Multicultural Fraternities
Multicultural 
fraternities 
at the University of Michigan 
have also reported incidents of 
over-policing at their tailgates 
and parties. Before the 2017 
Michigan v. Michigan State 
game, Lambda Theta Phi, a 
Latin fraternity, and Kappa 
Alpha Psi, a historically Black 
fraternity, 
were 
issued 
six 
minor citations. The citations 
were 
for 
disturbing 
public 
peace, creating a nuisance, 
obstructing 
police 
and 
contributing to noise. 
That night, the police also 
forcibly entered the Lambda 
Theta Phi house after citing 
the host with disturbance of 
the public peace. At the time, 
The Daily reported that the 
police report stated they had 
noticed a group of about eight 
people surrounding a Latino 
male and dragging him into 
the house. Officers then forced 
their way into the house. 
The Daily reported that all 
10 predominantly white IFC 
fraternities surveyed reported 
no police presence or citations 
at their house tailgates that day.
Two years after reporting 
these incidents, members of 
multicultural 
fraternities 
say they are still facing over-
policing. Music, Theatre & 
Dance junior Jack Williams 
III said in his one semester as 
a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, 
he noticed the fraternity taking 
extra precautions when hosting 
parties.
According 
to 
Williams, 
hosts 
of 
Alpha 
Phi 
Alpha 
parties typically take several 
preventative measures to avoid 
contact with the police by 
reaching out to their neighbors 
and letting them know that 
there will be an event.
“Establishing 
that 
relationship 
with 
your 
neighbors really goes a long 
way 
because 
unfortunately, 
the reality of the situation is, 
you see a bunch of Black people 
partying … they’re going to call 
the cops, right?” Williams said. 
“So, you just have to establish 
an extra credit.” 
Williams 
said 
he 
gets 
frustrated, 
especially 
with 
the 
knowledge 
that 
other 
predominantly 
white 
fraternities do not have to deal 
with these additional hurdles.
“(This) would never happen 
at a white frat house,” Williams 

said. 
“Because 
we’ve 
had 
parties at a white frat house 
before. We typically have done 
parties with Alpha Delta Phi 
at their house. Never had a 
problem.”
As a student at the University, 
Williams said he felt anxious 
with Ann Arbor’s large police 
presence. 
“The cops are just heavy 
all the time,” Williams said. 
“Every time I’m driving past, 
like, even if I’m not doing 
anything wrong, I’m like … ‘are 
both hands on the wheel? Did I 
stop at that stop light?’ And so, 
just having that added layer of 
pressure all the time … I hope 
I don’t get pulled over and get 
arrested.”
Blind Pig Incident
In the summer of 2018, 
the 
AAPD 
once 
again 
faced 
allegations 
of 
racial 
discrimination 
after 
AAPD 
was 
dispatched 
to 
resolve 
an altercation at The Blind 
Pig bar. Ann Arbor resident 
David 
Bigham 
released 
a 
video on June 24, showing the 
confrontation between officers 
and three unidentified Black 
men outside the bar.
On July 3, the AAPD released 
its own dash cam video of the 
incident. The footage shows 
the incident began when a 
white man motioning the cop 
car toward a group of three 
Black men. Upon exiting the 
car, one of the cops pulled a 
gun on one of the three men 
while yelling profanities at 
him and demanding he to get 
down. Then, the man who had 
originally gestured the cops 
over walked toward the Black 
man on the floor and is seen 
choking him and then shoving 
him toward the pavement. 
In a July 2018 statement, 
then-Interim 
Police 
Chief 
Robert 
Pfannes 
said 
the 
video Bigham released was 
misleading and did not reveal 
the full scenario.
“The white male fighting in 
the video is not an Ann Arbor 
police officer nor a police officer 
anywhere,” Pfannes said. “He 
was also handcuffed when a 
backup officer arrived, but that 
is not seen in the narrow focus 
of the private video.”
The AAPD also launched an 
internal investigation to review 
the incident. During the City 
Council meeting on July 2, City 
Administrator Howard Lazarus 
said the investigation would be 
diligent and in-depth. 
“What I’ve asked the chief 
to do is to proceed fairly, 

