NAACP rally planned

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In response to a series of recent incidents, the Hamtramck NAACP will hold a rally against Hamtramck Police injustice this Friday, March 19th at noon Tuesday, March 23 at 5:30 p.m. in front of Hamtramck City Hall.
Though not the sole concern of the group, the catalyst for this rally was an incident last week involving the arrest and alleged poor treatment of an elderly minister at Corinthian Baptist Church.
More information to come…

15 thoughts on “NAACP rally planned”

  1. The time of the rally has changed to be prior to the city council meeting, March 23.

  3. According to friends of the family, there had been a B&E or robbery, and the police were rounding up all the black kids, handcuffing them, and told them to lay face down in a “field”. The Reverend, a mild mannered 70-year-old man, was driving by and saw his 16-year-old nephew in the group, whom he has legal custody of. He asked what was going on; the police told him it wasn’t any of his business; he said it was his business because of his nephew being involved. Then, it is said that the police “roughed him up” and took him to the lock-up, charging him with “resisting arrest”. The reverend’s daughter, knowing that he is insulin dependent and that it was time for his medication, took his insulin pack to the police station. She was allegedly told by the desk officer, “I don’t give a f— who it is”, and refused to accept the medication. An attorney, the mayor, and other community leaders were called, and then the reverend was taken to a hospital by the police. The Reverend and his family are religious people, and it is said that they were very offended by the language used by officers. There is supposed to be a meeting this afternoon at the church for discussing the incident.

    The point of the rally is that this is not the only incident. Numerous complaints about police misconduct have been lodged with the city council.

    http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/city-council-11-24-09-festival-and-parent-responsibility

    11/24/09 — “Mike Duffy filed a complaint against the police department on October 30 and hadn’t heard anything from the police until 25 days later, the day of the council meeting. He lives in an apartment near CVS and was going there to buy food. The police had blocked Joseph Campau, but he was able to walk through the CVS parking lot to enter the store.

    Duffy didn’t find what he wanted at CVS, and decided to walk to Rite Aid. The street was not blocked when he left. Suddenly, an unmarked police car swerved into the southbound lane, and the officers jumped out at kids with their guns drawn and told them to get down on the ground. Two more cars pulled up with their lights on. The kids laid down, and he saw two of the officers hitting the kids hard enough to probably leave bruises with batons while handcuffed. He asked one of the other two officers who were watching what the reason for it was. They said it was none of his business, and that if he didn’t move, he would be restrained in the same manner as the kids and came toward him with a baton. He did not see any badge on the officer who talked to him. He used a phone at the Rite Aid to call the phone number on the Detroit Free Press editorial page. He then left the Rite Aid and went to the house of Bill Meyer, who he thought was on the Human Relations Commission, but no one was home. He went back to the spot, and the police and kids were gone. He asked a man at the bus stop if he had seen them, and he confirmed that he had.

    The man at the bus stop said that as he approached the shelter, a police officer stopped him and asked why he was there. He told the officer he takes the bus to work. The officer asked to see his drivers license and any money that he had. The police were putting the kids into a police car, and he asked what would happen to them. The officer told him that they would be taken home, and that if he didn’t shut up, that he would be taken home too.

    Ahmed asked if he talked to someone at the police department. Duffy replied that a Sargent called him that morning, and that he has also talked to Bill Meyer, Cooper, and others. The Sargent said that he would complete his inquiry in about a week. He was also told that the final report was police property and not subject to the FOIA act which is not quite true. He talked to Cooper on October 30 and thought they had an understanding, but before the council meeting, Cooper told him that he wouldn’t interfere with the inquiry.

    Cooper said that there is an internal investigation underway, and that info would be released if it leads to charges, but that no information can be released during ongoing investigations.”

    http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/city-council-12-8-09-parking-layoffs

    12/08/09 — “Pastor Jennings runs a last chance program for offenders, but he was at the meeting because his son was assaulted by a man with a baseball bat. For some reason, the Hamtramck police refused to take the report. He has been to the police station 4 times, left work twice, has talked to the police chief, talked to the city manager, and also a lieutenant. Somehow, a man shoving a kid around with a baseball bat is not a crime anymore. Council talks about being hard on crime, but this has sent a message to the offender that he can do what he did and more. His son called the police when the incident occurred, and unbelievably, they told his son to apologize to the man who assaulted him. He just wants to file a police report.

    Cooper said the chief was supposed to call Pastor Jennings and take his report, and that he would check with the police chief. Jennings said that after he talked to the chief, he went to City Hall for the 4th time, and no one would take his report. Jennings thought the man might be an informant for the police department or something, but to him, he’s just a guy who bullied his kid with a baseball bat.

