Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Anti-Racist Activists Brutally Arrested in Michigan — Free the Shelby Six 

In yet another instance of violent repression against the anti-police movement, several activists, including a Left Voice collaborator, were arrested in Michigan on Saturday and are being threatened with felony charges. 

Left Voice

October 25, 2020
Facebook Twitter Share
Photo: Anna Van Schaap

On Saturday an anti-racist demonstration in Shelby Township, Michigan was brutally repressed by the police. According to a video posted online several dozen police turned out in full riot gear and riot shields and beat and assaulted protesters before arresting several of them. Many of those arrested were thrown to the ground and there are reports that officers reportedly kneeled on their necks while they were being restrained. One woman, a photographer, was stripped down to her underwear in the middle of the street before being searched and arrested. Another demonstrator who was arrested has reportedly been hospitalized with a concussion. Meanwhile, Shelby Township Police are currently holding and threatening to press felony charges against at least six protesters including: Jessica Nadeau-Mayer, Cameron Rye, David Mitchell, Samantha Phillips, James Deininger, and Left Voice collaborator Tristan Taylor.

The demonstration was called by several anti-racist and anti-police organizations including 2020 SHIFT and Detroit Will Breath, which has been organizing large and powerful rallies in Detroit since shortly after the killing of George Floyd in late May. Activists from Detroit Will Breath had joined Shelby Township activists in solidarity with their demands for the resignation of the Chief of Police, Robert Shelide, who had been suspended in June for making racist and threatening remarks against Black Lives Matter  and anti-police protesters on social media. In one tweet Sheriff Shelide called BLM protesters “Wild savages” and wrote: “I wish to God I would have been there. Body bags for these vicious subhumans.” He later added: “We have lost the country to bottom feeders, savages, and weak anarchists.” Despite these disgusting and violent remarks, Shelide was reinstated less than one month later after apologizing for his comments. 

These arrests and the violence against these protesters is yet another example of the way that police departments across the country have violently and oppressively responded to the Black Lives Matter protests that have not stopped since May. Further the threat of felony charges for merely demonstrating is a clear attempt to intimidate and repress future protest. Shelby Township is an almost exclusively white town, about one hour from Detroit, and the response of the Shelby Township police — which threatened to arrest protesters even before they arrived, and then carried through on that threat — shows once again that the police are an inherently racist institution used to protect the wealthy, control working people, and enforce the brutal regime of racial oppression upon which capitalism is built. 

It is more urgent than ever that the Left, the labor movement, anti-racist and community organizations demand throughout the country an end to such racist repression and freedom for all political prisoners and protesters arrested by the police. Left Voice stands in solidarity with these protesters and all of those oppressed by the police across the world everyday. We demand the immediate release of all of those who were arrested and that all charges be dropped against them. 

Detroit Will Breath and Shift 2020 have set up an Action Network petition here

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

United States

Customers clear shelves of water Sunday at Fresh Grocer in West Philadelphia.

A Chemical Plant Just Poisoned Philadelphia’s Water: A First-Hand Account of the Crisis

A company dumped thousands of gallons of poisonous chemicals into Philadelphia’s drinking water. This is an on-the-ground account by a Philadelphia worker and socialist.

Jason Koslowski

March 27, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

20 Years Since the U.S. Invasion of Iraq: A Reflection from a Socialist in the Heart of Imperialism

A Left Voice member and anti-war activist reflects on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and how he learned to hate U.S. imperialism.

Sam Carliner

March 20, 2023

Train Derailment in Metro Detroit Illustrates That Capitalist Control of the Railroads Is Fundamentally Unsafe

With the capitalists in control of the railroads, they will destroy the environment and poison and kill workers. The catastrophe in East Palestine will not be the last if we don’t nationalize our railroads and put the safety of people and the environment over profit.

Emma Boyhtari

February 28, 2023

MOST RECENT

A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castilla

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023

France: On the Frontlines of the War Against Austerity

The French masses have raised the banner of class struggle in what is becoming the first major battle against austerity after the pandemic. Working people across the world should pay attention.

James Dennis Hoff

March 25, 2023

Despite Threats of Arrest, Refinery Workers in France Refuse to Break Strike

As energy strikes continue, France is faced with a kerosene shortage that’s creating an urgent situation at the country’s airports. With capitalist profits on the line, the government has attempted to force Normandy refinery workers back to work through an anti-strike legal weapon called requisitions. In their first victory, refinery workers forced the police to withdraw in an incredible demonstration of solidarity.

Nathan Erderof

March 24, 2023