VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

By Diane Bukowski

“Vigilante–The Story of Hayward Brown” is scheduled for a grand opening Sept. 1, 2010 at the Emagine Theater, 39535 Ford Rd. w. of Warren in Canton, MI. It will be in area theaters Sept. 3. 

Vigilante poster

The film is co-produced by Brown and Henrietta Brown. Brown also wrote the film and Gabrielle Brown wrote the screenplay. Vigilante’s stars include Brown, J. Allen, Desmond Williams, Lunita Wills, Shawntay Dalon, Antonio Miller, Jerry Lynch and Eric Palmer.  

The movie features a soundtrack by Buzzed-Up Productions and other artists. It was filmed on-site in Detroit and Atlanta. An after-party Sept. 2, featuring an appearance by Powell and live music by John Brown, will be held at Studio 51, 1995 Woodbridge, Detroit.  

Clifton Powell

“We’ve experienced a long hard road getting here,” Brown said, “but film and music have kept us positive.” Brown’s crew was falsely arrested by Detroit police while filming outside J. Allen’s home. The arrests, and the crew’s battle against charges of carrying “facsimile weapons,” which were eventually dropped, delayed production.  The film’s topic is not one favored by the police. 

“Vigilante” tells the story of Hayward Brown, Mark Clyde Bethune, and John Percy Boyd, college students in 1970’s Detroit, who went to war to rid their community of big-time heroin dealers. The three got into shoot-outs with Detroit cops from the infamous undercover STRESS unit (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets). STRESS, which was guarding the drug houses targeted by the trio, had already killed at least 17 Black men. During the shoot-outs, STRESS officer Robert Bradford was killed and another officer wounded.  

De'Andre King, J. Allen, Sean Brown and Desmond Williams with trailer showing the real Hayward Brown, left center and attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr. at right

“In the weeks which followed, STRESS put the Black neighborhoods under martial law in one of the most massive and ruthless police manhunts in Detroit history,” historian Dan Georgakas said in his book, Detroit, I Do Mind Dying. “Hundreds of Black families had their doors literally broken down and their lives threatened by groups of white men in plainclothes who had no search warrants and often did not bother to identify themselves as police.”  

Police killed one man during the home invasions, and eventually tracked down and killed Bethune and Boyd. Hundreds came to their funerals. Hayward Brown was captured and tried in Detroit. He was represented by the late famed attorney Kenneth Cockrel, Sr., who.put STRESS on trial instead. Detroiters held massive rallies supporting Brown, including speakers like City Council President Emerita Erma Henderson.    Continue reading →

One of several sculptures proposed by artist for Conely Library reading garden

Chadsey High and Munger Middle Schools, along with numerous other public schools on Detroit’s near southwest side, are now closed. The multinational Claytown neighborhood, however, is still fighting for its children’s education, says Sheila Crowell, a long-time community activist. Their latest project is the installation of a  reading garden, including a sculpture by renowned local artist J. Monte Martinez, to enhance the grounds of the public Conely Library at 4600 Martin.

“Since we lost all of our plans for Dingeman Playfield and the Safe Routes to School money, we have really been down, and I am hoping this will help to give us that fight, that we need to make another day happen for our neighborhood,” Crowell said. “We will be giving to the neighborhood plans that will show we have always been a diversified neighborhood, in a garden where our neighborhood will be able to learn about each other’s roots, at the same time giving our one and only library more of a reason to never shut their doors on our youth and families of Claytown.”

Martinez is the Creative Director & Founder of  the 555 Nonprofit Gallery and Studios, at  3041 West Vernor Hwy. He is proposing several possible sculpture models for the reading garden. Crowell is asking for arts professionals to send letters of support for Martinez’ project to Cledos Powell, Detroit Public Libraries Assistant Director for Facilities, 5201 Woodward Ave, Detroit, 48202, or to cpowell@detroitpubliclibrary.org. Mr. Powell’s phone number is (313) 481-1883 .

