent of a special education student in the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Bierens is also a member of the Disability A-Team and Community Collaborative.
As a parent of a Special Education student, what is your experience with GRPS and why are you calling for the removal of Laura LaMore?
Parents have been meeting and discussing problems with special education at GRPS for well over a year. Issues like IEP’s being changed without parents knowledge, students being placed in programs that do not meet their needs putting both their teachers and their peers at risk, adult students being transferred to a school that was designed for preschoolers putting them at risk for injury, Services being denied or cut from students IEP’s a staggering rates, I could go on and on but in December the teachers at CTC Straight went to the GREA and MEA about the school they had just been moved into this year to ask for help. It was the new home to adult students with disabilities ages 18-26, yet the school was designed for preschoolers so everything was knee high, it had fire, health and building code violations and had been vacant for sometime. The fire department never even knew straight Street school was occupied until an anonymous call went to them. They also asked for parents from the district to be involved in bringing these problems to light. When the MEA started talking to parents they found major problems district wide. Teachers were being directed to do thing they didn’t feel good about by administration, there was a fear of retaliation, and GRPS special education as a whole had changed dramatically since the arrival of Laura Lamore. Parents had gone to Mrs. Lamore with concerns and felt they were either ignored or intimidated. With the complaints from both teachers and parents, the GREA and MEA had decided the best coarse of action was the ask for the removal of the director of special education and the petition was born. 847 teachers and staff members and over 500 parents and community members signed the petition asking Superintendent Neal and the Board of Education to remove Laura Lamore from her seat as the Director of Special Education for Grand Rapids Public Schools.
What kind of support is there from teachers and other parents on the removal of Laura LaMore?
The Board of Education responded to our petition by saying they did not have the authority to remove Mrs. Lamore and Supt. Neal responded by saying we were just a small group who don’t like change and the allegations against the district were either resolved or false. She called the petition against Mrs. Lamore a ‘smear campaign’ and said Laura is a member of her cabinet, a trusted member and she will not remove Mrs.Lamore.
As a parent the major reason I’m calling for Laura’s removal is because my sons IEP was changed, without my knowledge in 2016. His program was changed and absolutely no one from administration explained to any parents why it was happening. It wasn’t just my sons IEP that was changed to reflect the change in programming it was every students in my sons program. When I found out, 9 months after the facts I was lied to, it was blamed on me, the responsibility was passed from person to person until finally, it came out that it was a direct order from Laura Lamore to change these students IEP’s quietly, and staff members did it because they feared for their jobs. This is not anything new or unique, this sort of thing happens often at GRPS and the threat and fear of retaliation is real. For the most part most parents would say the staff at Grand Rapids is wonderful, but the administration is dirty, sneaky and willing to cut services off the backs of special education students to make their district look good in the eyes of Betsy DeVos. Many people including myself feel our children are not wanted at GRPS because they don’t make the district ‘look good’, my son will not graduate with a diploma, rather a certificate of completion because of his disability preventing him from meeting minimum high school requirements. We have been told by the administration that our kids ‘hurt the district because they bring down their graduation rate numbers’, but what they are not telling people is they are finding sneaky ways around that too. I have proof in his IEP…
As a whole less and less parents, with special education students, trust the administration at GRPS and feel that due to Betsy DeVos’s involvement, special education is slowly but surely being dismantled, and these “Theme” schools closely resemble charter schools, where there is no place for special education.
What does the school district need to do to make guarantees that whoever replaces LaMore that there will be better oversight and transparency?
Parents want just a few things from a special ed director, no crazy or outlandish demands. They want someone who is transparent, listens and makes each child’s needs and education is a priority. Most parents are understanding and if they know why changes are happening and what they can do about it they will work with the district instead of against them. Parents want to have a say, as a part of their child’s IEP team they want to know that their opinion counts in the child’s education, and that isn’t happening now because Mrs. Lamore is dictating what will be done and when, and parents don’t know why or when it happens. Parents want a special ed director that will allow the teachers and staff to do their jobs and make recommendations based on an individual basis, educational plan’s should reflect goals and objective that will suit the student, not the district and that is not always happening. Parents want a Special Education Director that see’s our kids as students that have the right to a Free Appropriate Public Education, not problems for the district.
