Today in the notebook
- Protest buffer set outside health clinics
- $8.5M legal settlement over wrongful conviction
- Spirit of Detroit gets a new look
- Police widow receives his firearm
Welcome back. I’m still Malachi Barrett.
Detroit’s City Council passed an ordinance aimed at protecting people seeking reproductive care from being harassed by anti-abortion demonstrators.
Protesters outside health care facilities must now remain a short distance away from the building’s entrance and people seeking services. People handing out leaflets or “engaging in oral protest, education or counseling” must obtain permission before engaging another person.
Violating the ordinance is punishable by a misdemeanor.
The ordinance passed 7-1. Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway was the lone no vote, saying she felt uncomfortable about potentially interfering with free speech rights. Council Member Scott Benson was absent when the vote occurred.
A handful of people who identified themselves as Christians or members of religious groups spoke in opposition of the ordinance. They argued the so-called protest buffer is an unreasonable restriction of their First Amendment rights.
Detroit’s Law Department countered that an identical ordinance in Colorado was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. City Attorney Adam Saxby said the new law is constitutional, “without question.”
The ordinance applies to anyone within a 100-foot radius of the entrance to a healthcare facility.
Within the zone, and regardless of their political message, no person can demonstrate within 8 feet of another person without their consent.
No person can demonstrate within 15 feet of any entrance.
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero introduced the ordinance after collecting stories of healthcare providers and patients being verbally harassed by anti-abortion demonstrators.
Shelly Miller, a long-time abortion rights activist and executive director of Scotsdale Women’s Center in Detroit, provided Santiago-Romero with a thick red binder tracking abusive protesters.
“If all sidewalk counselors are so calm and thoughtful and lovely to be around, why are we talking about a buffer zone?” Miller said. “We’re talking about a buffer zone because that is not how they behave.”
After the meeting, Santiago-Romero flipped through laminated pages identifying information. Problematic protesters are rarely Detroit residents, she said, noting photos of license plates from Kentucky and other far-off states.
“At least one person has gone to jail from these reports for being aggressive,” Santiago-Romero said.
Council members heard stories from residents about protesters screaming religiously-inspired diatribes and encroaching on the personal space of patients.
Anti-abortion advocates said reports of harassment are overblown, and they offer important counseling and services to vulnerable women.
“When else does our fair city restrict the right to protest, even when it makes people uncomfortable?” said Arian Fisher, who identified herself as a Detroit resident. “I was a sidewalk counselor in Chicago where they have a buffer zone law. It wasn’t infrequent to see a woman dragged into the clinic against her will, and there was nothing we could do to help her.”
Pastor Adam Kuehner of Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church said pushing demonstrators back means they’ll have to shout to be heard. Another commenter said the new rule will “incite yelling at women.”
Pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who leads 180 Church and hosted former President Donald Trump there in June, argued the council was “pushing back prayer” in the city. Council members said the ordinance is not about infringing religious liberty.
“It’s not speech, it’s grown men wearing GoPros screaming at women and girls attempting to visit their doctor,” said Detroit resident Emma Howland-Bolton.
What page are we on?
Today’s notebook covers the Oct. 1 formal session.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
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Spirit of Detroit restoration
The Spirit of Detroit has a fresh face.
A new protective layer was added through a process called patination, drastically brightening the sculpture’s color to a mint green.
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum and artist Robert Zahorsky have been restoring the iconic piece this summer.
Conservation of the sculpture finished in September while the surrounding landscaping is being redone in time for its 66th dedication anniversary this month.
Big payout for falsely convicted man
A man who wrongly served 20 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit struck an $8.5 million legal settlement with the city.
Lamarr Monson was wrongfully convicted of second-degree murder for the death of 12-year-old Christina Brown in 1996. Brown was found dead in an apartment she used to sell drugs on Monson’s behalf. He was exonerated in 2017.
Monson alleged that former Detroit police officers coerced him into signing a false “confession.” Prosecutors did not disclose during the trial that fingerprints found on a toilet tank lid used to kill Brown didn’t belong to Monson.
Monson was convicted in 1997. The same year, a federal lawsuit alleged that the leader of Detroit’s homicide division coerced false confessions out of several other people and pushed an officer to commit perjury.
The University of Michigan Law School Innocence Clinic began re-investigating Monson’s case in 2012.
The same year, a woman walked into a Detroit police station to report that her former boyfriend Robert Lee Lewis confessed on the night of the murder. The woman said Lewis threatened to kill her if she came forward, but she anonymously called the police three times before Monson’s trial.
The Michigan Innocence Clinic found bloody fingerprints on the toilet tank cover in 2016, which matched Lewis.
Monson’s conviction was vacated in 2017, and he was released the same year. Monson filed a $75 million lawsuit in 2018.
Lewis was not charged, in part due to the destruction of key evidence by DPD. Monson’s false conviction led Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to create an evidence retention policy with DPD.
