Civil Rights Activists Exploiting Ferguson, MO, Unrest: Neighbors

A man who identified himself as “Mr. Jordan” said activists demonstrating in Detroit near the site of a police-involved shooting are exploiting the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and should go home. (Screenshot: WDIV video)

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Some residents of an East Side neighborhood where a police shooting took place last week are worried demonstrators and the news media covering the activists could create tension similar to that in Ferguson, MO.

On Sunday, they asked activists who have been passing out fliers in the vicinity of Berkshire and Nottingham, where police fired shots at two men suspected in illegal gun deal in progress Wednesday, to go home, WDIV, Channel 7.

The group known as BAMN – the Detroit-based Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigration Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary – has maintained a presence in the area for the past several days to raise awareness to what activists call police brutality.

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A man who asked to be identified as “Mr Jordan” told the television station he thinks activists are exploiting the strife in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where the Missouri

National Guard has been called in to help maintain order after a week of rioting and looting.

“Missouri got nothing to do with Detroit, not Detroit,” the man said. “Right now, it’s time for everybody to get on with their life.”

Rallies are planned at the intersection every day this week and will continue as long as activists see support for their cause. The primarily student- and youth-driven organization calls itself “the new civil rights movement” and says it’s “committed to making real the promises of American democracy and equality,” according to BAMN”s web site.

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The group said on its web site that the Aug. 13 confrontation between Detroit police and the suspects who were shot at “evoked the rising anger connected to the events of Ferguson and that witness accounts dispute “the standard line … [that] they had been attacked by their suspect.” BAMN said.

One man was subdued with pepper spray and arrested during the confrontation and police called in backups to disperse the crowd.

“The Detroit police have long demonstrated a callous disrespect for the basic rights and wellbeing of the city’s population,” BAMN wrote, citing the 2010 fatal shooting of Aiyana jones, 7, as an example of “reckless violence” that gained national attention

“But national attention alone is sufficient to protect their lives of the people of Detroit against the regular misconduct of the police. As long as the police can carry on with impunity and face nothing more than the occasional exposé, they will continue their abuses,” the group claims.

BAMN’s Liana Mulholland told the television station others have welcomed the activists. “ … I think most people are just really happy that somebody’s leading a fight and they’re like, good, I can do something now,” Mulholland said.