equitably, but as quickly as 
he can,” Lazarus said at the 
meeting.
In 
a 
previous 
interview 
with The Daily, Bigham noted 
his video doesn’t tell the full 
story as the dash cam does, but 
that it still revealed the racial 
profiling by the AAPD.
In a recent interview with 
The Daily, Bigham stated he 
was never contacted by AAPD 
to serve as a witness either 
by phone or email. However, 
he did have a conversation 
with Pfannes on June 28, 2018 
during a community outreach 
meeting and said he found 
the police chief’s comments 
disturbing. 
“My general takeaway (was) 
that 
it’s 
about 
protecting 
downtown. That’s what it says 
to me. It says that policing in 
Ann Arbor is about protecting 
downtown,” Bigham said. “Part 
of 
protecting 
downtown 
is 
making not only people of color, 
but especially people of color 
and people who are unsavory, 
as uncomfortable as possible 
when they are downtown in 
order to maximize, sort of, the 
psychological, you know, the 
effects of feeling unwelcome.”
Looking Forward
AAPD 
has 
worked 
to 
improve its relationship with 
the community, according to 
the department’s new chief 
Michael Cox. Cox has said he 
plans to prioritize community 
policing. 
In 
an 
interview 
with The Daily, Cox noted 
cultivating greater trust in the 
community is one way to build 
stronger 
relationships 
with 
Ann Arbor residents. 
“If you want to have a good 
relationship 
with 
anyone, 
you have to have some kind 
of trust and you have to 
build 
that 
usually 
through 
communication 
and 
talking. 
… That’s something different, 
but interacting with the public 
in ways that don’t have to do 
with normal police work is 
important and builds trust,” 
Cox said. “It helps us, you know, 
figure out what the community 
wants. It helps the officers get 
to know the community, and 
the community gets to know 
the officers.”
Cox emphasized how greater 
communication 
among 
the 
department 
and 
community 
could benefit both sides when 
tensions arise. 

come in contact with police 
disproportionate to other kids,” 
Jackson said. “I know that 
they’re super vulnerable. They 
need help. Well, lots of times, 
that’s not necessarily the sort 
of encounters that they have 
with police right now. So that 
was the driving force for me, 
to think about how those kids 
are treated and how we can do 
better by them.”
The 
committee 
only 
emerged 
several 
years 
after 
Rosser’s 
death, 
and 
was the product of months 
of 
collaboration 
between 
community 
activists 
and 
elected town officials. 
Several 
months 
after 
Rosser’s 
death, 
the 
city’s 
Human Rights Commission 
spent $200,000 to contract 
a 
report 
from 
Hillard 
Heintze, a risk management 
firm 
specializing 
in 
law 
enforcement 
consulting. 
While the report deemed 
AAPD to be a “professional 
organization 
staffed 
with 
committed 
officers,” 
it 
encouraged the city to develop 
a 
practice 
of 
community 
policing, namely by way of 
an 
independent 
oversight 
commission.
“When significant policing 
incidents occur, from the Aura 
Rosser shooting to officer-
involved 
vehicle 
accidents, 
they become discussion points 
in the overall community 
dialogue,” the report read. 
“However, the AAPD’s voice 
— 
regarding 
facts, 
action 
and outcomes — is often 
absent from such discussion, 
because 
the 
department 
does not routinely engage in 
community meetings or other 
forums 
regarding 
policing 
actions.”
By 
surveying 
the 
Ann 
Arbor population, another key 
finding of the Hillard Heintze 
report was the desire for 
transparency in police policies 
and practices, a sentiment that 
existed prior to the Rosser’s 
death.
“Many also seek to have 
a 
stronger 
understanding 
of police practices, internal 
investigations 
and 
their 
outcomes,” the report said. 
“Some community members 
and 
their 
representatives 
said the lack of transparency 
and responsiveness to their 
issues 
generates 
concern 
over whether the police are 
accountable 
to 
the 
public 
and, in turn, how that affects 
police behavior.”
In the months and years 
following 
Rosser’s 
death, 
Ann Arborites pushed for 
the creation of an oversight 
commission 
staffed 
by 
members of the community.
One community member 
named 
Dwight 
Wilson, 
who serves as chair of the 
Human Rights Commission 
Subcommittee 
on 
Police 
Oversight, volunteered more 
than 2,000 hours studying 
police oversight boards. He 
used his own funds to travel 
to California, New York and 
Washington, D.C. to speak 
with 
local 
officials 
and 
oversight commissioners in 
other cities. Later, Wilson 
served on the task force 
formed by the city to evaluate 
the possibility of forming a 
police oversight commission 
for Ann Arbor. 
In a speech to City Council 
in October 2018, Wilson was 
vocal about the need to move 

