A Majority Black Police Force - It's Not Enough

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4454
Date Written:  2015-07-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2015
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21218

Although 61% oF Detroit's police force is Black - and headed by a Black police chief - between 1995-2000 police shot 47 people; from 2009-14 there were 18 additional shootings. Perhaps the most publicized case has been the SWAT-like raid on a home that resulted in the death of 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, killed as she lay sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Some maintain that at least in Detroit there is "dialogue" between the police and the community. Yet a week following the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the Baltimore police, Detroiters were shocked to learn that Mitchell Quinn, the officer who pumped 9-10 bullets into 19-year old Terrance Kellom, was an ICE agent. According the Metro Times (April 29, 2015 online) Quinn had been a Detroit police officer for 12 years; in 2000 he and his partner arrested Trevor Pender, who later won $20,000 from the city for false arrest as well as assault and battery.

In 2008 Quinn was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and felony firearm for allegedly pointing his department-issued handgun at his wife. Suspended by the department, he joined ICE later that year.

Most Detroiters were unaware that there is a multijurisdictional Detroit Fugitive ApprehensionTeam made up of U.S. Marshals, Detroit Police Department, Wayne County Sheriff's Office, ICE, and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.