    Gordon asked if he was given a reason that a report wasn’t taken. Jennings said he has heard many excuses, including that the bat was not full-size, just a small bat.

    Majewski said they would look into it.”

    http://hamtramckstar.com/index.php/city-council-03-09-2010-audio
    (105:46)

    3/09/10 — “A man from Southland visited the Auto Zone on Joseph Campau on January 16 to purchase car parts. The car parts wouldn’t be available until the following day. He asked if he could pay for the parts so that another person could pick them up, and the employee told him that he couldn’t pay in advance. He took $100 out of his pocket to give to his friend who was taking care of his car, and as soon as he pulled the money out to pay, he was jumped by two men who claimed that the money was theirs and had been found on the floor. He called the police, and they came fast. They didn’t ask him any questions before accusing him of lying. He asked the officer how he was able to determine that without talking to him. The officer asked him a couple of questions. He gave the officer his drivers license and some information. The officer told him that the Auto Zone employee said he paid for some other items with a credit card, and therefor, the cash must not have been his. He told the police that they should look at the store surveillance recordings because they would show that that the money came from his pocket. He wondered if he was prejudged because of his accent or his skin color. He has a lot of business to take care of and was not there for $100. It is a matter of principle, and he is sure that this is happening to other people. The police did not do their job when they failed to check the camera. The police are supposed to take a report, and then the courts are supposed to decide who the $100 belongs to. The police would only tell him that he should lodge his complaint with their supervisors. They let the men who took his $100 go and refused to give him their names, though he is sure that the police gave them his name and address.

    Majewski said the complaint had to be forwarded to the police chief. Cooper said he had talked to the man would talk to the chief in the morning. They need to look into which officers were dispatched on the call and would get back to him.

    The man added that the police were rude to him, and he couldn’t understand why they didn’t check the camera.

    Not to mention the settlement with Officer Nunlee:

    http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1584358/Michigan.News/Hamtramck.Police.Officer.Sues.City..Police.Department

  4. Thanks for all the info, I was interested in it because I’m going to try and attend the rally.

  10. I’ve lived here only 5 years now, and I think it can safely be said that much of SE michigan needs to be taught courtesy, professionalism, and respect.

  11. yea but it takes a special kind of group of morons to take 3 hours to respond to a house call in 2.2 square mile city.

  12. The Free Press ran an article about the rally this morning. Once again, the city administration wants to be left alone so that they don’t have to do anything about it.

    Hamtramck police under fire after minister’s arrest
    NAACP to rally today before council meets

    BY ERIC D. LAWRENCE
    FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

    Anger over the arrest of a local minister and concerns about a lack of diversity on the city’s police force have prompted the Hamtramck chapter of the NAACP to plan a rally before today’s Hamtramck City Council meeting.

    At the 7 p.m. meeting, council members plan to discuss the creation of a citizens review board to oversee public safety issues.

    Asm Rahman, president of the Hamtramck NAACP chapter, said the rally is a response to the arrest earlier this month of the Rev. Wayne Little of Corinthian Baptist Church, but also about issues he sees between the city’s police department and the community.

    Hamtramck Police declined to discuss specifics of the case involving Little, other than to say it involved someone who decided to involve himself in an investigation that police were conducting. The minister, who could not be reached for comment Monday, was cited for ordinance violations in the case.

    Rahman said Little had been driving when he saw police apprehend a relative and stopped to find out what was going on. Following some sort of confrontation, Rahman said the minister was taken into custody.

    “We need diversity in the police force. It does not reflect the community,” Rahman said. In addition to forming a review board, he said the rally organizers hope to form a volunteer citizens’ police force and initiate stronger sensitivity training.

    Mayor Karen Majewski said the decision to host a rally at Zussman Park across the street from City Hall at 5:30 p.m. is counterproductive because city officials met last week with the NAACP and others about the issues. The two sides agreed on establishing some future goals, including police sensitivity training, she said.

    “I think it’s unnecessary and inflammatory and self-defeating from our perspective,” Majewski said of the planned rally. “It would escalate tensions when what we wanted to do was find a solution.”

    While only two officers on the more than 40-member police force are African American, the mayor said the city’s ethnic communities have been invited to bring forward police candidates and so far have not.

    The mayor also said she feels a review board would be unnecessary because there are other mechanisms, such as the city’s human relations commission, to deal with complaints about police.

  13. Johan…..Maybe you underestimate how busy the police department really is. For a 2.2 mile city, you should compare our crime statistics to some other cities. We are extremely higher than average.

  15. I agree with Steve, Hamtramck cops are the best! Love you guys – You have my support!