A 48210 community meeting on this ARTS PROJECT  will be held Thurs. Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. The Boys and Girls Club at 3910 Livernois near Martin.

“To everyone you “can not be any later than 6:10pm, “the rules will not allow you to vote”. Please we need every vote, join us by helping to make a difference,” says Sheila Crowell. For further information, contact J. Monte Martinez at 888.495.ARTSPHONE, cell 734-255-9477 , or at Monte@555arts.org. His gallery has a website at www.555arts.org, and is open Friday and Saturday from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Sheila Crowell can be contacted at  sheilacrowell@att.net 

 By Diane Bukowski

Former Charter Commissioner Joyce Moore says current Commission is illegal

DETROIT – City workers, retirees, and union and community leaders and their supporters packed the Aug. 10 meeting of the Detroit Charter Revision Commission, determined to protect their pensions and the city’s assets. The meeting focused on charter provisions related to the city’s General and Police and Fire Retirement Systems.

Forty-three year retiree and 27 year General Retirement System Trustee Ron Gracia had already warned the Charter Commission that  many state and federal laws, along with union collective bargaining provisions, limit any role the Commission can play in making changes to the retirement systems. 

 During the meeting, former Charter Commissioner Joyce Moore, who served from 1994 though 1997, said the current Commission has no legitimacy at all. She and several others have filed suit asking that the Commission be disbanded.

“Section 9-403 of the Charter says clearly that charter revision questions must be submitted at gubernatorial primaries, with the next revision not to go on that ballot until 2018,” Moore said. “The election is to be held when the revision question is submitted, which was not done this year.” 

State law allows exceptions to the 2018 requirement, Moore said, but also specifies that municipal charter provisions supercede the exceptions. 

 Valerie Burris said, “Detroit won’t stand for a give-away of its pension systems or of its charter either!” to loud applause. 

 Many speakers attacked Mayor Dave Bing and Lansing lawmakers including Rep. George Cushingberry Jr.(D-Detroit). They have proposed legislation to allow the Lansing-based Municipal Employees Retirement System (MERS) to take over Detroit’s two systems, worth $6.5 billion. Continue reading →

Jewel Allison and daughter Honesti, 11 at her right lead June 26 march against police murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones Photo by Herb Boyd

 By Diane Bukowski  

 They carried dozens of signs displaying Aiyana’s photo, which declared in bright red, “Redeem Aiyana’s Dream,” and “We Say No to No-Knock Raids. They chanted, “Don’t kill our kids, don’t shoot our kids,” and “The system is wrong, we’ve got to be strong, Aiyana Jones, she has a name, her family is not to blame.” 

 Jewel Allison, the founder of the International Aiyana Alliance, said, “People all over New York City, and from London, Africa, Germany and Peru have contacted me in outrage over this child’s death.” She and her daughter Honesti, 11, held hands during the march. 

“New York is Detroit and Detroit is New York. Out of the love I have for my daughter, I say, oh no, you cannot shoot our children in the head and get away with it,” Allison declared. “I began grieving myself when I heard of Aiyana’s killing, this totally upset our household. For the last four weeks, we have organized non-stop to bring our message to the world on the streets of this city where Aiyana was killed.” 

Cop Joseph Weekley shot 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones to death

Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley shot Aiyana to death during a military-style assault on her home in a poverty-stricken east-side neighborhood May 16. He fired as other officers lobbed an incendiary stun grenade through a front window of the Jones family’s home, according to the family’s attorney Geoffrey Fieger. Aiyana and her grandmother Vertilla Jones were sleeping on a couch directly below that window. 

“The First 48,” an Arts and Entertainment (A&E) reality show which features Weekley on its website as a regular star, was filming the episode. 

 The International Aiyana Alliance has also called for a march on the U.S. Department of Justice  to demand a stop to no-knock raids in the near future.  Continue reading →