Where are we 5 years after the uprising in Grand Rapids in terms of defunding and abolishing the GRPD?
It has been five years since Grand Rapids had thousands of people in the streets as a response to the police murder of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor and other Black people over the past decade. All of that came to a head on late May of 2020, with some of the largest actions in US history that were demanding something beyond police reforms.
The uprising that took place on May 30th in 2020 was not planned, even though there were several marches planned that converged on Rosa Parks Circle that day. The convergence of people on that day resulted in a major confrontation between those in the streets and the GRPD and other local cops who came to their aid.
Most of the rage was directed at the cops, who sustained a great deal of damage, even the loss of a few cruisers. Unfortunately, most of the commercial news media focused on the smashing of windows and downtown and a small amount of looting, rather than give attention to how people took out their rage against the police that day.
From the very beginning, Grand Rapids City officials attempted to control the narrative about what happened on May 30th of 2020, but some of us have presented counter-narrative, like what I wrote.
The City of Grand Rapids responded with repressive actions, like a curfew for the downtown of Grand Rapids, plus they called in the Michigan National Guard, which turned downtown GR into an occupied military action. Plus, for the first week after the May 30th uprising, the local commercial news media also hijacked the narrative centered around cops killing Black people.
On the one year anniversary of the May 30th, 2020 uprising, I wrote that there were three main narratives that emerged in Grand Rapids, narratives that continue to be used. Those narratives are:
- Narrative #1 is the narrative of systems of power
- Narrative #2 is the narrative of liberalism and normalcy
- Narrative #3 is organized resistance and a call to Defund the GRPD
I also put together a visual depiction of how the GRPD has tried to control the narrative about public safety since the May 30th rebellion in Grand Rapids through November of 2020, which you can find here.
What else happened after the May 30th, 2020 uprising?
One of the frameworks of the national uprising after George Floyd was murdered by a cop came out of the Movement for Black Lives and Critical Resistance to call for the Defunding of the police and the eventual abolition of policing. These ideas had been around for decades, but after the uprisings of 2020, they became part of the national dialogue, as more and more people, were tired of the usual police reform promises that came from politicians and more mainstream civil rights groups.
The Movement for Black Lives created a Defund the Police Toolkit, which provided excellent resources for local communities to adopt this strategy. On June 26, 2020, Defund the GRPD held its first Press Conference, where they announced clear demands for defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department.
On July 8, 2020, after weeks of pressure from community groups to Defund the GRPD, 3 City Commissioners were set to propose defunding the GRPD to the 32% City Charter mandated minimum. However, the City Manager and the City Attorney stepped in and prevent such a vote, making the claim that the City Commission did not have the legal authority to do so. City Manager Mark Washington did say that they would revisit possible reduction in GRPD funding later that year.
July 29. 2020 – The City of Grand Rapids announced that there would be a new Strategic Plan for the GRPD in August, but the announcement made it clear that there is no way for the GRPD to reduce their funding, using recent gun violence as the main justification.
August 10, 2020 – New GRPD Strategic Plan placates those unaffected by police violence and ignores those calling for defunding.
September 24, 2020 – GRPD planned for another riot during a protest to honor Breonna Taylor in Grand Rapids.
November 17, 2020 – Defund the GRPD and other community groups stopped the efforts of the City of Grand Rapids to use Cares Act funding from Kent County to purchase ShotSpotter technology that the GRPD wanted.
December 2, 2020 – A member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure sends the City Commission a letter to oppose any defunding of the GRPD.
December 27 & 30, 2020 – The GRPD police union and supporters increased their efforts to oppose any sort of defunding of the GRPD, making it clear that the efforts of Defund the GRPD were a threat to their institutionalized power.
February 24, 2021 – GRPD Strategic Plan revisions claim that Grand Rapids, “will become the safest mid-sized city and most trusted police department in the United States.”
March 9, 2021 – Justice for Black Lives activists were targeted and arrested by the GRPD during a protest, showing how the GRPD engages in selective enforcement of local ordinances.
March 31, 2021 – GRPD rolls out their Operation Safe Neighborhood plan, which involved the use of helicopters terrorizing people in mostly Black and Brown neighborhoods. This so-called community policing approach, is nothing more than a re-packaging of what the GRPD has done for decades.
April 6, 2021 – Local news media talk to GR City Commissioners about the police budget, where they all pretty much oppose any defunding of the GRPD.
April 20, 2021 – Grand Rapids City Officials and the GRPD release a memo, which essentially threatens people who protest the upcoming Derrick Chauvin trial.
April 27, 2021 – Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association says that the recent viral video of GRPD cops repeatedly punching a black motorists, is simply “fanning the flames of national outrage.
May 3, 2021 – Grand Rapids City Officials hold a 1 hour visual town hall to talk about the 2022 City Budget, which included the budget for the GRPD.
May 9, 2021 – GRPD arrests the wrong Black man who was on the way to a family funeral, but was charged with resisting arrest.
