Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

New Michigan Prosecutor Supports Jim Crow-Style Policing

A new racist prosecutor in Macomb County, Michigan has charged six BLM protesters with misdemeanors three months after a march in October. Activists organized in Detroit Will Breathe and SHIFT in Michigan are fighting to have all charges dropped.

Sammie Lewis

February 12, 2021
Facebook Twitter Share
Activists and other community members protest outside the Macomb County Administration Building in Michigan to demand that demonstrators arrested at a protest on October 24 be released and all charges against them dropped. In January, six more activists were charged by Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido for participating in the October 24 protest (Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press).

Back in May 2020, Shelby Township Police Chief Robert Shelide made racist and violent remarks toward Black Lives Matter protesters on his personal social media page. In these comments, he called protesters “wild savages” and “vicious subhumans” that deserved to be in “body bags.” This vile and racist language evokes stereotypes of Black people that have emboldened right-wing violence towards the BLM movement like that of Kyle Rittenhouse. After only one month of suspension for his comments, the Shelby Township Board of Trustees voted 5:2 to allow Shelide to resume serving as chief. This type of leniency encourages right-wing extremists to get more and more comfortable carrying out violence, not just in Macomb County, but throughout the nation — for example, on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol. 

After months of protesting, Detroit Will Breathe united with the Shelby Township BLM organization, SHIFT — Suburban Solidarity for Social Justice, to contest Chief Shelide’s leadership and demand accountability for the Jim Crow-style climate of racism in Shelby. On Saturday, October 24, 2020, both organizations led a nonviolent march to demand Shelide’s removal or resignation. This march was immediately attacked by five different police departments, K-9 units, and SWAT operatives that attempted to trample over the basic right to protest. In addition to being met with riot shields and brutality, five protesters were charged with felonies and others received tickets for misdemeanors.

Throughout the march, activists were stalked and harassed by armed civilian militias who were not met with the aggressive force that protesters were. This sent a clear message that not only are Black and Brown people unsafe and unwelcome in Shelby Township, but that right-wing extremists have an ally in the Shelby Township Police Department. This type of allyship between right-wingers and the police is something we have seen throughout the country across both red and blue states. Just as activists denounce the white supremacy and racism perpetrated by the police, they must also speak out against the silence and inaction of elected officials and representatives who are complicit in the violence perpetrated by the state and its right-wing allies.

SHIFT and Detroit Will Breathe have continuously fought to get these charges dropped, but the new Macomb County prosecutor, Peter Lucido, has chosen to co-sign the segregationist tactics used to criminalize protesters. On January 25, six additional activists were served warrants for their participation in the October action, three months after the fact. These charges showcase political violence and retaliation in response to the backlash officials received following the storming of the Capitol. Those who participated in the events at the Capitol were lightly reprimanded and told to go home, whereas Black and Brown people face severe consequences for exercising their right to peacefully assemble. Detroit Will Breath and SHIFT have made sure to point out these hypocrisies as they fight to get these charges dropped. These protesters are the most recent targets of the Jim Crow-style intimidation tactics being deployed to silence the BLM Movement. Furthermore, these new charges and the City’s refusal to address racism are one more chapter in the history of Shelby Township as a “sundown town” that will do anything it takes to maintain and guarantee white supremacy. 

Join Detroit Will Breathe and SHIFT to demand that these intolerable charges be dropped immediately and reject the standard of “law and order” that has made way for police brutality and hyper-militarization. The Movement for Black and Brown Lives will not be silenced into backing down to bullies with badges or the politicians that work to uphold white supremacy.

Facebook Twitter Share

Guest Posts

Monetary Tightening, Inflation and Bank Failures

Michael Roberts takes on bank failures, inflation and the Fed.

Michael Roberts

March 14, 2023

“We Need to Make a Change”: Trans Youth Speak Out and Walk Out

The following is a speech by a student activist from NYC for Trans Rights.

Alex Carroll

March 10, 2023

Ominous New Attacks on Trans Rights Remind Us…It’s Capitalism

If the viciousness and hostility against trans people and ultimately all LGBT people is today open-carried on the Far Right, it is our dependence on fair-weather liberals and the politicians of the Democratic Party that is our Achilles’ heel.

Ian Scott Horst

February 17, 2023

NATO’s War in Ukraine: Building the Anti-war Movement We Need Requires Clarity

As part of the ongoing debates among socialists on the war in Ukraine, we publish this guest polemic.

Rob Lyons

February 17, 2023

MOST RECENT

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

“We Need Action Committees Everywhere”: Building the General Strike in France

Workers across France are organizing action committees to build a general strike to take down the Macron government and the Fifth Republic.

Arthur Nicola

March 24, 2023

What’s Behind Xi Jinping’s Visit to Moscow?

Chinese president Xi Jinping has visited Moscow for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war, in an effort to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.

Madeleine Freeman

March 23, 2023
Protesters gather during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023, the day after the French government pushed a pensions reform using the article 49.3 of the constitution. - French President's government on March 17, 2023 faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. Across France, fresh protests erupted in the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

Battle of the Pensions: Toward a Pre-Revolutionary Moment in France

President Macron's use of article 49.3 to push through an unpopular pension reform bill has opened up an enormous political crisis that has changed the character of the mobilizations against the French government. We are entering a "pre-revolutionary moment" that can change the balance of power between the classes in France.

Juan Chingo

March 21, 2023