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

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM

GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail 
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.

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