May 19, 2021 – City Commission hearing on 2022 Budget once again demonstrated how much contempt they have for public input, especially input that challenges their power.
Defund the GRPD did a lot of organizing around the 2022 City Budget proposal, which involved education on the budget, mobilizing people to come to the public hearing on the budget, sending electronic messages to Grand Rapids City Officials, organizing a demonstration with Justice for Black Lives to draw attention to continued police repression in Grand Rapids, and putting out their own list of demands for the 2022 Grand Rapids City Budget.
After Patrick Lyoya was murdered by the GRPD
Defund the GRPD and Justice for Blacks did the bulk of the organizing for 2 years around challenging the GRPD and building capacity for defunding the Grand Rapids Police Department.
Justice for Black Lives dissolved, but many people involved in that group created what became known as the Comrades Collective. DeFund the GRPD was still around, and engage in actions and other resistance work, but then Patrick Lyoya was murdered on April 4th of 2022, by a GRPD cop.
Within a couple of days after Patrick’s murder, the Grand Rapids Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression was formed. GRAARPR was formed out of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, which is predominantly an ally group, which did not check in with the BIPOC-led groups Defund the GRPD and the Comrades Collective. This dynamic has created some tension and frustration within the organizing community and needs to be addressed.
People involved in Defund the GRPD, Justice for Black Lives and the Comrades Collective have faced significant repression at the hands of the GRPD over the past 5 years, and some of their members are still being targeted.
The number of people involved in working to defund and abolish policing in Grand Rapids has diminished for a variety of reasons, even after Patrick Lyoya was murdered by the GRPD. Some of those reasons are:
- BIPOC organizers that have been targeted have not be sufficiently supported, especially by those who identify as allies.
- There has been too much Respectability Politics injected into the larger movement, especially by politicians and mainstream civil rights groups that are more interested in police reforms and building so-called community trust with the GRPD than they are about defunding and abolishing the GRPD.
- When Chief Winstrom was hired in March of 2022, he made it a point to not only try to control the narrative about the GRPD, he adopted a no tolerance strategy that has seen the criminalization of dissent in Grand Rapids in the last three years.
- People put too much faith in the legal system, especially after Chris Schurr was charged with the killing Patrick Lyoya, Too many of us put hope in the outcome of the legal proceedings and the Schurr trial, when we should have at least been more suspicious of the outcome or never should have put any faith in a system that was never designed to actually bring about justice.
We have seen in recent months in Grand Rapids a clear pattern from the GRPD, with significant repression and no tolerance for any kind of protest. We need to move beyond simply protesting and start engaging in resistance work that doesn’t make it so easy for the GRPD to intimidate, harass, surveil and arrest people. We need to stop engaging in performative demonstrations that involve too many god damn speakers and no real revolutionary vision. If we want shit to change we are going to have to be strategic and willing to take risks.
The eighth and final episode in the All Access PD: Grand Rapids TV series on HBO/Max has now concluded. So what can we learn from this high-scripted TV show that featured the GRPD?
First, I want to provide a brief summary of each of the 8 episodes, followed by several points about why I think it is important for communities in Grand Rapids to look beyond simply the entertainment aspect of the All Access PD: Grand Rapids TV show.
Episode #1 sure reminded me of the show COPS, where Black bodies are criminalized and that Black people in urban settings are represented as thugs. This first episode affirms that stereotype, thus perpetuating structural racism and justifying state carceral violence.
Episode #2 ends with the mother of the shooting victim coming in to the GRPD headquarters and talking to Winstrom on camera, praising them for all they have done on this case. The mother states, “You give off a vibe that you really care.” The mother then praises the female homicide investigator, with Winstrom and another cop smiling as the episode credits are rolling.
Episode #3 follows the case of a Black person charged with a shooting, which further normalizes the white supremacist belief that Black people are inherently deviant and violent. This HBO/MAX TV series with the GRPD is presenting Grand Rapids as a city with a bunch of violent Black people who prey on other Black people.
Episode #4 was essentially about drug dealers and drug users in the Heartside area of Grand Rapids. Every one of the dealers and users were Black people, so this episode continues to perpetuate racial stereotypes and present the GRPD as compassionate saviors of the unhoused.
In Episode #5 Chief Winstrom gets the final word while the credits are rolling to say that the end result was justice. Simple as that. Winstrom gets to decide when justice happens, because it’s his show. However, after 5 episodes, the only thing that changed is that there were Latinos included as part of those committing crimes in Grand Rapids.
Episode #6 communicates that the only shooters and victims are BIPOC,, plus some of the video footage used communicates the message that there are Black gangs roaming the streets of Grand Rapids. This show will definitely contribute to fostering and maintaining stereotypes about Black people, since the audience will no doubt be predominantly white.
Episode #7 continued with representing Black people as suspects in gun violence, as drug traffickers, then added a new stereotype, by associating guns and drugs with rap music.