What do you think about the relationship between Teresa Neal and Betsy DeVos?
When the petition to remove Laura Lamore failed the GREA and MEA kind of fizzled out of the fight, leaving 847 teachers and staff disappointed and without change. Parents were very angry by the way the district was representing us and unwilling to hear our concerns. We started looking at the budget as a whole and noticed insanely high administration costs and a close connection to Betsy DeVos. It became evident that GRPS is a model school for Betsy DeVos and she is really leading this district. Paying for Superintendent Neal to get $67,000 of ‘training’, and inviting her to the confirmation hearings made many of us question why the media hasn’t asked more questions. Regardless the refusal to remove Laura Lamore, administration costs, connections to a Secretary of Education that is not only dismantling special education but public education as a whole is why I support the petition to fire Theresa Neal.
Do you think this is an effective tactic, calling for Neal’s removal?
I don’t know yet, we are just getting started.
Yesterday, an estimated 2,000 people marched for immigrants rights, demanding dignity, respect and permanent protection for all immigrants.
Movimiento Cosecha GR organized the march, which also coincided with International Workers Day. Like the traditional workers movement, Cosecha GR uses the tactics of boycotts and strikes. The immigrant-led movement also frames the labor of immigrants as a source power, since so much of the economy depends on immigrants – most of the food system is dependent on immigrant/migrant labor, the services sector, construction, etc.
However, one main focus right now by Cosecha GR, is a campaign to get Driver Licenses for All people in Michigan. They talked about the campaign briefly before the march began at Roosevelt Park in the southwest part of the city, a primarily Latino/Latinx neighborhood.
The police presence was different from last year’s May 1st march. There were more cops, from the GRPD, the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and even the Michigan State Police. Police were on foot, in cruisers, on bicycle and on horses. Having cops on horses was confusing and several organizers expressed that it was simply overkill.
The march came down Grandville Avenue, also known as Cesar Chavez Way. Many people were outside their homes cheering those in the march and offering other forms of visual support. Once the march crossed Wealthy St., it became clear that we were in a different economic area and those on the sidewalks were most white people watching the marches, with less enthusiastic support for those marching.
The Cosecha GR organizers were mostly following the route that the GRPD wanted them to take, but when we arrived to where the Founder’s Brewing Company was, the marchers quickly turned left onto a side street, catching the police totally off guard. Some of the cops tried to prevent people from taking this street, but there were too many people and they eventually conceded to the marchers.
This change of the route was strategic, in that the organizers wanted people to get to Market St and then go towards downtown. There is an on and off ramp for US 131 on Market and they wanted to back traffic up that was coming off the highway. This plan was highly successful, as you can see in the photo below how vehicles are backed up on the 131 S-curve.
When the marchers got to the 131 off ramp on Market street and realized that the traffic was backed up, they stopped and cheered for a few minutes, enjoying what they had accomplished. It was a beautiful moment of demonstrating their power.
There were other beautiful moments during the march. First, when people didn’t comply with the GRPD route, it clearly showed people that police do not need to be obeyed, based on how animated people got when they changed their route.
Second, when the march was going under the 131 s-curve on Market Street, the echo provided a great opportunity for those marching to get even louder. The marchers stop for a few minutes to revel in their excitement.
Third, the march organizers who were talking through a sound system during the whole march, not only led chants, but provided important information about the realities that immigrant families face on a daily basis. They talked about the constant fear that the community lives in and how people are being detained and deported by ICE agents. Those leading the march also addressed the oppressive role that the GRPD plays in their struggle and made numerous comments at the exact same time that Police Chief Rahinsky was present on Grandville Avenue.
A four beautiful moment was when the march was walking passed Rosa Parks Circle and the march organizers made the link between the history and struggle of the African American community and how they are following the same tradition of fighting for their rights and fighting for justice.
Another beautiful moment, was when the march got close to the Calder Plaza and organizers pointed to the a building on Ottawa St, which housed the investigation office for Immigration, Customs Enforcement (ICE). The march leaders used this opportunity to talk about the harm that ICE causes in the immigrant community and then led a chant demanding that ICE leave NOW!
As the march got near the Calder Plaza, one last example of how the police were demonstrating their paranoia, was their massive presence near Michigan Avenue, with police cruisers, a line of cops on the street and their use of city sewage trucks to block the road.
