,
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By CRAIG HIll.
Approximately 850 people
marched and rallied in the rain
for Th Stop the Killing Com­
mission Agai t Violence and
Crime initiated by the Michigan
Chapter of the Southern Chris­
tian Leadership Conference
(Sc.LC) which was followed by a
town hall meeting at Rosa Parks
Middle School last weekend.
The march begin at 10:00
a.m. that Saturday at East
Seven Mile and Gratiot, and pro­
ceeded down Gratiot with a
hearse and casket to the Ninth
Precinct police station where a
rally then took place in the park­
inglot.
The march and rally included
a broad variety of community,
neighborhood and civic organi­
zations.
The town ball u."1lg
n Cleveland from A ...... 'J-....._.
oann Watson, E cutive irec­
tor of the Detroit Branch
NAACP, Jud� Wendy Cooley of
the 36th District Court, Rev. J.J.
Perry of the Exodus church and
Executive Director of SCLC,
Benny Napoleon, commander of
the Ninth Precinct, Dr. John
Waller from Wayne State U ni­
varsity, Kwami Kenyatta, mem­
ber of Detroit Board of
Education and others were pan­
elists that each gave a two min­
ute talk on the Stop the Killing
and Violence in Our Streets
campaign.
AFTER THE PANELISTS
tat
By DAVID SHOOK
and MATTHEW RUDY
Sp!C'" to the Michigan Citizen
LANSING (Capital Newa S rvice)
- Downsizmg of the Michigan
State Police as well as county
sheriff's departments has
stretched the web of highway
and road patrols, as well as
lengthened response time for
non-urgent calls.
�ccording to tate formulas,
1,250 to 1,280 state troopers are
needed to effectively patrol the
state, said Capt. Stephen De­
Boer, commanding officer of the
State Police. As of Oct. 26, the
state had 980 troopers.
Cutbacks began in 1990,
mostly at middle-management
and support taff level, DeBoer
said.
Troopers lost to attrition
since then had not been replaced
until Oct. 22, when the first
state police academy in three
and a half years was graduated.
Th 88 recruits in that elas
have all n igned, DeBoer
said.
THE ST TE' APPRO -
MATELY 16,000 sheriffs depu­
ti are often called upon to take
up the road patrol slack, but
Chief Dept. Ger Id Joh n of
the Monroe County Sheriif' De­
partment said his agency is f 1-
ing a financial pinch as well.
poke, Gregory Guice, Project
Director for th Stop the Killing
campaign facilitated a qu tion
and nswer period bet n the
community and p nelists.
Tho e community per ons
thanked the panelists for coming
to Ninth Precinct for showing
their concern for the kids being
killed in their area and talked
about the loved on they had
loss and wanted to know what
could done to deter this from
happening to oth r youth in the
community.
The SCLC said they are start­
ing up programs to help assist
parents in raising their children,
opening up more Detroit Public
schools in the evening, more
townhall meetings and marches,
establishing CB units and or­
ganizing more block club .
:MESC has volunt red to of­
job trai' classes for young
p Ninth Precinct
I
o
KImberly Butler, a volunteer at YWCA 'clean up' last
Saturday.
Johnson's department lost
two supervisory and five road
patrol positions to budget cut­
ting, he said. More calls are be­
ing distributed to fewer officers
- both troopers and sheriff's
deputies - and patrol cars are
required to cover larger areas.
"When both levels of patrols
are down-sized, it shows up
more in non-urgent calls,"
Johnson said. "With six calls
pending and two cars available,
a broken mailbox won't get a car
right away."
"When somebody needs help.,
it doesn't matter to them if the
uniform is blue or black, they
just want help," said Rick Boyd,
executive director of the Michi­
gan Sheriffs As ociation.
"They're pretty well stretched to
the limit. If any more cuts are
made, it will be in flesh and
blood."
And potential cuts in the
state's revenue-sharing pro­
grams with counties would be
detrimental to sheriff's depart­
ments, which rely heavily on
that funding Johnson id.
sharing money with up to three
mils - without a public vote.
The money would supplement
sheriffs departments' to keep
patrol cars on the road.
Bob Trojanowicz, director of
Michigan State University's Na­
tional Center for Community
Policing and a research fellow in
the program in Criminal Justice
Policy and Management at Har­
vard University, said spending
cuts may force the state police to
consider charging other agen­
cies for the use of its highly-ad­
vanced crime laboratori . Th y
currently' do such criminology
tests for free.
"I don't know if the numbers
will change, but the way they do
busine will change," Tro­
janowicz said. "If (local depart­
ments) want to u the crime
lab, they might have to pay for
it. "
But DeBoer said the state p0-
lice isn't considering charging
for servi , even as a last resort.
area.
AAA on Eight Mile has of­
fered their services and building
and their Di trict Manager,
Mary Clary who al 0 worked
with SCLC planning oommittee
for the town hall meeting.
YMCA OPENED up their
doors to the oommunity on Gra­
tiot and Harper.
Also the SCLC is going to con­
tact church to find out what
programs they offer to the com­
munity and then publish it in
their SCLC newsletter 80 that
the oommunity will know what
programs are offered. .
During the town hall meet­
ing, there was entertainment by
Tramaine Farr, the youngster
from the McDonald's commer­
cial He.aansa.gospelaong. Then
a� lady t by
ham' , SOJ?hlstimted
•• ,.. •• '" ... ,. "'....Sl ,,4 ...
did a rap called "Young Black
Girls."
After the qu tion and an­
r period, a m moria! moe
held for th e who kne of
loved 0 and oth who I
their li from criminal acts.
"We placed carnations on the
cas et that was u ed in the
march and rally in th memory
of th liv I ," G ndolyn
Marshall, Office Manager at
SCLC medical offi on Joy Rd.
the town
hall m ting cl . out with the
joining and singing of "We Shall
Overcome."
Stacy Henry, a member of the
Youth Repr sentativ .of St.
John C.M.E. r p nting Peo­
ple Lending United Support
'CP.L. U'S) said, "It was a good
bu m 1 should
'cam ·out,"
,. ... ,... ".. , .. ,;( � ... ",.,
Pickup a
phone and
answer a
prayer.
U ITED N GRO
COLLEGE FU 0
Rev. Jimmie Compton, Pastor of the Hope Bible
Fellowship Church, Diane Mani.ca, president of the
Metropolitan YWCA Bo rd of Dir'ectors, and Lea
Eagleson, member of the YWCA Metropolitan Board at
the 'clean up' la t Saturday.
......... ·z· g h·
-pO · ce patrol
"THE T TE POL E is
opposed to any kind of added
fi I" D Boer id. "Bu w hav
pu u legislation tha would
"WE L VE a gr t d 1 along t ing f to d f n-
of concern about revenue-shar- dants who are convicted of a
ing cuts," he id. drug or alcohol offense."
Boyd id the Sheriff Asso- . Common B halyz rand
ciation is endorsing a proposal drug- n Iyzation cos the
hat would allow county com- . lab an average of 150- 250
mi ions to place lost r venue- pi