Episode #8 demonstrated how highly scripted this TV series about the GRPD has been. This was the last episode in the series and the GRPD clearly wanted to craft a narrative that shows how much they care about the community and how dangerous their jobs are.
What can we learn from the All Access PD: Grand Rapids TV show?
Here are several things that I think we need to talk about in regards to what the GRPD TV show was really about and what it means for this community.
- The GRPD TV show demonstrates that you can craft messages which say – most of the crime that is happening in Grand Rapids is being committed by Black and Brown people without being worried about any pushback from the community.
- The highly-scripted TV series is also about what the community wasn’t shown, which is the over-policing in BIPOC and poor neighborhoods, how much the GRPD works to protect property and maintain order, especially in the downtown, since Grand Rapids doesn’t want to alienate tourists, which means they don’t want to take money away from those who own this city.
- The All Access PD: Grand Rapids series was essentially both a recruiting plan for the GRPD and a Public Relations tool to boost their image locally and across the country. The GRPD TV show is also being used to leverage unconditional funding for the GRPD, since the Grand Rapids City Commission once again unanimously approved all of the money they have been requesting, along with how the Mayor and City Manager continued to praise the GRPD even after the Kent County Prosecutor decided to not re-charge the cop that killed Patrick Lyoya.
- The GRPD TV series attempted to present the cops as human being trying to do good and to continue to build back some form of community trust. There is no evidence in the TV show that the city is deeply divided over the GRPD and that their actions continue to alienate people throughout Grand Rapids, which was intentional.
Lastly, it should be stated that the All Access PD: Grand Rapids TV series is ultimately about controlling the narrative about policing. Ever since the 2020 uprising in Grand Rapids, there has been an all out war to control the narrative about the GRPD, because more than anything those in power do not want to succumb to the will of popular social movements, and they will not allow any conversation about defunding/abolishing the Grand Rapids Police Department. Grand Rapids is in a narrative war about the GRPD, and this was ultimately why Grand Rapids politicians and members of the Capitalist class have endorsed it.
Editors Note: Last week, the Grand Rapids City Commission unanimously approved the FY2026 budget, which not only provides $69.1 million to the GRPD as listed in the budget narrative, it provides millions more for new technology and other resources for the GRPD and entities that work directly with the GRPD. The total budget for what the system calls community safety – it would be more accurate to call it the Punishment Industry – comes to $247.3 million of public money.
Episode eight begins with a Lieutenant in the GRPD talking about “all the different hats that cops have to wear.” The GRPD responds to an accident involving a motorcycle and a car. A young white woman is injured and a young white male is sitting with her, attempting to stop the bleeding.
The cop asks the guy what happened and thinks he smells alcohol. The cop then grabs what he believes to be a suspect, and in response another white male become agitated and starts yelling at the cop to let the possible suspect go. Another cop steps in, puts his hands on another white male and then picks him up and slams him to the ground. The white male then asks the cop for his badge number and name, several times, but the cop never provides the information, and instead tells the guy he is under arrest as cuffs are put on him.
While taking the two white males to their squad cars, the GRPD informs one of the young men that they are being charged with obstruction and failure to obey a cop. The GRPD cop then tells him that if this young man does any damage to the police vehicle, they will be charged with a felony.
The episode then cuts to the Deputy Chief of Police, who is talking about how he has always done patrol work and then begins to talk about how dangerous patrol work is. The Deputy Chief of Police – speaking directly to the camera – talks about how a fellow officer and patrol partner, was killed responding to a domestic violence call. A picture of the cop who was killed – Robert Kozminski – was shot by someone in July of 2007.
The next scene takes viewers into the daily roll call room, which has a table with a plaque on it commemorating Kozminski. The Deputy Chief of Police says the plague is there “as a reminder of how dangerous this job is.” Interesting that they spent more time talking about a GRPD officer who was killed in 2007, but only mention in passing that Patrick Lyoya was killed by a GRPD cop in 2022.
The GRPD responds to another call about someone who has barricaded themselves into a home that they don’t live in. The Deputy Chief of Police says that while some cops are trying to reason with the suspect, other cops are entering the house through windows. The Mental Health Team becomes involved and tries to talked the suspect down. At the same time, SWAT cops show up all geared up to try to take the person with a mental health crisis into custody.
Then we see the GRPD responding to a call about a bank robbery, where the suspect is a white male. The GRPD sees a man who fit the description, stopped him and put him in a police cruiser until the bank employee tells the cops this was not the man who robbed the bank.
Another patrol cop, who is patrolling in the Burton Heights area, says that there is a lot of drug dealing happening in the parking lots along South Division. This cops sees a low-level dealer, who runs and the cops tries to catch him on foot. The episode then jumps back to the person who barricaded himself inside a home.
The GRPD has more than a dozen cops there when the man finally comes downstairs and gives himself up. A GRPD cop, who is speaking to the camera, then says that normally someone like this would be taken to the Kent County Jail. However, with the new Mental Health Response Team, they work to provide other resources to address some short term needs. No sooner does the cop tell viewers this, he then admits that the man who was having a mental health crisis is going to the jail. The GRPD cop (Officer Howard) who is saying all of this, is the same cop that many activists have ID’d as a cop who often instigates harassment of people involved in social justice work, which I wrote about recently.
