Micah Center affirms dialogue, calls for next steps
On March 24, an incident occurred with five unarmed, innocent black children held and searched at gunpoint due to a report of a possible firearm. At Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, dozens spoke in support of the families and called for an apology by the officers involved and a review of the protocol around use of weapons in situations involving children. Hundreds stood in solidarity, including the Micah Center.
The Grand Rapids Police Officers Association (GRPOA) and Grand Rapids Police Command Officers Association (GRPCOA) on April 11 issued a statement declaring there is no need for policy change and calling for fair treatment by the public.
The Micah Center affirms the police, along with the families and those who spoke at the commission meeting, as equally valuable children of God. We also affirm that there is significant work to be done to ensure that, in practice, communities of color are treated as such by the police.
The Micah Center also affirms the commitment of the GRPOA and GRPCOA members to risk their lives to protect the community and their move into dialogue. Dialogue is one of the steps our community must continue to take to create stronger relationships and greater safety for all.
The GRPOA statement declares a desire of the Grand Rapids police to understand community members’ point of view, an affirmation of racism, inequity and inequality as root causes of the issues at hand, and the sense of positive results from bias training in the department. The Micah Center affirms all of these.
The GRPOA and GRPCOA also indicate that they would “crawl into the hearts and minds of people” if they could. We affirm this, and believe that it is part of the work of police. We believe that the statement as a whole underlines the need for a public meeting to update progress on the 12 Point Plan, share next steps toward its completion, receive feedback, and have a conversation about protocol for use of weapons in situations with minors.
Such a discussion will allow police, for example, to further hear and understand the community; clarify how police can continue to take concrete steps through the 12 Point Plan; hear from the community on how police in Grand Rapids can work to mitigate the expression of racism and inequity; and assure the community that bias training is followed by testing to track and assess effectiveness.
The Micah Center calls upon city commissioners and Mayor Bliss to indicate their positions.
Finally, we urge all community members to attend one of the public meetings on April 18 and 19 to hear a report on the results of the traffic stop profiling study and engage in conversation.
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