Updated Jul 25, 2020; Posted Jul 25, 2020
Ann Arbor gathers to protest arrests by federal agents
By Andrew Mullin | amullin@mlive.com
ANN ARBOR, MI – Protesters and politicians gathered around the federal building in Ann Arbor on Saturday to protest against police brutality and federal agents coming to Michigan.
About 200 people showed up to the building at 200 E. Liberty St. to rally against unidentified federal agents being sent to Michigan and to call for police reform. The rally was proceeded by a march through downtown.
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Jeff Gaynor, a retired teacher and current Ann Arbor School Board member, was one of the organizers of the event. He said he felt compelled to organize the rally after he heard about the federal agents in Portland, Oregon.
“The U.S. government action detention of protesters by federal agencies is something I never expected to happen, at least not in this country…,” Gaynor said. “When I saw no other protests in the area, I felt compelled to deal with it.”
While the topic of the federal agents was brought up, police reform was also discussed. Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed were among those giving speeches.
“A chant of ‘defund the police’ means we want to challenge the status quo. That is OK,” Clayton said. “If at the end of the day, we ended up shifting funds somewhere else to help people that have been discriminated in the past, underserved in the past and marginalized in the past, I do not have a problem with that.”
Taylor spoke about the federal agents being used in Portland.
“Under no circumstances will we accept secret police in Portland, in Chicago, in Detroit and never in Ann Arbor,” he said
After the rally, protesters began marching, snaking their way through downtown streets chanting phrases such as “Black Lives Matter”, “Whose streets? Our Streets!” and “This is what democracy looks like.”
At the end of the march, protesters knelt in silence in the middle of the South Division and Liberty streets for eight minutes, 46 seconds, the length of time George Floyd was knelt on and killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
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