Benton Harbor march to protest arrests
By Jerry Goldberg
Detroit
A demonstration in Benton Harbor, Mich., on
Saturday, July 12, will demand amnesty for four men who face
criminal charges arising from the Black community's rebellion
on June 16-17 after a police chase killed Black motorcyclist
Terrance Shurn.
The protest will begin at 11 a.m. with a march from Benton
Harbor City Hall along Main Street (I-94 Business West) and
across the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph bridge to the Berrien
County Courthouse in St. Joseph, for a rally at noon.
Co-sponsors of the march and rally are the South west Michigan
Coalition Against Racism and Police Brutality, the Benton
Harbor chapter of the Black Autonomy Network of Community
Organizers (BANCO) and the Detroit Coalition Against Police
Brutality. It is endorsed by two dozen social justice
organizations and individuals from throughout Michigan,
including Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, the Michigan Emergency
Committee Against War and Injustice, President David Sole of
UAW Local 2334-SCATA, and the International ANSWER
coalition.
William Johnson, 27, of South Haven; Larry Doolittle, 47, of
Benton Harbor; and Christopher Burke, 31, of Benton Town ship
have been bound over for trial on charges stemming from the
rebellion. The three are charged with rioting and assault with
a dangerous weapon for failing to obey police orders to stop
their cars. A fourth man--Joseph Dowd, 19, of Baroda--faces a
preliminary hearing on July 8 on charges of assault with a
dangerous weapon. He is accused of driving through several
police lines.
The rioting charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years;
the vehicular assault charges are four-year felonies.
No charges have been brought against Benton Harbor Township
Patrolman Wes Koza or Berrien County Sheriff's Deputy Dan
Lundin, who are white. Their high-speed chase led to Shurn's
death. Report edly, 40 eyewitnesses saw Lundin kick Shurn as he
lay on the ground and saw Lundin and Koza give each other
high-fives when they realized he was dead.
This was the third police killing in three years in this
small African American city of 12,000 in southwest
Michigan.
Systematic theft of city's resources
Recently, a study of poverty and racism in Berrien County,
Michigan, was published by the S.W. Michigan Coalition Against
Racism and Police Brutality and Benton Harbor BANCO. It was
entitled, "Tale of two cities: Benton Harbor and St. Joseph,
Michigan."
It documented how, 37 years ago, the Black community of
Benton Harbor rose up in rebellion against racism. After this,
the white power structure essentially made a decision to
initiate an economic embargo. This town, which had been the
most prosperous in Berrien County, was devastated. Whirlpool
Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of appliances, which is
still headquartered in Benton Harbor and had been the major
employer, shut down all its factories in the city. The study
described what happened:
"Thousands of whites left the city, apparently no longer
feeling safe and in control of Benton Harbor. This did not
happen immediately, but over the years they have managed to
bankrupt Benton Harbor and build up the economy of St. Joseph.
How did they do this? By seizing control of the county
government, then diverting incoming federal and state community
and economic developments funds to St. Joseph, [inducing] high
levels of unemployment in Benton Harbor. In addition, St.
Joseph banks systematically engaged in bank redlining and
denial of business credit and loans to Blacks in Benton Harbor,
creating a shortage of multiple and single-family dwellings,
housing improvements, or creating new buildings.
"Consider that there is only 2 percent unemployment in St.
Joseph, while over 50 percent unemployment in Benton Harbor
among youth and adults alike, many of whom have not had a job
in years. Further, there has been a massive economic decline in
basic industry which started in the 1970s, as well as a cutback
in economic aid to Benton Harbor, orchestrated by Berrien
County officials, which trapped the city in even deeper
poverty. It is no exaggeration at all to say that St. Joseph
and Berrien County officials stole the available federal and
state funding, which impoverished the city of Benton Harbor to
the stage where it is the poorest city in Berrien County and in
the state of Michigan. They robbed the community of all wealth,
the same as if they had used a gun for armed robbery. All of
this made St. Joseph the dominant city in Berrien County, and
one of the most affluent in that state, while Benton Harbor
became a beggar city of thousands of ever younger Black people.
This economic apartheid is a large factor in what led to the
revolt of June 17th."
This study pointed out that the Berrien County political and
judicial apparatus was also moved to St. Joseph. It continued,
"The court system, especially, is an openly white racist
system, and it is they who judge over the Black people of
Benton Harbor in all criminal offenses. Very few Black people
are chosen for jury duty from Benton Harbor, because of
widespread racial discrimination in the jury selection process.
With the exception of one minor court judge, all the judges,
prosecutors and public defenders are white. These are issues
which have incited the residents of Benton Harbor for years,
and they complain that they have no representatives on the
bench, and are fined or sentenced to long years in prison by
all-white juries."
The story of Benton Harbor, intensified by the city's small
size, typifies the fate of most cities across the Midwest, from
Detroit to Baltimore to Cleveland. They have been victimized by
corporate deindustrialization, carried out in a systematic,
racist fashion to weaken the power of oppressed workers, who
had become the militant center of the entire working class
struggle in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Today, the U.S. government is spending billions to carry out
an illegal occupation of Iraq while funds for human needs are
being slashed every day. Millions demonstrated against the war.
The time has never been riper to unite this growing movement
against war and militarism with the fight of the oppressed at
home for social and economic justice. Such a united movement
would demand money to rebuild our cities, not for war and
occupation.
Reprinted from the July 17, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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