Monson has since reunited with his daughter, formed several businesses and a community advocacy organization, Moving Detroit Forward.
Monson was interviewed in an extensive story by the Detroit Metro Times on how police terrorized suspects into giving false confessions.
“When you are innocent of a crime and put in prison, it’s the same emotional feeling of being kidnapped and taken from your family,” Monson told the Metro Times. “It’s akin to slavery.”
What’s in fast track housing ordinance?
Detroit’s “fast track” tax break ordinance is available for the public to review and discuss before being voted on by the council.
A public hearing was set for Oct. 16 at the council’s Budget Finance and Audit Committee.
The proposed ordinance creates new tax incentives for affordable housing developments with reduced rent. Instead of paying property taxes, developers pay a service charge based on rental rates.
Tax discounts are larger for projects that offer deeper cuts in rent.
Housing projects in formerly vacant buildings can receive a tax break if rent is affordable for someone earning 120% of the area median income for the Detroit metro area. That equals $2,160 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,592 for a two-bedroom unit.
New housing projects that are affordable for people earning 80% or less of the area median income are eligible for the tax break. That equals $1,440 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,728 for a two-bedroom unit.
Projects that offer rent at 60% of the area median income can receive a larger tax break. That equals $1,080 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,296 for a two-bedroom unit.
City officials said the ordinance would expand development of affordable housing and make it easier to grant tax breaks.
“To address housing affordability, which we know is sorely needed, we need to build and rehabilitate more housing units,” said Rebecca Labov, director of preservation at Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department.
Police widow receives husband’s gun
The widow of Detroit Police Cprl. Michael Patti will be given his firearm.
Patti served DPD from 1993 until his unexpected death in February. DPD’s employee agreement allows officers in good standing to own their service weapon for free upon their retirement.
Patti’s wife asked to receive his firearm, and Police Chief James White recommended the council to approve her request.
Towing fee hike postponed again
The City Council again delayed voting to increase towing fees while offering some perspective on how they could vote.
Fees will more than double in most cases. Rate changes would only affect police-authorized tows – situations when police dispatch a tow company to remove stolen and abandoned cars and clean up crash scenes.
Santiago-Romero said towing rates are already too expensive, and she’s received constant complaints from people who are forced to pay hundreds of dollars to retrieve their vehicles.
Council President Mary Sheffield said she’s less concerned with the rate increase, but said residents are being preyed upon by third-party companies who charge more than police towers.
She said these towers somehow arrive at crash scenes faster than police and trick residents into paying more than they should.
DPD informed her that residents must sign a form waiving their right to an authorized towing company. But she’s concerned that isn’t happening.
“We need to raise the fees, but this is a major issue that can’t go unaddressed,” she said.
Towing rates are charged based on three weight classes of vehicles. Most personal vehicles fall under the light duty classification, with a recommended rate increase from $125 to $225.
A $100 fee to tow motorcycles, ATVs, jet skis, lawn equipment and other miscellaneous vehicles would increase to $200.
Recommendations call for doubling daily storage fees across the board. A $75 administrative fee would remain unchanged.
Last call for Prohibition bar
An emergency demolition contract was approved for a bar used during Detroit’s Prohibition era.
The former watering hole known as “Jackie’s Bar,” among other names, came down earlier this summer. Eric Hergenreder, a member of the Historic Designation Advisory Board, wrote a summary of the building’s history on his blog.
It had a colorful past, including Prohibition-era liquor arrests and a murder. It was also a dive for local musicians. The building was poorly maintained, and sections had collapsed in recent years.
Chief White advances in job interview
Police Chief James White and Michael Hunter advanced to the next round of interviews for CEO of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network (DWIHN).
White and Hunter, the current president of the Team Wellness Center at DWIHN, were among seven candidates interviewed by a search committee on Sept. 27. Each candidate was given five identical questions posed by members of the DWIHN Board of Directors.
White and Hunter will next appear for a second round of interviews with stakeholders, staff and board members on Oct. 14.
White is a licensed mental health counselor but said he would be perceived as an “outsider” after serving 28 years in law enforcement.
“Law enforcement, in large part, is a paramilitary organization,” White said during his interview. “Many will look at me as possibly the police, and I’ll have to do a lot of work to earn not only their respect, but their trust. I’m the person that can do it.”
Hunter said he’s focused on improving inclusiveness during his time at DWIHN, and is seeking the CEO position to improve access to health services that residents may not know about.
Detroit’s indigenous history
Detroit will recognize the city’s “original name” for Indigenous People’s Day next Monday.
A resolution adopted unanimously recognizes Detroit as Waawiyatanong, which means “where the water goes around” in the language of Anishinaabe peoples who lived in the Great Lakes region before it was settled by Europeans.
The resolution acknowledges that Detroit sits on land that “has been occupied by Indigenous peoples long before Western written documented history” and was home to many ancient nations.
It also notes that Detroit’s existing roadway infrastructure is founded on Indigenous trail systems.
