– Photo courtesy of WMU-Cooley
Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School’s Auburn Hills campus recently hosted a panel discussion entitled “Death by Police: Justifiable Homicide or Excessive Use of Force. Among those taking part in the event were (left to right) Eric Hawkins, chief of police, city of Southfield; WMU-Cooley Prof. Lewis Langham; Samuel Q. Elira, Sr., president, WMU-Cooley Auburn Hills Student Bar Association; Dr. Amanda Alexander, University of Michigan Law School Child Advocacy Law Clinic; Yusef Shakur, community organizer; Kwasi Akwamu, community activist; and Harold Gurewitz, criminal defense attorney with Gurewitz & Raben. The discussion was part of WMU-Cooley’s Equal Access to Justice Day, focusing on law enforcement’s use of deadly force and where it is excessive and where it is justified. When reviewing recent national cases’ dash cam and bystander videos where lethal force was used, Hawkins said, “What I see is a lack of training in the officers ... and agencies with a lack of discipline. I refuse to abandon hope that this system can work.” Akwamu disagreed with Hawkins, “I long ago abandoned hope ... a lot of legalese is not going to change anything when you are dealing with built-in biases.”
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