The episode cuts back to the bank robbery, where they now suspect a “homeless guy.” The cops find the guy, who was staying at a local hotel, and they arrested him immediately at gun point.
Now we are back to the drug dealer suspect. The cops have now brought in police dogs and are using their recently purchased drones to find the suspect. Using live drone footage, they found the suspect who is a Black male. The cops talk with him briefly, tell him he is going to jail, then tells the camera that they try to convince these people that they need to, “change their lifestyles.”
Back at GRPD headquarters, the Deputy Chief of Police informs the patrol squad that his son and daughter are going to do a ride-along with the patrol officers. For the next several minutes, the TV show producers try to humanize the cops, where the children of the Deputy Chief of Police are making light of their father also on patrol.
The cops then chase a suspect with a drug warrant, someone who is in a car and trying to get away from the GRPD. The cops throw a tire spike tool on the road, which will deflate car tires, thus enabling them to capture the suspect.
The episode switches to another call, where a late night party is in progress in Grand Rapids. Someone was shot near the Agave bar and the cops show up on the scene. The episode cuts back to the high speed chase. The tire finally deflates and the driver pulls over and is apprehended. This scene comes to a close with both of the Deputy Chief of Police’s kids arriving on the scene and talking about how much they enjoyed the ride-along.
Back to the Agave bar shooting and the Deputy Chief of Police says that some communities feel marginalized by the cops, but that they try to build relationships with them. The crowd outside the bar grows and people begin taunting the cops, when Chief Winstrom shows up. Several GRPD cops then praise Winstrom, with one cop saying, “everybody loves him.”
The episode ends with the daughter of the Deputy Chief of Police showing up in uniform as an intern, where Winstrom arrives to welcome the new recruit.
From a production perspective, this episode was all over the place, with no real story line coherence. However, it seems like they were attempting to get viewers to see cops as regular people and to show how “risky” it is to be a GRPD cop. However, in every instance in this episode, the GRPD was always heavily armed, with lots of cops showing up in each scene, and often using physical force when dealing with suspects.In each case the GRPD approached people at gun point, despite the fact that none of them had a weapon on them.
Episode eight demonstrated how highly scripted this TV series about the GRPD has been. This was the last episode in the series and the GRPD clearly wanted to craft a narrative that shows how much they care about the community and how dangerous their jobs are.
Having watched and deconstructed all eight of the scripted episodes, the GRPD rarely prevents violence from happening, often escalates violent situations, doesn’t demonstrate any accountability and disproportionately targets Black and Brown residents in neighborhoods that have been disinvested.
For all the hype that this show received from local news media, the All Access PD Grand Rapids show did nothing to improve their image or their standing in communities of color. The show also completely avoided addressing how the GRPD engages in a variety of repressive tactics when dealing with organizations and community groups that are demanding justice.
Shortly after the Kent County Prosecutor decided he would not re-charge the ex-GRPD cop who shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head, the City of Grand Rapids released a statement.
Part of what Mayor LaGrand said was:
“While the criminal case has concluded, our city’s journey has not. The work of healing, of building a more equitable and just Grand Rapids, and of strengthening the bonds of trust between our community and all who serve it, including our police department, must continue with even greater resolve. We are committed to the ongoing reforms and dialogues necessary for this progress. We also recognize and support the dedicated GRPD officers who serve our city honorably and professionally every day.”
“The legacy of Patrick Lyoya’s tragic death must be one of enduring commitment to positive change. I implore every resident to channel their emotions into peaceful, constructive action. Let us come together to support one another and continue the hard work of building a city where everyone is safe, valued and respected.”
City Manager Mark Washington echoed some very similar sentiment:
“The City of Grand Rapids’ commitment to accountability, constitutional policing and our comprehensive police reform agenda remains unwavering. During my tenure, we’ve made great strides in improving policing in our community – many of which have occurred over the last three years – and were just recently highlighted by our Police Chief to our Public Safety Committee on May 20, 2025. We recognize that today’s announcement may intensify the need for trust-building with some segments of our community, and we are fully dedicated to that ongoing work. We also deeply value our GRPD officers who perform their challenging, and often dangerous, duties with integrity, professionalism and commitment to our community every day.”
“I know for some in this is very difficult day and for others a great relief. Regardless, I expect for any and all community expressions to be lawful and civil as we navigate the path forward together.”
Here are some of my immediate responses to these comments from members of the Grand Rapids political class:
First, you can toss around words like equity, justice and healing all you want, but the actions of the City of Grand Rapids do not put into practice meaningful actions/policies to promote equity, justice and healing.
