You have now published a few articles regarding the call to defund the Grand Rapids Police Department. I am disappointed to see that your reporting smacks of a singular point of view.
Most significantly, you detailed the number of emails and calls received by the mayor’s office/city Council demanding the defunding or even disbanding of the Grand Rapids Police Department, yet not a single word has been said regarding the number of communications those offices have received opposing such measures or even supporting the GRPD.
For the first time in our city’s history we have a black chief of police. Chief Eric Payne has shown himself to be a man of integrity and deep concern for this community. He has only been in his office for a short time; certainly not nearly long enough to enact the kinds of reforms he believes necessary to address the concerns raised by our minority communities.
In the interest of fair and balanced reporting, Mlive has a moral and ethical obligation to do a better job reporting not just on the calls to radically alter or even eliminate our police department, but also the communications the city government has received SUPPORTING law enforcement.
I suspect far more people in our community - including a majority of those in the black community - support our police department, even support strengthening our police department, than those who advocate defunding or even eliminating it altogether. This would be in line with a recent Gallup poll (on which Mlive never reported) indicating that an overwhelming majority of blacks - EIGHTY-ONE PERCENT - want police to maintain OR INCREASE the amount of time they spend policing their communities.
I don’t believe anyone will argue against the need to reform law enforcement. I have been saying for many years that we need to get law enforcement off the “war on crime” footing that began with the North Hollywood bank robbery and return to the days of “TO PROTECT AND SERVE”. ALL communities would be better served with the return to that gold standard of policing.
In the meantime, Mlive has a moral and ethical obligation to provide more balanced coverage of this issue, to report not only on the calls to radically alter law enforcement, but also on the calls supporting maintaining, even strengthening our police department as well. Your job is to report, not inflame.