forward with an oversight 
commission, posing it as “the 
last shot we’re going to get for 
the next 20 or 30 years to do 
things right.” 
To a mixture of laughter 
and applause from those in 
attendance, Wilson summed 
up his message to city officials:
“The 
last 
thing 
that 
I 
want to really see is double-
watered-down Kool-Aid being 
passed off as being Scotch,” he 
said.
In a written statement to 
The Daily, Wilson said while 
blame cannot be assigned 
fully on either side, the new 
commission ensures police-
related 
deaths 
or 
other 
incidents will be investigated 
fully and fairly.
“It may be true that no one 
should be happier than the 
majority of the police force 
who genuinely try to do what 
is honorable,” Wilson wrote. 
“I have no idea how many 
officers cross the line, but 
relatives and friends who are 
law enforcement officers are 
clear that they know of no 
force, including their own, 
where 100% of the officers 
walk the straight line. Their 
reputations 
are 
protected 
when the disreputable are 
held accountable. As for the 
victims of killings, brutality 
and 
disrespect, 
police 
oversight is our best hope.”
Ann 
Arbor 
Mayor 
Christopher 
Taylor 
said 
the process of building the 
oversight commission was one 
of cooperation between city 
government 
and 
residents. 
Not only were community 
members 
like 
Wilson 
instrumental in pushing for 
the commission’s formation, 
but elected officials likewise 
pushed for new police training 
and reforms.
“I would characterize us 
as working together on this,” 
Taylor said. “After the death 
of Ms. Rosser, which everyone 
internally 
and 
externally 
views as a tragedy, we in 
City Hall and the community 
wanted to make sure that our 
officers had the training they 
need. They were well-trained 
before, we wanted to make 
sure that these areas were 
again emphasized, because 
these are issues of growing 
importance 
and 
growing 
vulnerability.”
As for the reasons behind 
the push for augmented police 
training 
and 
department 
transparency, Taylor said he 
had no doubt as to what set 
those events in motion.
“The conversation around 
policing, the Human Rights 
Commission 
request 
for 
an 
external 
review, 
the 
receipt of that review, the 
recommendations 
of 
that 
review, I think those were 
absolutely 
conducted 
in 

response to the death of Ms. 
Rosser,” Taylor said.
And 
now 
that 
the 
commission is up and running, 
Taylor said a more effective 
conduit for communication 
has been created between 
police 
and 
the 
larger 
community. 
“What the Police Oversight 
Commission has been doing 
for the past couple of months 
is learning,” Taylor said. “You 
have civilians whose job it is to 
serve as an interface between 
the community and the police 
department, to oversee the 
police department by way 
of introducing a community 
voice into the policies and 
practices 
of 
the 
police 
department, 
understanding 

