Michigan Department Of Civil Rights Plans Local Hearing, Listening Session On Community Policing And Recent Incidents In GR
Interim Police Chief David Kiddle recently held a special press conference at the Grand Rapids Police Department, 1 Monroe Center NW, to discuss two recent incidents involving officers which have raised concern with some members of our community.
The first case is the detention of two juvenile suspects on Lynch Av SW resulting in one arrest. On March 11, 2019 an officer drew his gun on a fifteen and a sixteen - year - old male who didn't comply with police after being stopped for walking in the street. The teens reportedly were did not comply when ordered to take their hands out of their pockets.
The second incident occurred on March 17, 2019 when an officer used force to pull a male motorist from his vehicle during a traffic stop. According to police, the driver refused to show a valid driver's license and refused to tell the officer his name. He reportedly would not get out of the vehicle when instructed to do so by the officer, honked his horn and was apparently reaching for something in the vehicle on California St NW and National Ave. NW.
At the news conference, Chief Kiddle said that the officers did nothing wrong and that they followed protocol. He also said that if people followed the instructions of police officers, then we won't have these types of events.
Cle Jackson, President of The Greater Grand Rapids Branch of the NAACP and Kent County Commissioner Robert S. Womack are among local leaders openly expressing concern about how the officers treated the youth.
"The officer involved with the young man who was driving and definitely engaged in police brutality should be fired without question and the other two other officers who allowed this brutality to take place as one of them was holding down the young man while the other officer was over him and detaining the young man also should be put on leave until a full investigation is done," Jackson said to The Grand Rapids Times, yesterday.
"They violated policy and with respect to the two young men were profiled while walking in the street, the officer should be put on administration leave because he violated their current youth interaction policy," Jackson said.
Jackson also said that The NAACP is going to file an internal affairs complaint on both issues, even though the GRPD says that the officers were following procedure, Cle Jackson said to The Grand Rapids Times, yesterday. Jackson is President of the Greater Grand Rapids Branch of the NAACP.
Chief Kiddle noted that an investigation is being made of excessive violence in the case of the traffic stop.
Commissioner Womack said it was positive that the police took the stance that the traffic stop was excessive violence. "I believe that after the investigation, there will be more justice needed out of that situation. As far as I am concerned, I am asking that the officer be fired."
The Commissioner went on to say, "In my opinion, it is true that the community needs to follow the police's orders, but at the same time, when we deal with so many people in this country who don't follow the police orders verbatim, we should not have the over reaction that we have with excessive force or doing things such as pulling guns on teenagers who they know are unarmed, handcuffing them and taking them to jail."
According to Jackson, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights is scheduling a hearing to look into possible discrimination problems with the GRPD.
He said the group is planning on a March 28, 2019 hearing, but a time and location has not yet been set.
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights will be hosting hearings in a listening session with the community related to the latest incidents that have happened in the city and on Community Policing on Thursday, March 28th at 1:30 - 4:30pm and 5:30 - 8:00pm at The Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation where the NAACP office is located at 1530 Madison Ave. S.E.
"Something has to give because we cannot continue like this," Womack said. He added, "The community has some things to learn to move into a position for better relations with the police and the police department needs to understand that they've got to move from their rock hard positions on their policies and move themselves into a better position to have a better relationship with the community."
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