The Future of Work Town Hall
Detroit Action removing barriers to provide job security for our returning citizens, low income and housing-insecure residents.
Biden fails to acknowledge our Detroiter reality
Detroit Action demands inclusion, investment and accountability for marginalized populations left behind
Mayor Duggan’s State of the City: A lasting legacy of harm
Detroit Action demands City Council amend budget to divest from police overspending and invest in housing support, community-based programs
Securing Detroit tenants’ Right to Counsel!
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Win after win after win we #DefendBlackVoters!
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The power of organizing: Record-breaking Midterm victories
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Deadline Detroit: What Defunding Police Could Look Like In Detroit
In the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2018, a Detroit SWAT unit descended on a west-side home, acting on a lead a homicide suspect was inside. Officers in helmets and protective vests rammed down the door, according to a lawyer who reviewed the case, and encountered a Black man holding a gun. Within moments, he was shot dead.
The man, 46-year-old Detric Driver, was not the suspect, and no one inside the home was involved in the homicide. Driver, who based on the lawyer’s interviews with witnesses may have thought there was a break-in, simply made the grave mistake of grabbing a gun.
The case, which did not result in charges against the officers involved, bears strikingly similarities to the March police killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, which has sparked a nationwide uproar and calls for justice. An overnight raid in which witnesses say officers failed to knock, bad intelligence that led them to a home with no suspects or evidence, and a Black person killed for their distant affiliation to someone believed to have committed a crime. (Driver’s niece was the homicide victim’s half-sister.)
A growing movement to reimagine public safety in the wake of a spate of high-profile police killings sees the incidents not as flaws, but rather features of a broken system that disproportionately ensnares people of color and has a propensity toward violent confrontations.
Police officers — armed and trained to treat each encounter as a potential threat — are America’s first responders, dispatched to deal with everything from murders to homeless people in an inconvenient location. And cities spend huge sums to uphold this norm: In cash-strapped Detroit, police expenditures last year were $316 million, comprising about a third of the general fund.
Read the full article here.
Bridge Detroit: Detroit Action encourages active civic participation and absentee voting
You may have heard Donna Price on the other end of your telephone.
The 59-year-old has spent the last year volunteering for Detroit Action, a grassroots organization that helps working-class Detroiters fight for political power. Price asks Detroiters to vote and participate in elections, the phone bank is open five days a week.
Price said the voice on the other end of the phone usually tells her their vote doesn’t count, they don’t see enough community change or that they aren’t participating due to barriers like lack of child care.
“They don’t see the changes in their community,” Price said. “They don’t realize that without their vote, the schools will continue to be underfunded, we’re not casting our votes.”
Read the full article here.
MLive: Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist touts police reform efforts during virtual Juneteenth event
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist spoke about forthcoming legislation that could impose significant reforms on the state’s criminal justice system during a virtual Juneteenth event on Friday.
The Detroit Action Juneteenth celebration video was broadcast on Zoom and Facebook, during which speakers discussed the “racist roots” of policing, a job created to protect capitalists, organizer Jennifer Disla said.
Gilchrist referenced similarities in reform proposals to executive orders Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued to reduce jail populations during the coronavirus pandemic. The order required judges to free inmates being jailed prior to their trials, “people that were in jail for traffic offenses of for driving without a license, which is like half of the people who are in jail in Michigan, but also people who were there for any type of nonviolent offenses … ” the lieutenant governor said.
Homelessness Among Young Children In Michigan Two And A Half Times Higher Than Previous Estimates
A new report says the number of homeless children in Michigan is likely two and a half times greater than previously thought.ListenListening…0:53
The report estimates the number of homeless Michigan children under the age of four at 15,565.
The findings have broad implications for mental health. According to the report, fifty-four percent of preschool children experiencing homelessness have a major developmental delay, compared with just sixteen percent of their peers who are not homeless.
The report estimates were based on the number of first graders identified as homeless in the 2016-17 school year and assumed the same percentage of children would be homeless at every age.
Sarah Ostyn is with the Michigan League for Public Policy, which worked with the University of Michigan to compile the data. She said the estimates are rough because it’s difficult to get data on homelessnes in young children.
“There’s not a great way to collect that information for children before they enter school because not all children are accessing services from places that would count your status as homelessness,” Ostyn said.
Previous estimates of homeless children between zero and four have largely been based on data from shelters and HUD-funded programs.
Ostyn said the new number includes the number of kids living on the streets, in cars, or in shelters.
“But it also includes children who are, what we call, ‘doubled up.’ So maybe living with another family or friend where there isn’t adequate space or they can’t stay consistently so maybe bouncing from house to house.”
According to Ostyn, even these new estimates are likely an undercount.
“Children are most likely to be homeless from zero to five,” Ostyn said. “There are some national estimates that this number is nowhere near what we would actually see if we had a good way of counting children from zero to four.”
The highest percentage of homelessness was found in Alger, Lake, and Arenac counties but the report cautioned that roughly seventy-five percent of homeless children are still located in urban areas.
Ostyn said the report recommends improving access to affordable housing and childhood education to reduce homelessness and ensure children are getting access to state services.