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The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. 2 Thursday, July 2, 2015 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS Ann Arbor to Ferguson holds meet and greet Activists hold meeting to discuss race-related issues By ALAINA WYGANT Daily Staff Reporter Ann Arbor to Ferguson, a local activist group protest- ing police brutality, held a Black Lives Matter communi- ty meet and greet at Elks Pratt Lodge in Ann Arbor Saturday to encourage residents to talk about the issues black people in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti face today and to plan Black Lives Matter activism events. Denise Bailey, one of the organizers of the group and a graduate student at the Uni- versity, said there was a lot of local interest in gathering to take action for the lives and civil rights of African Ameri- cans in Ann Arbor following the death of Aura Rosser. Rosser, a 40-year old black woman and Ann Arbor resi- dent, was fatally shot by an Ann Arbor Police Department officer after she reportedly approached officers with a knife. The Washtenaw Coun- ty Prosecutor’s office did not press criminal charges against AAPD Officer David Ried, cit- ing “lawful self-defense” in his shooting of Rosser. Ann Arbor to Ferguson was formed in response to Rosser’s death, protesting the Prosecutor’s decision and arguing that her death was preventable and one of a long history of police brutality and discrimination against African Americans. Ann Arbor to Ferguson is a consensus-based group that meets every Friday and has around 25 members during the school year. The group contains people of a variety of viewpoints and has members working on different projects to combat racism against Afri- can Americans. Previously, the group held a silent protest to raise awareness for police brutality against black women. University graduate stu- dent Austin McCoy, an Ann Arbor to Ferguson organizer, said the group is working with the City to form both a citizen review board for oversight of the AAPD and a policy of best practices for the department. Organizer Shirley Beck- ley spoke at the event, invit- ing people to join her in “court-watching.” She specifi- cally criticized the unequal law-enforcement she had seen, especially with regard to charging African-American children as adults. “We do exist. We are here,” said Beckley. “We keep trying. We keep protesting. We keep asking, and I don’t know the solution. I’m a little tired of it. I’m a black woman who has a son and a grandson. I worry about their safety.” Doctoral student Princess Williams, who worked for the political campaign of Jackson Mississippi’s former mayor, Chokwe Lumumba, a civil rights activist from Detroit, said she has seen first-hand the unequal treatment of Afri- can Americans by the justice system. She said that although she values the north for its progressivism, she said racism still exists here, too. “They’re going to be nice to you, but they’re not going to say they’re still thinking racist things,” Williams said. “I feel like something like Baltimore or Ferguson wouldn’t happen in Mississippi because we are hyper-conscious of the racism within that state, so if some- thing happens, they’re going to immediately jump on the officials.” She then spoke about the murder of James Craig Ander- son in 2009 in Jackson, Mis- sissippi by a group of white teenagers. “When something like that happens, we take it seriously. Whereas, in the north, I feel like people have this percep- tion that, ‘oh, that’s not racist’ or ‘there’s not a lot of politics Tired of books? READ THE DAILY. @MICHIGANDAILY VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily New York singer-songwriter, Ingrid Michaelson, performs at the Power Center as part of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival on Thursday. INGRID MICHAE LSON See FERGUSON, Page 8