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

Protesters outside Benton Harbor Jack Nicklaus golf course opening Photo by Daymon J. Hartley

 Submitted by BANCO

Hundreds of people marched through Benton Harbor on August 10, 2010, the day Whirlpool opened it’s Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, despite two court cases pending against Whirlpool for its takeover of land including Jean Klock Park, that was originally deeded to the people of Benton Harbor.  We stopped at the golf course entry where we were met by at least four sheriff’s deputies, six Benton Harbor Township police, and four Benton Harbor police. 

 Our chanting was loud, especially when Julie Swidwa of the local Herald Palladium attempted to interview Rev. Edward Pinkney, organizer of the demonstration and local NAACP president.  ”Julie is one-sided!!” was chanted over and over – the people had at least this one opportunity to let Swidwa hear what is thought of her “reporting,” especially the hit jobs she’s done on Pinkney over a decade.  There was no interview.  In a gratuitous show of power, police escorted her away.  Whirlpool knows that media are the prime shapers of opinion;  the company paper serves them well.   

Other chants included, “Jack Nicklaus Go Home!,” “Marcus Robinson Go Home!,” and “Jean Klock Park was deeded to the people!”  (Robinson works in “community development” for Whirlpool.)  One hundred thirty media outlets sent reporters to cover the opening, and people in many states viewed the demonstration as part of the golf course coverage. 

After the golf course protest, a rally was held on a nearby grassy area with speakers from Benton Harbor, Detroit, New York, Minneapolis, southern Illinois, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and elsewhere.  Their insightful words made evident their understanding of the era of corporate control we now live under. Government and corporation as one (fascism).  And, how corporations prey on the poor.   

In the case of Benton Harbor, Whirlpool is carrying out a hostile takeover of the city’s Lake Michigan beaches, parks, and land.  Endangered plant and animal species are of no concern to Whirlpool.  African-American people were also in the way, hence, possibly the most aggressively prejudicial and harsh law enforcement/court system in the state (Berrien County).  Benton Harbor citizens get time for walking down the “wrong” street.  As attorney Buck Davis wrote: Continue reading →

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.

 By Diane Bukowski  Aug. 5, 2010

 DETROIT — The family of Tommy Staples, Jr., shot to death by Detroit police officers Barron Townsend and Steven Kopp in June, 2008, has won a settlement of $2.5 million in their wrongful death lawsuit. The settlement in the federal case, heard in front of U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow, was approved by City Council July 27.

 “This is another example of how the Detroit Police Department fails to investigate cases involving the use of excessive force, to reconcile inconsistent evidence and scrutinize officers,” the family’s attorney David Robinson said. “No discipline has been brought against these officers for Tommie Staples’ death. It is inexcusable that the department is still non-compliant after seven years of federal oversight.” 

 Robinson said Staples was shot six to seven times by the officers, including once in the top of the head as he lay on the ground, after the officers first struck him with their car.

 Since 2004, the city has settled at least four previous lawsuits, one involving the death of Stephen Crawford, which cite either Townsend, badge #720, or Kopp, badge #1413. According to the city’s court filings in the Staples case, no discipline resulted from those incidents either. 

 Staples’ companion of 30 years, Jacquelyn Porter, said in a Michigan Citizen story (Police execute unarmed father in alley, MC 6/29/08) that the couple mentored and advocated for youth in their community, including protecting them from police harassment. Neighborhood youths told the Citizen at the time that Townsend and Kopp had been among those harassing them. 

 The couple had three children and two grandchildren. Several protests and candlelight vigils were held after Staples’ death. 

 “As [Staples] was crossing the street, Defendants Kopp and Townsend, without warning, cut off his path, striking him with the police car they were driving,” says the lawsuit. “Defendant Townsend exited the car, shouted at Tommie Staples, and began shooting him without provocation, and without probable cause, and without lawful excuse. Defendants Townsend and Kopp shot Tommie Staples in the back, and killed Tommie Staples, while he was not committing any crime and possessed no weapon and posed no threat of any kind to any person.”  

Former police chief Ella Bully Cummings refused to discipline cops unless there was no "reasonable doubt"

The lawsuit contends that Townsend then placed a gun near Staples’ body in an effort to disguise the murder, It says the officers’ superiors, including a sergeant, lieutenant and then Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, participated in the cover-up. It says Cummings had a policy of disciplining officers only if there was no “reasonable doubt,” and concludes that meant that no one could be disciplined.  Cummings is currently running for judge in Detroit’s Thirty-Sixth District Court, against the progressive National Lawyers’ Guild member Judge Kathleen Hansen.

 “The video from a nearby bank was totally inconsistent with the officers’ claims that they saw Tommie Staples’ hands under his shirt and that he pointed a gun in their direction,” Robinson said. “His fingerprints were not on the gun, and no blood was discovered on it. This all pointed to it being a plant.”  Continue reading →

 DETROIT – A mother and child from New York City led a march of hundreds from Detroit and across the nation down Woodward Avenue June 26 to condemn the police killing of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones May 16.