The immigrant-led march eventually made its way onto Calder Plaza, where Cosecha GR organizers let people know what the next steps are in the Driver’s License campaign and other upcoming meetings. Another Cosecha GR organizer shared his story of coming to the US, which was quite moving. He also read part of a poem, that also creatively expressed his feelings about his lived experience as an immigrant.
People hung out for another 30 minutes or so, chanting, singing, visiting with friends and just enjoying a successful demonstration of the power that immigrants have in this community.
Cosecha GR kicks off its Driver License Campaign with an action at the Rogers Plaza Secretary of State office
A major contributor for immigrants to end up in detention from ICE agents, is driving without a license. This is because those without a documentation cannot obtain a driver license. Therefore, when they are pulled over for something as minor as a burned out tail light, the local police department will take them to the Kent County Jail. The Kent County Jail has a contract with ICE, to notify ICE when undocumented immigrants are in their custody.
You can see why immigrants would want to organize a campaign to get driver licenses for all to be adopted by the state of Michigan.
Movimiento Cosecha GR kicked off their driver license for all campaign earlier today, with an action at the Secretary of State office in Wyoming, inside of Rogers Plaza.
Just over 50 people participated in the Cosecha GR action, by going inside the Rogers Plaza and having a presence in front of the Secretary of State office. Part of the action was to have people dance to music, as a means to disrupt business as usual and to draw attention to the campaign for those inside the mall and/or the Secretary of State office, as you can see from the pictures.
Eventually, some of those involved in the action decided to enter the Secretary of State office, to engage it what Cosecha GR calls a disruption, as you can see from the video below.
The manager of the mall, along with several of his associates made people leave or he “would be forced to call the police.” Those participating in the action left the Secretary of State office and shortly after that left the inside of the mall, only to stand in front of the mall so that some of the organizers could speak to the crowd.
One of the more creative aspects of the Cosecha GR action, was their creation of a large driver license that had a large opening where your picture would normally go. People were invited to put the head in the open space and then have their picture taken, as a way of communicating the message of diver licenses for all.
The Cosecha GR action then concluded in the Roger’s Plaza parking lot adjacent to 28th street. There, Cosecha GR organizers spoke to the crowd, talking with them about the campaign and the May Day march the next day. People had lots of good energy, dancing, singing and participating in chants led by Cosecha GR organizers.
Lastly, it is important to message how the local police departments responded to the Cosecha GR action. First, while organizers were at their community space, a GRPD cruiser was parked outside while the organizers were preparing for the action. Secondly, the Wyoming Police Department had cops at the Roger’s Plaza the whole time that the Cosecha GR action took place, ever while people were arriving. Third, the GRPD then showed up at Roger’s Plaza and several people said that both the GRPD and the Wyoming PD were asking people about the route of the May 1st march who the leaders were that they could talk to. This attempt to glean information from people showed that the police are worried about the march and even more worried that they will not be in complete control of what those marching will do.
Last week, the online site Colorlines, post a story about a new study looking at how US cities with populations of 100,000 or more has dealt with the recovery since the 2007-2008 economic recession.
Colorlines writes:
The Great Recession of 2008 forced many cities to rebuild their economies. But in many places, the recovery has been uneven, with some cities enacting policies that increase equity across racial and ethnic groups, while others widened the gaps between the haves and the have nots. A new study from nonprofit research organization Urban Institute explores which cities prioritized inclusion in their struggle for economic growth.
The study done by the Urban Institute, Inclusive Recovery in US Cities, was released just weeks ago. Their research looks at both economic inclusion and racial inclusion:
Our overall inclusion index combines the economic inclusion and racial inclusion indices for a composite view of inclusion in a city, but the two are also analyzed separately. We distinguish between economic inclusion and racial inclusion because it is common for cities to experience economic growth while leaving certain groups behind: this is especially true for communities of color, given the longstanding history of race-based discrimination and segregation in this country (Greene, Austin Turner, and Gourevitch 2017; Kijakazi et al. 2016). We pay special attention to those cases in which economic inclusion and racial inclusion diverge, as these examples may offer important insights into whether achieving inclusion is contingent on the deliberate use of targeted policy actions that address group-based discrimination or structural barriers.
