KALAMAZOO, MI -- The deployment of Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers in riot gear at the protest that brought thousands to downtown Kalamazoo Saturday was the main point of discussion at Monday’s Kalamazoo City Commission meeting.
The city held a virtual meeting on Monday, June 1, much of which KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas spent relaying the decisions of her officers Saturday.
The protests in Kalamazoo were among many across the state and nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.
“KDPS mourns with the country the horrific death of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis and we admire those want their voices heard and respect everyone’s right to protest,” Thomas said.
Many concerned citizens echoed displeasure with KDPS’ decision to send officers wearing riot gear to Saturday’s 6 p.m. protest, which remained peaceful.
“Whoever ordered the officers to come out with riot gear, I’m truly disappointed,” Kalamazoo resident Shardae Chambers said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “That needs to be addressed and you need to do better.”
City Commissioner Erin Knott echoed the concerns during the meeting.
“My questions to the chief of police is how do we do better with communicating with the public in real time? We cannot let 48 hours or so go by before we communicate publicly,” Knott said.
During the meeting, City Manager Jim Ritsema acknowledged the two protests that took place on Saturday, inviting Thomas to explain her department’s decision to deploy two vans carrying officers in riot gear to the evening protest.
Thomas said the department received multiple concerns about officers responding to the protest wearing riot gear.
During Monday’s meeting, Thomas said she sat down with Vice Mayor Patrese Griffin and City Commissioner Eric Cunningham who sought an explanation about the procedures for the crowd management team.
Cunningham said the reason no questions were asked directly to the chief during the meeting was because they had met privately beforehand.
In a Facebook post Monday afternoon, Griffin encouraged residents who had concerns about the department’s actions Saturday to participate in Monday’s city commission meeting.
“To be clear, I do not support police brutality, excessive force or any inhumane or unjust policy or practice,” Griffin said in the Facebook post.
Thomas said the team has undergone regular training for the past two years.
“One of the reasons we formed that team is we saw a need as people gather, to peacefully protest, around the country we had seen many agencies had a line of SWAT officers, or officers just spraying pepper spray to control large crowds,” Thomas said. “We didn’t want that image for KDPS officers, we wanted a more professional manner to handle large crowds.”
Thomas described the protest as peaceful, explaining public safety officers blocked and rerouted traffic across multiple streets downtown.
“At approximately 7 p.m. in one area of the crowd after they had marched and stopped on Michigan near the mall, two KDPS cruisers with public safety officers inside were surrounded by a very vocal and emotional group of protesters and there was an increasing level of agitation coming out of that group that surrounded the officers," Thomas said.
After relaying the message back to the officers in command asking for assistance to get out of the crowd, the crowd management team was deployed to extract the officers, Thomas said.
“Our main goal was to extract the public safety officers and the cruisers, our intent was never to increase the agitation of the crowd,” Thomas said.
The crowd management team donning riot gear engaged with the protesters, ordering them to move back. Thomas said the deployment of the fully protected officers was in part a distraction in order to extract the officers inside their vehicle surrounded by the crowd.
“Once the crowd management team arrived and lined up, the entire crowd shifted to see what that was and we were able to get those cruisers and those officers out,” Thomas said.
Thomas said another reason for the calling of the crowd management teams was to keep the protest moving.
"When crowds stay in one location, they get bored and that’s when we see actions we don’t want to see,” Thomas said.
The officers wearing riot gear were present at Saturday’s protest for nearly 12 minutes, pushing the crowd back on Michigan Avenue before exiting back to their “staging area” for the duration of the nearly 5 hour protest, according to Thomas.
“The crowd management team had moved the crowd by the techniques they know, which is ‘Move back’ which is forcibly moving the crowd,” Thomas said.
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