what the police do and why 
they do it, communicating 
that to the community and 
understanding the impact and 
consequences and perception 
of those policies and practices 
and communicating that back 
to the police.”
But since its formation, 
Jackson said, the commission 
has done much more. On 
a given day, Jackson and 
her 
fellow 
commissioners 
may meet with police or 
community members or share 
ideas 
with 
commissioners 
from 
similar 
oversight 
boards across the country. 
Jackson 
herself 
has 
even 
reached out to several student 
groups 
at 
the 
University, 
including the Black Student 
Psychological 
Association, 
of which Jackson is a former 
member, to determine how 
interactions between students 
and police can be aided by the 
commission.
One group supportive of 
the push towards transparent 
policing 
is 
the 
Student 
Community 
of 
Progressive 
Empowerment, 
a 
student 
organization advocating for 
the rights of undocumented 
students 
and 
community 
members. LSA senior Barbara 
Diaz and LSA junior Sandra 
Perez 
are 
both 
members 
of SCOPE and look at the 
oversight commissions that 
have been created in Ann 
Arbor and elsewhere as a 
means for improvements to 
be made in the relationship 
between 
undocumented 
people and local police.
“I think there’s always 
going to be that underlying 
anxiety,” 
Perez 
said. 
“Whenever 
you 
see, 
you 
know, someone in a uniform 
— because it is what they 
do, or what they’re required 
to do is abide by the laws of 
the government, the laws 
of local law enforcement, 
there’s always going to be 
that 
concern 
among 
the 
undocumented community.”
But Diaz said in many cases, 
resolving the issue of mistrust 
between 
undocumented 
communities and local police 
requires 
resolving 
more 
foundational 
issues 
than 
police reform. 
“When you’re talking about 
immigrant 
communities, 
undocumented communities 
and 
feeling 
safe 
with 
trusting public government 
institutions such as the police, 
I think it really does come 
down to immigration reform 
as a whole,” Diaz said. “Just 
because, at the end of the day 
you are still undocumented. 
From growing up, you’re not 
inclined to even go to the 
hospital, let alone go seek help 
from the police, just because 
you are already hyper-aware 
that something could happen 
to you if they ask too many 
questions.”
And as the head of the 
newly 
formed 
oversight 
commission, the need to build 
a sense of trust between law 
enforcement and communities 
of color is something Lisa 
Jackson is acutely aware of. 
“I know police officers, 
and I understand there are 
some 
really 
good 
police 
officers,” Jackson said. “I 
also understand that African 
Americans in this community 
don’t feel like we’re treated 
exactly the same. We don’t 
have that expectation. And 
so I know that there’s a 
place somewhere for us to do 
better.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, November 8, 2019 — 3A

PROFILING
From Page 1A

BOOK TALK

RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Anelise Chen, author of “So Many Olympic Exertions,” shares her experiences on writing narratives as 
part of the Zell Visiting Writer Series in Hopwood Room Angell Hall Thursday afternoon.

COMMISSION
From Page 1A

“After the death of Ms. Rosser, 
we 
emphasized 
training 
in 
connection with mental illness, 
bias 
and 
de-escalation. 
We 
also at the time did a process 
obtaining body cameras, and 
that process was accelerated. 
We (are) now on the second 
or third generation of body 
cameras, just recently. That’s an 
important part of maintaining 
public confidence.”
In February 2016, James 
Baird was appointed as police 
chief. In 2018, Baird announced 
he would step down from 
his position in Ann Arbor. 
Currently, Baird serves as the 
Chief of the Breckenridge Police 
Department in Breckenridge, 
Colorado.
In an email interview with 
The Daily, Baird noted reforms 
implemented throughout his 
tenure, including body camera 
implementation, de-escalation 
and implicit bias training and a 
national accreditation process. 
He discussed how Rosser’s 

death 
inevitably 
impacted 
the actions he took during 
his tenure, specifically in the 
realm of supporting officers 
while simultaneously building 
community trust. 
“I 
suppose 
it 
would 
be 
inevitable 
that 
an 
incident 
of 
this 
magnitude 
would 
have an effect on how I ran 
the 
department, 
especially 
considering how rarely lethal 
force had been necessary in Ann 
Arbor, primarily balancing the 
competing priorities of building 
trust in the community with 
the need to support the officers 
doing an incredibly difficult 
job under increasingly trying 
circumstances,” Baird wrote.
Taylor also discussed the 
new police chief, Michael Cox. 
Cox held multiple roles in the 
Boston 
Police 
Department 
before his appointment as Chief 
of Ann Arbor Police.
“He has a long and important 
history. He has emphasized his 
desire to expand community 
policing, and make sure that 
officers are engaged with all 
members of the community,” 
Taylor said of Cox.

During his selection process, 
Cox disclosed that, in 1995, 
he had been the victim of an 
assault and subsequent cover-
up by fellow officers. Cox was 
beaten while undercover, after 
officers believed he was a Black 
gang member suspected for a 
fatal shooting. Cox has since 
said he is “very aware of bad 
policing.” 
In an interview with The 
Daily, 
Cox 
discussed 
his 
commitment 
to 
community 
policing, 
and 
specifically 
getting individuals to interact 
with police in order to build 
trust. 
“The goal is really just to get 
the officers out into the public 
so we can build some more 
trust,” Cox said. “We’re going 
out and revitalizing those and 
meeting people and introducing 
the officers to them.”
In response to Rosser’s death 
in 2014, student activists from 
various organizations began to 
take action. Notably, University 

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

FIGURES
From Page 1A

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

DESIGN BY BETSY STUBBS

