University of Michigan student
Dyshon Toxey doesn’t smile much
anymore.
An LSA senior, Toxey is finishing
his degree in cognitive science
and mathematics, and is involved
in
a
number
of
development
programs for fellow first-generation
students. Toxey is Black, and said
he often took pride in his perfectly
straight, groomed set of teeth
to build connections in Black
circles and beyond — he’s known
as a community mentor with an
easygoing demeanor and an even
easier smile.
That is, he was until last April,
when Toxey was detained, body
slammed and handcuffed outside
Hill
Auditorium
for
alleged
disorderly conduct at the SpringFest
concert headlined by Migos.
Toxey recounted event staff
asking him and his friends — all
Black students — to fill in the front
rows of the concert, then being
asked by security guards to leave
shortly thereafter. When a white
Ann Arbor police officer attempted
to grab ahold of him, Toxey, who
admits he was intoxicated, said he
panicked.
“I ran,” he said. “There was
no one to protect me, no one was
videotaping. I really was not trying
to get into an altercation.”
When Toxey came to a stop near
the Panera on North University
Avenue, he said the officer threw
him to the ground and kneed him
in the back, knocking a tooth out
and spraining Toxey’s wrist in
the process. Toxey said he was
later transported to the University
Hospital and released hours later,
with stitches, crutches and a bill
totaling nearly $7,000 in medical
fees. The University’s Division of
Public Security and Safety notes the
case as closed in its crime log. Toxey,
the report details, was taken to the
emergency room for “treatment of
injuries sustained during a fall when
he was fleeing.”
Despite protests from his parents,
Toxey didn’t inquire into his record;
he wanted to brush the incident
aside, take his final exams and
return to his family and home in
Harlem, New York. He said he was
never notified about his charges
again.
“(The cop) kept saying, ‘I told you
not to run,’ ” Toxey said. “ ‘I told you
not to run.’ And then I never heard
anything from them again.”
A few other Black students
who were present at the concert
corroborate Toxey’s account, but
they agree on more than just his
take on the night’s events. Toxey’s
fate was not surprising to them. The
Black community on campus and in
Ann Arbor, many students claim, is
more frequently and aggressively
policed in student life than other
demographics at the University.
More stringent law enforcement,
then, does little to close the gap
between
Black
students’
lives
outside of the classroom and
mainstream perceptions of the
glorified Michigan experience.
Many lament that few qualifiers
can spare Black students, especially
Black men. For all of LSA freshman
Rashan
Gary’s
acclaim
as
a
highly recruited defensive tackle
on the football team, he said he
witnessed
similar
stereotyping
while interviewing an Ann Arbor
Police Department officer for a class
project on community relations.
The cop said, if he had seen Gary,
6’5” feet tall and 287 pounds, on the
street late at night without context,
he’d have reason to be scared.
“He was straight up about it, that
I could be dangerous or something,”
Gary said.
The suspicion is then often
institutionalized. As recently as
two weeks ago, in a carjacking case
in downtown Ann Arbor, AAPD
Detective Lt. Matt Lige told MLive
the suspect was described as “a
light-skinned black male.” The
department arrested a white 17 year
old for the crime three days later.
Elizabeth
James,
program
associate director of the Department
of
Afroamerican
and
African
Studies, pointed to the mistaken
identity case as a microcosm of
larger systemic issues in local forces.
The discrepancy in policing, she
said, is something she’s been aware
of since she began working in Ann
Arbor in the early ’90s.
“What do we do with our tall men
… or our darker men?” she asked.
“There’s a double consciousness for
Black students that’s always resting
on your shoulder. Your party’s going
to be shut down … even when it’s in
the (Michigan) Union. You’ve got to
walk more delicately, and you have
to be twice as good.”
I. The Danger in Numbers
In the years since Michael
Brown’s death at the hands of a
police officer in Ferguson, Mo.,
police
departments
across
the
country have come under fire for
both aggressive tactics and racial
disparity. A New York Times study
in 2015 found white representation
in hundreds of police forces across
the country is up to more than 30
percentage points higher than their
community’s proportion of white
residents.
Ann Arbor wasn’t spared from
the slew of fatal police shootings. In
2014, a Black woman named Aura
Rosser, who suffered from mental
health issues, was killed by white
AAPD officer David Ried — county
prosecutors later refused to indict
Ried for what officials deemed
lawful self-defense. Rosser’s death
sparked protests and prompted
AAPD to mandate body cameras
and diversity training, but the force
hasn’t yet collected data on whether
its demographics have shifted. As of
the last Bureau of Justice Statistics
survey in 2013, 82.8 percent of sworn
AAPD officers were white, more
than 10 percent higher than the
percentage of Ann Arbor residents
who were white.
At
the
University,
police
demographics
bear
striking
resemblance to national trends.