Second, both Mayor LaGrand and City Manager Washington go out of their way to praise the GRPD, using words like commitment, trust-building, comprehensive police reform, dedicated, honor and professionalism. Even on the heals of a three year fight to win justice for Patrick Lyoya, the treatment of community organizers in this fight, or any other struggle for justice that has occurred in the past decade – primarily led by BIPOC organizer – LaGrand and Washington have the audacity to still praise a police department that continues to surveil, intimidate, harass, arrest and abuse members of the community.
Third, both LaGrand and Washington make comments with the intent of both trying to control public responses to Becker’s decision to not re-charge Schurr and to demonize anyone who doesn’t operate within the parameters of state-dictated responses. LaGrand wants everyone to be “peaceful” and use “constructive action.” Washington wants everyone to be “lawful and civil.” These are merely code words designed to control and to demonize anyone who doesn’t follow the state-sanctioned script for proper behavior. In other words, nothing that disrupts business as usual, nothing to challenges systems of power and oppression, which ultimately means performative actions and respectability politics.
Getting back to Mayor LaGrand’s point about building a more equitable and just Grand Rapids, it is interesting (but not surprising) that he offers no concrete examples of how this city can be more equitable or just.
We know that City Manager Mark Washington has demonstrated his commitment to order, and we have already witnessed the Mayor’s response to critical issues in his first 5 months in office – not listening to the undocumented immigrant’s demand to adopt Sanctuary policies, being dismissive of those who have been abused by the GRPD, his bizarre response to the housing crisis and his commitment to policing, which was reflected in his State of the City address – “Public order is the bedrock of a strong city.”
In the end, there cannot be meaningful outcomes of equity or justice in Grand Rapids as long as city leaders continue to pander to the members of the Capitalist Class, continue to fund developers and the GRPD, ignore demands from the undocumented immigrant community and remain complicit in the repression of those involved in movement work in recent years. The statement from the City of Grand Rapids should just be one more reminder that we cannot work towards collective liberation when the political system is commitment to state repression, what they like to call law and order.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of May 25th
It has been more than 19 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
International Solidarity Movement Volunteers Speak On Building Solidarity In The West Bank
Netanyahu’s Endgame: Isolation and the Shattered Illusion of Power
Genocide is the Currency of Western Domination
Gaza’s Graveyard of Illusions: How Israel’s Narrative Collides with Military Failure
Israel kills 100 Palestinians on Nakba Day
STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN GAZA: “EDUCATION ITSELF IS A FORM OF DEFIANCE”
Netanyahu: Gaza Aid Scheme Offers Israel Symbolic Cover to Finish the Genocide
How NYT Reports on Weaponized Famine So You Don’t Have to Give a Damn
Gaza First Amendment Alert (May 16, 2025)
Analysis & History
Why Didn’t The Democrats Strike a Ceasefire in Israel | Norman Finkelstein
Making Gaza Unlivable: Israel Intensifies Attacks as Netanyahu Vows to Seize All of Gaza
Israel Is Attempting to Execute a Final Solution in Gaza
Image used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/killing-the-story-april-2025/
There are reasons why the Kent County Prosecutor will not re-charge Schurr for murdering Patrick Lyoya
Late Thursday morning, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker made the announcement that he would not re-charge former GRPD cop Christopher Schurr for shooting Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. Simply put, Becker said, “I just don’t see a place where we get 12 people to agree.”
We may never know the real reasons that Chris Becker decided to not re-charge Schurr, but there are certainly some factors that play into the Kent County Prosecutor’s decision.
First, the GRPD union contributed $1,000 to Becker’s campaign in 2016, according to the campaign finance records found online. However, the GRPD police union is not the only law enforcement entity to contribute to Becker’s campaign over the years. Former Kent Count Sheriff Larry Stelma and current Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young have both made contributions. In addition, there was a $1000 contribution in 2016 from the Kent County Sheriff Law Enforcement (How it was listed on the campaign finance document), which I can only conclude is the Sheriff’s Department union.
Equally important are the contributions that Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker has received from the legal system. Looking at the records for the past two election cycles, Becker has received campaign contributions from at least 30 different lawyers, with several of them connected to the Kent County Prosecutor’s office, along with 6 current or retired judges. These are all people who are part of the punishment system, also known as the Criminal Justice System.
Second, there are the contributions from member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure over the past three election cycles.
