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Community Resource Directory

Community Resource Directory image
Parent Issue
Month
November
Year
1988
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
OCR Text

 

 

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

CALL 396-8313 FOR DIRECTORY GUIDELINES

Public Deserves Right to Inspect Police

   During the 1988 Ann Arbor Art Fair this past July, a woman and her companions were walking on Liberty Street near the Nectarine Ballroom. They were verbally accosted by a group of young men and sought help from persons wearing the uniform assigned to Ann Arbor police officers; these "officers" were near an Ann Arbor Police Department patrol car. The people seeking help were told by the "officers," "We can't do anything to help you unless someone touches you," although, according to City ordinances, a police intervention could have been made to protect the victims of verbal harassment. The harrassers continued to follow the victims, causing them great emotional distress.

   The woman who was harassed requested that the Police Department try to discover which police officers had been involved in the incident. According to a statement made by Police Chief William Corbett at a subsequent meeting of City officials with members of the newly-formed Anti-Violence and Discrimination Task Force, some eleven or twelve hours of Police Department time were spent in trying to identify the officers in question, with no success.

    A concerned citizen present at the meeting asked Chief Corbett whether opportunity is given for a visual inspection, either face-to-face or by photograph, of all of the officers who might have been party to an incident where the complainant believes that the officers have not carried out their duties in an appropriate manner and where the complainant was not able to obtain the name or badge number of the officers. Chief Corbett responded that no such opportunity was offered the complainant in the case described above, nor is such an opportunity routinely offered to citizens.

   This opportunity must be made available to all of us! Furthermore, a face-to-face inspection of officers needs to be made, as opposed to an inspection of photographs: a face-to-face meeting would allow complainants to hold a brief conversation with each officer; aural as well as visual dues to an officer's identity might be crucial in a given instance.

   Please write to Chief Corbett to express your concern; send copies to the City Administrator, the head of the Human Rights Department, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission and your City Councilperson. Please send a copy as well to the Anti-Violence and Discrimination Task Force, 3118 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109-1349.

    Gay Liberation's Purpose is to provide information, counseling, and related social services for people concemed about sexual orientation.

   Communlty Services include a Hotline: crisis intervention, peer counseling, referral. Education: workshops and conferences on lesbian and gay male concerns. Speakers Bureau: phone for information. Human & Civil Rights: informalion and referral to help people under discrimination because of their actual or presumed sexual orientation or because of their presumed "cross-gender" characteristics; lobbying for human and civil rights. Community Organizing: information and assistance in organizing groups, setting goals, addressing conflict, linking with other groups and resources.

Gay Liberation, c/o 4117 Michigan Union, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109, info: 763-4186; hotline: 6621977.

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