White officers and staff members
represent 78.1 percent of DPSS,
which includes University Police,
Housing
Security,
Michigan
Medicine Security and general
Security Services. Only 10.7 percent
of DPSS is Black, while 4.6 percent is
Latino. Furthermore, the division is
overwhelmingly male, with women
making up just 32.8 percent of DPSS.
II. Hands in the Air
Most students’ interactions with
police at the University take place
against the backdrop of parties, with
the ubiquity of underage drinking
It was a dismal, Michigan
morning — cloudy, with raindrops
that didn’t warrant the use of an
umbrella but were heavy enough
for me to put up my sweatshirt
hood — and it was my first semester
at the University of Michigan when
I went to the Bentley Historical
Library on North Campus for the
first time. I had been forced into
familiarity with the buses going to
the University’s separate campus
— I had an 8:30 a.m. class on North
four days a week and knew how
to navigate the often daunting
system. I arrived at the library
after a quick trip on one such bus.
The
Bentley
Library
—
established
in
1935
by
the
University Board of Regents — had
archives I needed to see for one of
my earliest stories at the Daily. I was
working on a piece about the newly
archived collection of University
alum Jack Kevorkian, a famed
advocate for assisted suicide. What
I found in the archives, procured
by library assistants, were files of
what are referred to as “medicide”
— or medically assisted suicide —
letters Kevorkian received from
clients whom were suffering from
illnesses they believed made their
lives unbearable. There were also
records from Kevorkian’s court
trials; following years of advocacy,
he was convicted and sent to prison
for murder.
At the time these papers and
files were made available to the
public in December 2015, Lara
Zielin, the editorial director at the
Bentley Historical Library, said an
increase in interest in the archives
was noticeable.
“It’s a sensitive subject, and
we’re aware it evokes lots of strong
feelings,” Zielin said at the time.
“We’re trying to be respectful and
cautious about the material while,
at the same time, not withholding
the things that his estate wanted
public.”
These archives are just a
fraction of 11,000 other research
collections at the library — from
those of University administrators
to
University
athletics
to
documentation of Detroit’s history
and state legislature photos — with
more than 25,000 digital images
scanned in its image bank, all
geared toward serving as official
records of the University and state
of Michigan.
Of course, the Bentley is one
of many libraries located at the
University specifically meant for
historical collections and that
allows for visits, updates digital
archives, hosts temporary exhibits
and holds events to celebrate the
materials available.
Though there is uncertainty
regarding the future of archive
preservation
at
the
Bentley,
the William L. Clements and
the Gerald R. Ford Presidential
libraries at the University —
Concerned
citizens
filled
Larcom City Hall Monday night as
the Ann Arbor City Council voted
to authorize the sale of the Library
Lot, a piece of real estate across
from the downtown Ann Arbor
District Library on Fifth Avenue,
to Chicago developer Core Spaces.
Core Spaces, a firm centered
around real estate management,
is set to built a high-rise at the
location.
The
council’s
decision
concluded a decade-long struggle
for the future of the Library Lot,
which is currently a city-owned
surface
parking
space.
Public
opinion has been dividedbetween
constructing a $10 million, 17-story,
multipurpose high-rise — which is
the current plan — and setting aside
the land as a public common area
with a few small-scale residential
projects.
Councilmember
Chuck
Warpehoski (D–Ward 5) said
a new building would provide
several benefits in the long run by
contributing $5 million in revenue
from the high rise to the Affordable
Housing Fund, aiding the current
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 69
©2017 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See LIBRARY LOT, Page 3
High rise to
be built at
Ann Arbor
Library Lot
ANN ARBOR
City Council passes the
resolution to sell lot despite
community division on sale
ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter
DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS
Hidden Gems: a look at three libraries
on the University of Michigan’s campus
Preservation and digitization efforts are priorities at the Bentley, Clements and Ford
ALEXA ST. JOHN
Managing News Editor
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See ARCHIVES, Page 3
Inspired
by
political
involvement on campus, LSA
junior Alexander Forsyth has
developed a website to help
expedite the process of sending
mail to politicians.
The website, called Going
Postal Politics, aims to reduce the
tedious process of sending mail
to three steps: pick from pre-
made postcards, choose which
politician to send the postcard
to and send it for 99 cents. Users
also have the opportunity to
upload their own photos for
postcards.
The site asserts that postcards
are the most effective way to
deliver a message to politicians
because of their simplicity and
visual effect. The postcards
feature many of the issues
students
on
campus
have
been fighting for, such as the
Black Lives Matter Movement,
#NoDAPL and the immigration
ban.
“Most
of
the
inspiration
comes from students or activist
Twitter,” Forsyth said. “I’ve been
paying attention.”
See WEBSITE, Page 3
Website for
contacting
politicians
developed
GOVERNMENT
LSA student initiates
“Going Postal Politics”
to send postcards to reps
CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
Black students outline concerns
with issues of overpolicing in A2
DESIGN BY NOAH SHERBIN
Members of the Black community highlight negative encounters with law enforcement
RIYAH BASHA &
ALLANA AKHTAR
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
See POLICE, Page 3