This last sentence is important, since it acknowledges targeted policy actions and group-based discrimination or structural barriers.
Grand Rapids, based on the study conducted by the Urban Institute, shows that:
In 2013, Grand Rapids ranked 267 out of 274 cities on overall inclusion, 220 on economic inclusion, and 268 on racial inclusion. From 2000 to 2013, Grand Rapids’s economic health rank decreased from 149 to 211. The city also became less inclusive, falling from 222 to 267 in the overall inclusion rankings.
Here are some graphs from the study, which looks at home Grand Rapids compares to the national trend.
At this point, some might argue that this data is based on 2013, and that since then Grand Rapids has significantly changed. I would agree that GR has changed during the past 5 years, but we have to ask ourselves who has been benefitting from that change.
As we have reported in the past, the wealth gap is larger in Grand Rapids than in any other city in Michigan. In addition, the economic development has been concentrated in certain areas of the city and has primarily benefitted those who already have economic and racial privilege. One only need to look at what is happening in downtown Grand Rapids, the near westside, especially on Bridge St, plus other areas like the Wealthy St. corridor to see who the primary beneficiaries are. Many of the same development companies have been the beneficiaries, the same wealthy families and a disproportionate number of white, urban professionals are benefitting.
I would suggest that given the trend, Grand Rapids might even been worse on the economic and racial inclusion front than it was in 2013.
Lastly, it is worth noting that when Grand Rapids ends up being on the top lists for things that are “feel good,” local entities like the Chamber of Commerce, The Right Place Inc or Experience GR are quick to use these lists to market the city. None of these organizations mention this new study and are not likely to, since it ultimately exposes the realities of neoliberal economic policies and the ongoing embrace of white supremacy.
It’s not the KKK invading Grand Rapids this weekend, it’s a group more dangerous: The American Legislative Exchange Council
The American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as ALEC, will be having their 2018 Spring Task Force Summit in Grand Rapids all day long, this Friday, April 27.
The ALEC event will be held at the Amway Grand Plaza and is a private event for members only. This is not surprising, as ALEC does not want journalists or any one else to expose what new policies they are crafting that will promote their neo-liberal economic agenda.
ALEC, of course, is the creation of the Koch Brothers, and is designed to implement policies that promote privatization, greater corporate control, plus undermine unions and attack public education.
The Center for Media & Democracy (CMD) has done more to expose the efforts of ALEC over the years and they are the ones who discovered that ALEC will be in Grand Rapids this weekend.
In an article by David Armiak and Mary Bottari, the co-author’s write:
There is no word yet on whether Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a Michigander married to Amway heir Richard DeVos, will be joining the gathering at the swank four-star hotel as ALEC legislators and corporate lobbyists vote on cookie-cutter bills behind closed doors. ALEC has long embraced DeVos and her school privatization agenda, even though the failure of the charter school system she helped create in Michigan has been the topic of devastating reports in the New York Times and 60 Minutes. Further education privatization is on the agenda in Grand Rapids along with measures to please fossil fuel companies, marijuana companies, and more.
The agenda for the ALEC gathering in Grand Rapids can be found at this link, which includes discussion and the crafting of policy relates to economic development, pension reform, education and workforce development, energy and the environment, to name just a few.
ALEC operates across the nation and has state policy chair persons who work for the state legislature. In Michigan, the state chairs are Rep. Mike Webber and Senator Michael Green. Green has been the recipient of large sums of DeVos money and Webber has been the recipient of another member of the West Michigan power elite, John Kennedy.
Michigan organizations, such as the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, are part of the network of ALEC supported right-wing think tanks. In 2015, Grand Rapids was host to the State Policy Network’s (SPN) annual gathering, but the Acton Institute and the Mackinac Center were effectively the hosts for that SPN function. I had planned to attend that gathering in 2015 and was even registered, but when I checked in they denied me entrance to the conference.
On Friday, in Grand Rapids, a national right-wing organization will meet to create proposals that will give more power to corporations, attack public education, promote greater privatization of government and craft energy policy that will continue to benefit the oil and gas industry as we all suffer the consequences of climate change. How can we allow this kind of gathering to take place in this city, especially knowing that they seek to use wealth to influence public policy that gives private power greater control over our lives?
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 