Grand Rapids police face new complaints of racial bias from Michigan civil rights watchdog
A state civil rights watchdog has levied two more charges of discrimination against the Grand Rapids Police Department, officials announced Wednesday, claiming officers mistreated two children on the basis of race in 2018.
Juanita Ligon filed a pair of complaints on behalf of her children, leading to a Michigan Department of Civil Rights investigation. The state agency says that in 2018, Grand Rapids police officers unlawfully discriminated against two Black boys, both 11 years old at the time, when officers held the boys at gunpoint.
The complaints follow two other formal charges filed by the agency in July stemming from separate interactions between GRPD officers and Black residents in 2018. The charges are not criminal but will go through an administrative process and could result in penalties. The department has asked that Ligon, on behalf of her children, receives financial compensation.
Per the complaints formally filed by the department, the officers were responding to a 911 call in August 2018 about two boys playing with what appeared to be a toy gun near train tracks in southeast Grand Rapids. The complaint states that the caller made multiple references to not believing the gun was real.
Two officers were initially dispatched to respond to the call. The complaint states officers stopped three boys, two 11-year-olds and a 17-year-old, approximately half a mile southwest of the location detailed in the 911 call.
The boys told the officers they were walking to a nearby Little Caesars. Per the complaint, the boys were compliant with officer commands before a third officer arrived. Within minutes of arrival, the third officer, who was dispatched before the first two officers arrived to the scene, pointed his handgun at the group.
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The complaint states the boys remained compliant with the officers’ commands, but an officer radioed GRPD headquarters to have nearby traffic shut down. The officers had the 17-year-old boy back away from the younger children, moving closer to the officers, at gunpoint.
Body camera footage shows the younger children remaining compliant with orders to keep their hands on top of their heads, but an officer radioed back to GRPD dispatch stating "the subject in the red shirt's refusing to put his hands on his head,” per the complaint.
Eventually, three more officers arrived at the scene. One officer, upon arrival, pointed a “high powered” rifle at the children. The children were later handcuffed while officers searched for weapons. No weapons were found. Eventually, the boys were released to a grandparent, who arrived at the scene.
The civil rights watchdog says Grand Rapids police were unable to identify another situation where white children were stopped at gunpoint in response to a 911 call and no allegation of a crime.
“As we said in July when we filed the first two complaints of discrimination against the GRPD we will continue to thoroughly and impartially investigate every complaint of discrimination filed with us by the residents of this community — complaints that in this case show that the police force charged with protecting these families instead discriminated against them,” MDCR Executive Director John Johnson Jr. said in a statement.
The Grand Rapids Police Department has been embattled with allegations of racial bias, particularly following the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya in April. Lyoya, a Black man, was shot in the back of the head by a GRPD officer near the city’s southeast side. The officer, Christopher Schurr, was fired from his position after being charged with second-degree murder. Schurr is slated to stand trial in March.
“We are aware of the announcement by the MDCR,” a city spokesperson said Thursday morning. “We have not yet been served with the charges. We’ll be reviewing the charges and responding appropriately.”
An administrative law judge will conduct a formal hearing over the charges where witnesses will testify under oath. At the conclusion of the hearing, the judge will issue a recommendation of whether discrimination took place and what the appropriate penalty will be, per MDCR.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission will review the findings and allow parties to argue whether they should be adopted before issuing a final determination. Claimants can appeal this determination to a circuit court if they disagree with the findings.
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @arpanlobo.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan files more discrimination charges against Grand Rapids police