2016 Election
- J.C. Huizenga $500
- Peter Secchia $2,500
- Steven Van Andel $500
- Cheri DeVos $1,000
- Dan DeVos $1,000
- Pam DeVos $1,000
- Dick DeVos $1,000
- Betsy DeVos $1,000
- Richard DeVos $1,000
- Helen DeVos $1,000
- Doug DeVos $1,000
- Maria DeVos $1,000
2020 Election
- Cheri DeVos $4,000
- Dick DeVos $2,000
- Dan DeVos $2,000
- Doug & Maria DeVos $4,000
- Pam DeVos $2,000
2024 Election
- TGIF Victory Fund – $20,000
- Cheri DeVos – $8,325
- Steve Ehmann – $8,325
- Doug DeVos – $8,325
- Maria DeVos – $8,325
- Dick DeVos – $8,325
- Betsy DeVos – $8,325
- Daniel DeVos – $8,325
- Pamela DeVos – $8,325
- Joan Secchia – $4,000
- Charlie Secchia – $2,000
- John Kennedy – $2,000
- Jim Williams – $2,000
- David Van Andel – $2,000
- Carol Van Andel – $2,000
- Mike Ellis – $1,000
- Mark Murray – $1,000
- Tom Bylenga – $1,000
- Mark Bissell – $1,000
The DeVos family alone contributed $89,600 to Chris Becker over the past 3 election cycles, which is small change for them, but it still makes their family the single largest contributor to Becker’s campaign. There is one point about the contributions in 2020 and 2024, which I believe to be relevant as well, as it speaks to the longterm interests of Billionaires like the DeVos family.
You can see that the amount of money given by each DeVos family member increased from 2016 to 2020 to 2024. In looking at the contributions from the DeVos family in 2020, all of those contributions were made on July 10th, 2020. Why is that important? Well, it was only six weeks after the riot/uprising in Grand Rapids because of the police murder of George Floyd. It is my contention that Becker received an increase in campaign funds from the most power family in Grand Rapids, just weeks after the riot/uprising, since the DeVos family knew that Becker would be prosecuting people arrested during the riot/uprising.
The DeVos family has all of their foundation offices, their financial investment firm, RDV Corp, Windquest and a slew of hotels they own, all of which are located in downtown Grand Rapids. The Capitalist Class has vested interests that must be protected by the state and Becker has not disappointed in the cases he presided over regarding property destruction during the riot/uprising of 2020.
It is deeply troubling that Chris Becker has relied on the DeVos family and other members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure to get elected to the Prosecutor’s Office, and that their contributions increased after their investments were threatened by protestors in 2020 and the continued resistance since then up until today.
I can’t help but believe that the DeVos family continues to have conversations with Grand Rapids and Kent County elected officials over the potential threat to their downtown interests in the aftermath of the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya. After all, this is how systems of power function and we need to come to terms with this. The legal system in Kent County is not broken, it is doing exactly what it was designed to do – protect property and the financial interests of those with power. Once we understand this, we can develop more effective strategies of resistance.
Funding Cops and Developers: Grand Rapids City Commission unanimously approves FY2026 Budget
On May 20th, the City of Grand Rapids released the following statement:
“The Grand Rapids City Commission on Tuesday unanimously adopted a $735 million fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget, advancing a comprehensive plan to maintain essential services, invest in community priorities and sustain transformational projects across the city.”
The issue of “sustaining transformational projects” means things like using public money for the Amphitheater and the Soccer Stadium. Grand Action 2.0, which was founded in part by the DeVos family, is the entity that pushed both of these projects, which will create even more of a parking nightmare in downtown Grand Rapids. The Amphitheater has contracted with Live Nation to book shows, even though Live Nation is facing a major lawsuit by the US Department of Justice. The Soccer Stadium will be called the Amway Stadium and both the DeVos and Van Andel families will own the team, which is what anyone who has been paying attention would expect.
In addition, the City’s Press Release on the budget fails to mention the amount for the GRPD and everything that is connected to the GRPD. According to the Grand Rapids City Budget, the GRPD will be receiving $69.1 million. However, this amount is misleading, since the GRPD is part of a system of state carceral violence. You can see from the graphic above how many budgetary categories are connected to the GRPD, which includes items with a red arrow. In fact, if you add up all of those items, the total budget for the state carceral system would be $92.7 million.
Then there are other budgetary items, what falls under the category of Safe Community. This category is listed as “proposed” and would allocate an additional $154.6 million. Here is what is included under the Safe Community proposal:
- $5.9 million to reduce Police and Fire department vacancies, right-size to meet demand for public safety services, and augment services through partnerships and contracting.
- $2.7 million for crime prevention and violence reduction through community partnerships and innovative approaches to improve community safety by addressing root causes of crime and violence, and by redirecting non-violent individuals toward supportive resources rather than into the criminal justice system.
- $6.6 million for other public safety services responsive to community needs and concerns including court representation for low-income defendants, residential fire safety, and the SAFE Task Force.
- $20.8 million in Safe Community capital investments, including emergency protection equipment and 800MHZ backup radio system replacement for Police, updated radios at each siren site for Dispatch, ballistics forensics, three kits to allow off-site 911 Dispatcher call- taking and dispatch capabilities, and continued construction of Kendall Street and Division Avenue fire stations and fire training center.
If we add the cost for all the items in graphic above, along with the proposed Safe Community costs, it would be $247.3 million for policing and the state carceral system.
You can download Resident’s Guide to Fiscal Year 2026, by going to this link.
Editors Note: Last week, Chief Winstrom made the claim that if the GRPD was not short handed, Chrisopher Schurr would not have shot Patrick Lyoya in the back of the head. Such a claim should cause any of us to question everything that Winstrom has to say. In addition, during the public comment at last week’s Grand Rapids City Commission meting, dozens of people called out the GRPD for their abusive treatment of people during the Schurr trial. The Grand Rapids City Commission’s response was reprehensible.
