How Kalamazoo Police Failed their Residents at the Proud Boys Rally
I was in downtown Kalamazoo yesterday afternoon around 2 PM when the Proud Boys rally took place. And I just finished watching today’s remarks and Q&A from the Chief of KDPS, Karianne Thomas, and the mayor of Kalamazoo, David Anderson.
I’ll tell you what I witnessed/filmed and where I think the city’s story doesn’t quite add up or make me feel any more confident in their response yesterday.
The community of Kalamazoo and KDPS had both known about the Proud Boys’ plans to rally in our city since social media posting in July. Details available to the community and intelligence to KDPS were fuzzy, but we had enough to know that the Proud Boys would arrive downtown roughly around 2 PM on 8/15/20. The First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo attained a permit for a counterprotest at Arcadia Creek at 2 PM so that we as a community could let this white nationalist, neo-Nazi hate group know that they were NOT welcome in our little city where many peaceful & productive Black Lives Matter demonstrations have taken place.
Around 1:30 PM yesterday, the Proud Boys arrived at the Radisson/Arcadia Creek. Chief Thomas stated that they had 100+ officers from 5 jurisdictions already “in the background” to respond. Upon reports that many of the Proud Boys were armed with rifles, a sniper’s presence was requested as well.
Almost immediately upon arriving to Arcadia Creek, many locals reported that Proud Boys marching through began antagonizing and physically assaulting homeless people in the park, where people commonly gather throughout the day. I had heard about this from various sources on social media, but today KDPS claimed they had no evidence for that, which confused me since eyewitness accounts seem like evidence to me. Anyway, the armed Proud Boys were also met with armed counterprotestors, and while shootouts never took place, the police attained footage showing a huge fist fight breaking out between the two groups. There is not a police officer in sight, despite the Chief’s claims that they were standing at the ready in “staged areas” to immediately respond to “riotous, assaultive, or physically destructive” events. And this was despite the fact that the counterprotest of local leaders literally had a permit to be in that area, so they knew well in advance that this could be a hotbed of activity.
When KDPS eventually arrived, they reported using pepper spray to clear the area of Arcadia Creek. Around 1:40 PM, I saw about 15–20 MI State Police cars with lights/sirens on driving toward downtown and decided to walk toward the area. I followed the sound of people on megaphones towards Bronson Park and was surprised to see almost no visible police presence in the area. There were no police escorting or monitoring the Proud Boys that I could see. By 1:55 PM, they were leaving and filing into the Radisson parking garage, looking down on groups of counterprotestors including myself from the 3rd & 4th floors and throwing up their lame white supremacist hand symbols. It definitely made me scared that one might open fire on the crowd, though thank God that never happened.
The Proud Boys then left just as quickly as they came. By about 2:15 PM (so they spent less than an hour visibly out in our city), they were in their cars driving out the West exit of the Radisson garage. It was a relief to see these assholes leave to hopefully go crawl back into the hole from whence they came. Reporters, lawyers, medics, and BLM supporters were standing by watching and shouting at their cars as they left. A majority of their cars had their license plates removed, but the ones that still had them included plates from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, and Kentucky. The police sat in waiting in the tunnel next to the parking garage and did nothing to confront the Proud Boys.
Chief Thomas repeatedly stated today that “traffic enforcement was not the priority” as justification for letting these violent, hateful men drive off in their anonymous/unmarked vehicles. She said that she was “not sure if that was true or not” about their plates being removed, but dozens of us have it on film PLEADING with officers in earshot to do something. How was it NOT a priority to identify these guys and hold their hate group accountable? They are essentially a terrorist organization — but the community has to try to positively ID them? With 100+ officers and dozens of squad cars from 5 jurisdictions, I’m sure someone could have stopped them coming out of the garage or simply followed them out of the downtown area. But the police “did not want to become targets” per Chief Thomas — I guess it was better for the homeless people and Black, brown, LGBT+, Muslim, and Jewish residents of Kalamazoo to take the brunt of the Proud Boys’ hate?
Once most of the Proud Boys had cleared out of the garage and were driving off, KDPS *THEN* decided it was time to clear the area around the garage and Bronson Park. Police decked out in riot gear started pushing a border toward us and later East down Michigan Ave. A clearly identified journalist for MLive, Sam Robinson, standing about 20 feet from me broadcasting this entire thing on Facebook Live was arrested for no apparent reason, and charges against him have now been dropped with an apology issued by the Mayor and KDPS today. Chief Thomas reported a total of 9 adult arrests and 1 juvenile arrest yesterday for charges including violation of a police zone, resisting arrest, felonious assault, destruction of property, and blocking traffic. However, Mayor Anderson is now requesting at least 5 of those charges be dropped by the city attorney since he feels they were out of proportion to the day’s events. So it follows that at least 50% of arrests yesterday were wrongful arrests.
And while Chief Thomas said that their “#1 priority was restoration of order and de-escalation,” more locals standing against the racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism, and general hate of the Proud Boys were arrested THAN ACTUAL PROUD BOYS. A Black woman from Kalamazoo asked today, “Why did it feel like citizens were being harassed, and not the Proud Boys, by our officers?” to which the Chief had no good response. She admitted that KDPS knew in advance that “their M.O. was to create disruption, chaos, and waste public services” and leave, but Kalamazoo residents were the ones who really let the Proud Boys know that they were not welcome and drove them away. And then as soon as they left, KDPS played right into their hands and started treating local residents like the bad guys in the whole situation.
Yesterday, it felt like we as a community policed ourselves. Imagine the money we could have saved if even just half of the policemen standing around downtown Kalamazoo twiddling their thumbs had been asked to stay home. We probably could have paid for apartments for all of the homeless people in Arcadia Park that were viciously attacked by the Proud Boys, which incited chaos in our city. Around 2:30, with all but a select few of the Proud Boys long gone, counterprotestors again regrouped in Arcadia Park before disbanding, though this time they were closely followed and monitored by police. It was not clear what their intention was, and many of us felt intimidated, questioning why we were paying them to act like hall monitors by this point.
I applaud the Mayor and the Chief for holding today’s conference/Q&A and standing with Black Lives Matter, but I hope they actually listen to its leaders and to Black residents. I want to elevate what another Black woman said today in closing: “I think one thing that is beautiful to realize is that history is on our side. These types of events have occurred generation, after generation, after generation, after generation since 1619, so it is very important to include the ones that are being wronged with your lack of responses. We can tell you better than you can what you need to do.” If the city of Kalamazoo and KDPS want to stand against hatred, racism, and bigotry like they claim, then they need to start engaging with the residents dealing with these systemic issues rather than treating them like rioters and criminals. Kalamazoo needs to recognize that our problems will not be solved with more money thrown at the police for riot gear, but by spending our limited taxpayer dollars on better social services/support and by empowering Black-led community organizations to uplift our most vulnerable residents.
