So Much Shame on the Trump Administration

If I were one of the president's handlers (employees earning salaries on behalf of the citizens of this nation) this week, I would be completely devastated by his insane and blatant criminal assault on peaceful protesters acting within the law including curfew and exercising their FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY! 

Further, I would be totally humiliated by his arrogance and utter tone deafness as he walked through the crowd he assaulted to hold up "A Bible" in front of a church that did not welcome his photo op. Reminded that only moments before, in a live press conference he said he was "pro protesters." 

There is so much shame on this administration, on everyone doing his bidding.

JOHN AUCHTER / MICHIGAN RADIO

Dear Police Chief: A Template

In case you need a kick start for writing your own letter(s).

Sheriff Chris Swanson, Genesee County, MI, Inside Edition, 6/1/2020

September 14 2024

UPDATE

In July, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson ended the for profit video phone system in the county jail that preyed on inmates and their families. Sheriff Swanson admitted on NBC Nightly News that the system was profitable for the department but was racist and wrong and that he was ending it and looking and rethinking how his budget would to allocated. He said he was returning to in-person visitations between inmates, their families and friends. I was among those who expressed my belief in ending this program. I am thankful for doing the right thing.

June 4, 2020

Chris Swanson, Sheriff

Genesee County Sheriff's Department

1002 Saginaw Street

Flint, MI 48502

Dear Sheriff Swanson,

Thank you and please extend my thanks for all of the officers and staff who acted to protect protesters’ free speech and their safety over this past week. Thank you also for your honest and direct position on what happened to George Floyd. Putting citizens first in Flint and Genesee County is the community attitude I know this area to exhibit. I continue to be so proud of Flint as we band together in times of need. You have built trust with weekend that other departments around the country struggle so hard to deserve.

I am a Flint resident who is active in civil rights activities in this area, in particular those to end systemic racism.

With that said, I am reaching out to law enforcement leaders to ask them to revisit their department’s founding charge: “To Protect and Serve,” and asking them to go back to these roots with their fellow officers and department staff as they interact with their citizens in need.

Please remind officers that we are not enemy combatants and the role of the military is not the role of the law enforcement.

Could we please shift the approach to citizens from “guilty until proven innocent” back to “Innocent until proven guilty?”

Could we please act first to protect and serve rather than find guilt?

I am reminded of 12-year-old Tamir Rice who held a toy gun and was shot by a police officer within seconds of exiting his police car. Not even asking Tamir’s name or determining what the situation was. Or Stephon Clark of Sacramento who was shot in his grandparents’ backyard with a cellphone in his hand. No attempt by the police to determine his name or relationship to the property and occupants first.

Swanson and Resident, Newsweek, 6/1/2020

Could we please stop profiling our citizens of color as potential criminals?

Clearly, of all of the citizens and undocumented residents of the United States, more are decent hope-filled human beings than criminals. As human beings, don’t we then deserve the presumption of innocence, even without the law that promises to guarantee us that right. That guarantee along with too many U.S. promises of equity have failed miserably to ensure that if “All Men are created Equal” then we are all indeed treated equally.

I know the focus at this time turns to de-escalation strategies once protests turn to riots and that is certainly appropriate. Prior to the protests themselves, could we remind police officers that while they are empowered, that power does not extend to appointment as Judge, Jury and in too many cases, executioner?

Please use transparency as you move forward with commitments to alter training and enhance community relationships. Involved citizens on boards, committees, or commissions that would track your department’s achievements toward the actions you’ve committed to. Those actions focused on eliminating systemic racism within your department and among the individuals representing it. Let your citizens be the watchdogs of your actions as you act to rebuild trust with your citizens.

Finally, your department interacts with many other law enforcement and health entities that are also challenged by embedded system-wide racism and the attitudes bred by such cultures. Please challenge these entities as well, especially as you hand-off your detainees, to “protect and serve,” to “do not harm,” as these “innocent until proven guilty” citizens and others risk victimization all over again to racist indifference, neglect or violence.

Police Departments, I believe, have the power to effect change well beyond their own structures and employees. They have the potential to drive the entire legal system to change its racist laws and treatment of parties of color before the courts.

Thank you for your consideration of my suggestions.

Sincerely,

Donna Ullrich

Flint Citizen

Detroit Free Press, 6/1/2020

Update 2024

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson (seen here high-fiving a marcher at a George Floyd protest) announced on NBC Nightly News this year that the county jail would end the racist, classist policies. This includes the high-priced for profit phone system in the jail that replaced visits between families and  inmates. 

