Detroit fighters against police brutality won’t back down

In May, people in Detroit protested George Floyd’s murder with a rally at Detroit police headquarters. These rallies continued and gave birth to the Detroit Will Breathe organization. Detroiters, including Detroit Will Breathe, have marched for justice continuously for more than 125 days. They demand justice for George Floyd and for Detroiters who have suffered from police violence and racist attacks by civilians, and for immigrants threatened by ICE raids. Marchers faced violent attacks and arrests by Detroit police officers who drove their cars into peaceful protesters and beat people with batons and shields. Detroit Will Breathe filed a lawsuit against the city over the brutality. Detroit Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and other officials have called for public hearings to investigate the violence of the Detroit police. Below are excerpts from a People’s Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo interview with Lloyd Simpson of Detroit Will Breathe.
Lloyd Simpson: We want accountability for the police department. We want [Detroit Police Chief] James Craig to resign. We want to defund the police because the city is spending $330 million a year on a police department when people are in a state of desperation in terms of housing, education, healthcare, and employment. That’s an indication that city officials are not interested in addressing the root causes of crime. Sixty percent of police calls require social workers and healthcare professionals, not an armed response by police whose only method of de-escalation is violence.
…We have something called Project Green Light, which forces businesses to pay to have high definition cameras installed for the purposes of mass surveillance. And so we’ve been on a campaign to ban facial recognition in all forms, and particularly a campaign against Project Green Light, because in Detroit, you’ve had at least three instances of a mis-identification with facial recognition technology, because the truth is, the algorithms are racist. They can’t correctly identify anybody. In fact, out of James Craig’s own mouth, the technology is 96% inaccurate…In a city that’s 80% black, the use of facial recognition which is racially biased, is only meant to criminalize black people. That is just unacceptable.
…[Under Operation Legend, the federal government sent agents and money to Detroit and other cities for law enforcement.] Here, they’re hemming up a lot of young men and women on bogus gun charges, and so our jails right now are filled with people who have been unjustly arrested and imprisoned.…And in a city where COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted black Americans, where people are struggling in terms of employment and economic survival and from this pandemic, the federal government is sending money for law enforcement, and that speaks volumes. James Craig is the one who requested that money….We need federal aid, not federal raids. That’s what’s going on here, and it’s not just by the ATF and DEA in black communities, but also by ICE in our immigrant communities….We don’t want that shit here. Detroit should be a sanctuary city and people should feel safe in their homes. Any federal money that is coming here should be for social services, not for law enforcement.
…People have been emboldened by this movement. Whereas people may have feared police repression before, I think the will to change our society has really overridden that, and people are emboldened with a sense of purpose and have found courage in this moment….Detroit is a prime example of the oppression that exists under racial capitalism. Police brutality is a function of that failed system. But the people here are really resilient, we’re fighters and we’re going to fight for justice. We’re going to fight for justice not just for Ahmaud Arbery, for George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor, but also for Hakim Littleton [killed by Detroit police in July] and the people in our own city, because this is something that’s universal—the police are the domestic enforcers of state power and the state serves the rich. And I think that we’ve reached a moment in history where people aren’t going to tolerate that anymore. We need fundamental change in our society, and that’s what we’re fighting for. That’s what I believe people are fighting for across this nation, because black liberation is universal liberation, and the fight against police brutality is the fight for black lives.