Ironic End to March Against Police Brutality in Lansing

[XLFD]

As MSU finds out whether it will move into the Final Four tomorrow, after winning their first three games in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, other skirmishes were happening just a couple miles west of the campus over by the State Capitol Building with the Lansing Police Department. 

No, it wasn't pre- or post-celebratory parties for their successful cagers that caused the fracas, but a peaceful march on the capitol by the Michigan Student Power Network.  Their articles of protest included their discontent with a variety of society's ills, such as diverse as fracking, the need to boost education funding, parole reform, sexual discrimination, and... police brutality.

The march went well and without incident but then they had to walk back to their dorms and student apartments heading down the length of Michigan Avenue, when a police officer assessed that a woman was endangering a child who wasn't even related to her when the toddler was allegedly within a foot from oncoming traffic.  Witnesses said the woman was pushed by the police in the first place to knock both her and the kid into danger.

That's when things got ugly, and protester Duncan Tarr, 20 and pictured above, got involved and is now being charged with a felony.  What did this student do to earn arraignment for obstructing and a pending court battle?  He allegedly grabbed the policeman's notebook momentarily.  He didn't take it, he didn't damage it, but he had the audacity to touch it.  And everyone knows you don't touch anything that belongs to a police officer (even though it's paid for with everyone's money) and get away with it scot-free.

The last video after the Lansing State Journal article reprinted, has one version of the story from one of the organizers, who seems to believe that Duncan was being rather chivalrous in trying to help the woman of color who her fellow protesters thought was being targeted by the police.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a full tape of the encounter, so we may never know the truth here, the officer seems to have an unclear understanding of what child endangerment is, and in writing a ticket for such an offense, could lead to a broken family for all the wrong reasons.

What began as a peaceful student rally Thursday afternoon in downtown Lansing resulted in the arrest of a Michigan State University student who was involved in a confrontation with police.

Lansing Police Department Public Information Officer Robert Merritt said a 20-year-old MSU student was arrested after grabbing the notebook of a police officer who was talking with another protester about obeying traffic safety laws.

He is expected to face obstruction charges and to be arraigned Friday, Merritt said.  "Included was a young woman with a 2-year-old and a car almost hit them," he said. "We understand and support those that want to hold protests, but our concern is public safety."

Merritt said the group was walking to the parking lot of the Lansing City Market from the Capitol when participants turned north on busy southbound Cedar Street.

He said when the officer was talking to the woman, the 20-year-old student grabbed the notebook and was arrested.  He also said police will investigate the incident to see if the woman should be charged with child endangerment.

But the woman, 21-year-old Brittany Williamson of Detroit, said she was walking back with protestors when a police officer pushed her. She says she was knocked into her nephew and into a construction cone.

"He kept saying 'child endangerment, child endangerment'" Williamson said. "I've got all the witnesses. All he had to do was say 'move' just like everybody else."

The march drew about 150 students from around the state. They marched from the Lansing City Market to the State Capitol, and protested against police brutality and fracking, among other issues. They gave speeches on the Capitol steps about laws needed to protect people from sexual discrimination, restoring education funding to higher levels and parole reform. They took the demonstration into the Capitol's rotunda.

The group, called the Michigan Student Power Network, formed last year as a coalition of progressive campus organizations from MSU, Central Michigan University, the University of Michigan and others.

Ian Matchett, co-organizer of the student march, said he felt the march was going very well until the incident happened.  "I also find it ironic that one of our concerns is about police brutality and one of our own was tackled and put into a headlock," he said.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/03/26/prot...

[AQUAMAN]

Sounds like the protest was just too peaceful and law abiding, so someone had to create a problem. Protect and Serve, right!

[Willy]

I know a couple of Lansing officers. They are good cops and good guys. The Lansing police do not have a history of public abuse so I'm curious as to what happened. The idiot that reached for the officers book was just plain stupid. He could have been reaching for the officers weapon, who knows. So the officer took the action he was taught to use if someone is grabbing for his pistol. 

[XLFD]

Lansing Police do not have a bad reputation as far as Michigan departments go, but outlying incidents do happen.  I'm inclined to believe that the one officer instigated a problem where there was none, other than a potential safety problem, which the marchers didn't seem to agree with.  I hope to do some updates.

[AQUAMAN]

I agree Willy, some kids do stupid things at times, can't imagine why he grabbed the notebook to begin with now that I think about it. I would like to see Police use some better judgment in many cases though. I think they overreact all too often. Not necessarily the case here, but Police brutality seems to be getting the norm these days more and more, too many over-stressed performing badly should seek another profession imho.

[XLFD]

These weren't a bunch of MSU students setting cars afire in celebration of getting to the Final Four (which the basketball team did do over the weekend), these would be primarily pacifist co-eds and their namby-pamby male associates out protesting the typical liberal bugbears of our time like wage inequality, gender dysphoria issues, fracking, Fox News, etc.

A citation for child endangerment is not without potential major consequences for the family involved.  Even absent any other evidence, a citation can lead to the child being taken from the home, potentially forever.  If one was being given out unjustly, I cannot overly fault the young man for trying to reason with the cop-- hey, he's young and doesn't realize yet that a badge can remove the ability to reason from certain people such as those whom seem to choose law enforcement as a profession.

When the kid gets thrown on the pavement with the officer landing on him with all that mass and then the citation-grabber is charged with a felony, I tend to believe the initial citation was unjust-- because the follow-through definitely was.