In light of national and local interests, Sheriff Christopher R. Swanson rolls out historic details of Operation Restoration, as highlighted on NBC Nightly News

Full disclosure: Lawsuit associated

So Ullrich, What Can I Do?

Forbes Magazine, Lisette VoytkoForbes Staff, 6/1/2020

1. Write, text, email, snail mail, post a banner on the lawn of the police department, whatever it peacefully takes to remind your city police , county sheriff's , or state police departments to remind them that their charge at founding was to Protect and Serve.
Citizens and police are not enemy combatants. The police are suppose to be who we turn to and trust in times of law related need.

Encourage the police to abandon the attitude that everyone they stop is guilty until proven innocent.
Remind them that they are not the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of punishment --- including executions.
Be the Watch Dog and let them know you are watching for real change of attitude and actions.
Demand that they call out other legal systems that they work with to abandoned these attitudes and acts of racism and hate as well. This is systemic change.
If the legal system changes it will force change in other systems to do so as well.

Here's a very easy way to start to make a difference. Let's overwhelm our police departments with our voices of concern.

2. If you are ready to give making a difference a try so we can truly achieve Justice, Equity, Peace find the groups in your community that are working for equal rights, violence reduction, the end of systemic racism. 
All of these grassroots groups are starving for volunteers to help them achieve change. And if you can't lend a hand, make a donation. A Google search will help you find your local groups. Your United Way office will have such groups on their radar as well as other non-profit resource centers.

Those of you who are in the Flint area, consider joining two long-working groups for ending racism and violence in our community. If you're nervous about taking your first steps, these two organizations are perfect for you. All programs begin from a place of peace and service.

WOW Outreach has worked for 20 years to reduce violence through a wide variety of community programs and events that start with our young people. Join us. We need your help as volunteers. Check out WOWOutreach.org

Neighborhoods Without Borders has been around 10 years and works to end systemic racism by sponsoring programs to help break down the walls of fear between races and cultures within our community. Monthly programs look at the history of Flint and the contributions of the many ethnic groups that built this community. Other programs help us cross those borders through learning about what we don't know or understand so that we can eliminate those walls of fear. Check out our Facebook Page: Neighborhoods Without Borders - Flint.

Small steps make a big difference.

As the Sign Says: "White People. Do Something"

Oklahoma Eagle, 5/27/2020

To all of my White friends and family who are wondering how the death of George Floyd could result in peaceful protests now around the world, and escalating to violence could happen, it is important to recognize that historically, the white privileged/empowered culture created this inequity between races.

Whites enslaved and sold people as commodities for profit. When slavery was “eliminated,” Whites looked for other ways to control now “freed” people of color. Imprisoning them for little or no reason and putting them to work on chain gangs for personal gain, creating a farming system where farmers were always in debt to the landowners.

Whites blocked these U.S. citizens’ rights to vote, to learn, to  health care, to hold jobs, to pursue and advance in careers, to banking services including home loans, to safety in their own communities and homes from other residents and law enforcement.

Whites have led the efforts to put systems in place in all of our institutions, businesses and organizations to limit, if not prevent, people of color from working within those entities, from benefitting from the services or opportunities available from those entities, from the privileges they protected for white society only.

Many whites presume that the problem of racism is a “Black” problem. But is isn’t. It is a problem created by whites, so as white citizens of this country it is upon us to solve the problem that our forefathers (and no doubt some mothers – I reference the photo of white women over this weekend painting BLM graffiti on buildings) created.

GailyGrind, 5/31/2020 - Adrian Garcia

What can we whites do? 

What can you personally do? 

Work against the racism in your workplace, church, school system, as well as any other expression of racism within your world. It means educating yourself and others as to how overwhelming systemic racism is in our country. How shockingly inhumane the U.S. is while at the same time promoting itself as a country of equality and condemning other countries for their inhumane actions. How real, how vivid unearned white privilege and power are in the U.S. today.

The only way change will occur is when we the white people of America act collectively to eliminate systemic racism and ensure that our citizens of color --- our friends, our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, our equals --- enjoy the same freedoms that we enjoy without the threats and limitations --- or death --- imposed on them today.

So much of what is happening is on the shoulders of Donald Trump. He has given white supremacists the power and the privilege to now only speak out, but to act out with his protection. He has given them positions in his White House. His message has been clear. He will not act for all Americans and their equal protection under the law.

It is time that the freedoms and rights guaranteed to all citizens of this country actually be available to all citizens of this country.

We can talk about it all we want. I can write about it all I want. Nothing will happen until we take responsibility, stand up and act to make this change. Don’t wait for the “leaders” to do it. Bottom up.

Respectfully,

Donna Ullrich