Episode seven begins with a GRPD cop responding to a call of gunshots heard in the northwest park of Grand Rapids, just west of US 131. When the GRPD arrives they find a man who has been shot sitting in his car. Two Black men show up on the other side of the fence barrier for US 131, but quickly leave when the cops start asking questions.
The GRPD then was able to ID the shooting victim, which appears to be a Black man, based on the photo they used. More GRPD cops show up at the scene of the shooting and they find lots of money in the car and several phones.
The shooting victim’s car is brought back to police headquarters, where the forensic unit finds more money and more drugs in the car. At one point, one of the cops – talking to the camera – states, “It is unusual to find this much money and this much drugs, but with no gun.” Chief Winstrom also chimes in to say that with that amount of money and drugs, “it is usually connected to violence.”
The cops then turn to the social media of the man who was shot and find out that he had recently posted a self-made rap video, or at least that was what the GRPD was calling it. Another Detective speculates that he has seen this before, that when someone gets some fame they end up being a target of violence. Talk about another racist trope, the GRPD keeps making statements about things they know nothing about.
The cops then respond to more shots at College & Leonard, with shots coming from a grey Dodge Charger. The two Black men who came to the scene of the shooting near US 131, also drove a grey Dodge Charger, thus the GRPD is speculating that these two shootings are linked.
The GRPD then finds the grey Dodge Charger and takes into custody a Black man, where the cops are demanding he exist the car with his hands up walking backwards towards the police. No weapons are found, but the episode doesn’t say if this Black man has been arrested.
A SWAT team then goes to a hotel looking for a suspect and they find one of the suspects, who is another Black male. Once again, the GRPD makes the suspect walk backwards towards them with his hands up. The cops bring this Black man back to the GRPD headquarters and then interrogates him. The suspect says he won’t say anything without a lawyer.
What is rather instructive about what happens next is that the Black man they were interrogating was wearing a tether on his ankle. Even though the GRPD detained him at gun point, they apparently didn’t check him for any weapons, otherwise they would have found the tether. Embarrassed, the GRPD cops laugh about it, and one says, “we should probably edit this out.”
The GRPD Detectives then go and speak with the Kent County Prosecutor about the case and he says they have to let this guy go because they do not have any real hard evidence. The show ends with several cops and Chief Winstrom feeling sorry that they couldn’t resolve this case.
Like the previous episodes, Episode #7 continued with representing Black people as suspects in gun violence, as drug traffickers, then added a new stereotype, by associating guns and drugs with rap music. The All Access PD Grand Rapids show has been consistent through 7 episodes, with the GRPD hunting down Black people who commit gun violence, often involving drug trafficking and and the victims are always Black people.
One of the 10 principles of journalism is that it must serve as an independent monitor of power.
Now, I don’t claim to be a journalist, more of a media watchdog, but I do engage in movement media. Movement media is reporting and documenting what social movements are doing, which is what I have been trying to do with GRIID since 2009.
However, since I have been monitoring what I call the Grand Rapids Power Structure for nearly two decades, I thought I would start a new segment – Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids.
The Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids segments will offer brief commentary on those who have power over others in this community. These segments will not replace my regular reporting on the Grand Rapids Power Structure, since those stories will offer more in depth writing.
As we navigate a second Trump Administration with the likes of Elon Musk, it seems like a perfect opportunity to shed some light on rich and powerful of Grand Rapids, or to frame it the way that radical media from the 60s and 70s would do regarding the Capitalist Class, using the phrase, “up against the wall motherfucker!”
Our first example comes to us from an announcement from the West Michigan Policy Forum, stating that former State Representative Jase Bolger is the new President & CEO of the West Michigan Policy Forum.
Bolger left political office a few years ago and formed the Tusker Strategies LLC group, which represents groups working on public policy changes in Michigan. According to the Tusker website, the West Michigan Policy Forum (WMPF) was Bolger’s only client. In addition to representing the WMPF, Bolger also joined the board of the Great Lakes Education Project, the entity created by Betsy DeVos to undermine public education across the state.
Last November, GRIID posted an article about Bolger and Doug DeVos, who had a video conversation with the WMPF board member Doug DeVos, where they talked about dismantling public education. In that video, Bolger bragged about what he had done to attack public education in Michigan through the state legislature, such as:
- Expanding School Choice options in Michigan, which has always been about the dismantling of Public Education.
- Undermining teachers retirement plans by getting the state to move public school district teacher pensions to a 401K plan, claiming the district would be able to spend more on students.
- Putting in place a system to attack teachers for “under-performing”, based on students grades.
In our second example, there has been more uncritical news coverage of the new DeVos-owned coffee shop, known as the Foxtail Coffee Co. The MLive story does not mention that the cafe is owned by the DeVos family, only that it is part of the Baton Collective.
The Baton Collective is actually owned by Cheri DeVos, which is a commercial real estate and business management company. Cheri also is the founder of Michigan Sports Academies, plus she recently added Otter Air Services as part of the Baton Collective portfolio, which offers concierge charter air travel services. Like the rest of the second generation of the Amway family, Cheri DeVos is always interested in expanding her wealth.
Below is a graphic that has been circulating on social media for a few months, which has a fabulously harsh message for the DeVos family.
Deconstructing memes: Resistance to oppression should always include a diversity of tactics
Recently, I came across a meme that comes out of the 50501 group, which, as I have written before, is pretty much a Democratic Party front group. You can read the meme here on the right.
The meme is suggesting that Trump will have violent protesters come to “peaceful protests” and engage in violent behavior, with the meme including property destruction as a form of violence. The meme also suggests that everyone who is being “peaceful” should sit down when violent protesters do something, so that the cops will see who the bad protesters are. The meme ends with hashtags like #Gandhi, #passiveresistance and #pacifists.
This meme is rife with problems. First, there is no such thing as a peaceful protest. If there are police at a protest, this means there are people with guns, tasers, mace, clubs, tear gas, rubber bullets and a whole range of other high tech weapons. As anyone who has ever participated in a protest knows, it doesn’t take much for the police to use any number of these weapons. In fact, one could argue that the police are looking for a reason to use such weapons. However, even if they don’t use these weapons, there is always the threat of their use, which means that whenever cops are at a protest it CANNOT be peaceful.
Second, if people obtain a permit for a protest, that means you are giving consent to the state to not engage in disruptive protest. Obtaining a permit also means that the police are there to “protect” your right to protest, which means you have submitted to their authority and will only do what they sanction. The police are state violence workers, who historically prioritize protecting property and societal order over people being able to meet their needs. The police have always undermined and infiltrated protests, whether that has been against the labor movement, the anti-war movement or the Civil Rights movement. If there is going to be any agent provocateurs, it is usually the police.
Third, I get and support the choice of individuals and organizations to engage in non-violent protests. However, the history of non-violent protests, at least the ones that have been successful, also involves taking risks. The Civil Rights movement provoked structural racism to respond to their demands, which often led to people being arrested, beaten, jailed and at times killed by the state. The Civil Rights movement used sit-ins, un-permitted marches, freedom rides, shutting down highways and other disruptive tactics to achieve their goals. This was also the case of India’s satyagraha movement (a non-violent movement), it also used direct action tactics to provoke the British colonial government into responding to their demands. The satyagraha movement also involved serious risks, which were necessary to force the British to end their colonial occupation of India.
Fourth, calling a protest peaceful, when protests are anything but peaceful, is a way for the system(s) to dictate the narrative about what is happening. When the police say a protest was peaceful, they mean that those protesting obey their orders, did nothing to disrupt business as usual and often it means that protest organizers cooperate and even collaborate with the police. In fact, one could argue that if this happens, then it is not really a protest, instead it becomes a performance. Such forms of “protests” are almost always organized by white liberals to make other white people feel good about themselves, without having to interrogate systems of power and oppression.
Fifth, there is also a long history of social movements in the US that have engaged in property destruction or the right to defend themselves against state violence. Some example are the US Labor movement, the Black Power movement, some elements of the Environmental Justice movement, the anti-war movement and the LGBTQ movement. Specific examples are: 1) workers attacking scabs who are meant to replace them at their jobs; 2) Black militants arming themselves against police brutality – people often think of the Black Panther Party for self-Defense, but there was also the Deacons for Defense; 3) environmental groups that have used monkey-wrenching tactics to dismantle machinery that destroys eco-systems; 4) anti-nuclear resisters using jack hammers to destroy the lids to nuclear missile silos; or 5) queer and trans activists fighting back against the police at Stonewall. Remember, Stonewall was a riot. An excellent book about the exclusion of property destruction and self-defensive within the history of movement is, They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us: Forcing Nonviolence on Forgetful Movements, by Peter Gelderloos.
Lastly, it is important that we not demonize those who use force or engage in property destruction to achieve liberation. Too often, those who only engage in non-violence, risk-free protests will demonize people/organizations and movements that utilize disruptive tactics, property destruction or those who engage in armed resistance. Historically, non-violence, property destruction, community self-defense and forms of armed resistance have been successful against tyrants, dictators, totalitarian and fascist governments. Demonizing those who do not always practice non-violence only benefits the state and their ability to engage in repression.
Like most forms of struggle, it is important that we not think in binary terms or see only one solution to achieving our goals of collective liberation. My experience in Latin America has taught me over the years that non-violent civil society groups have often supported armed revolutionary movements in places like El Salvador, Guatemala and in Mexico.
Images used, from left to right – Chrysler workers threatening scabs, Earth First logo, which practiced monkeywrenching, and the Deacans for Defense, which had chapters throughout the US in Black communities to fight against the KKK and police violence.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 