Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and Dr. Brenda Bryant of Marygrove College at the MCHR Annual Dinner on April 19, 2009.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Coalition strives for proper policing
FBI shooting in Dearborn is current concern
BY ZLATI MEYER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Ron Scott wasn’t happy.
He sat at the Detroit Police Commission meeting, listening to a lengthy presentation about the status of video recording equipment in city police cars. He patiently waited for the public comment period.
Then, he let loose.
Scott lambasted the Detroit Police Department for not outfitting every car with cameras and questioned why gang-squad cars don’t have them like patrol cars do. He raised issues with the bidding process, the department’s culture, and whether there is a quota system for traffic stops.
Finally, Scott challenged Chief Warren Evans to “come before the people.”
“This is not a matter of cold statistics,” Scott said to the commissioners and a handful of others in attendance. “This is about life and death.”
In Detroit, when the issue of police behaving badly comes up, no one comes to mind faster than Scott. As head of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, he fields thousands of phone calls a year from people who believe they were victimized, publicly criticizes police and holds vigils and rallies that sometimes draw a crowd — sometimes only a few people.
“I never find it disheartening,” Scott said, “because we have gotten so much love and support from the people that we’re doing the right thing.”
Activist keeping an eye on cops
A crowded office on the eighth floor of a downtown Detroit building is the situation room where one man takes on one of the largest police departments in the United States.
Though most people may not be familiar with Scott, chances are good they have heard about the cases for which he is fighting.
Currently, the 62-year-old community organizer is trying to draw attention to two high-profile cases: the fatal shooting of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah during an FBI-led raid in Dearborn in October; and what appeared from television helicopter camera to be some police heavy-handedness on Andre Hardy after police said he led Michigan State Police and Detroit police on a high-speed chase on the Lodge Freeway earlier this month.
It was the 1992 beating death of a black man at the hands of two white Detroit cops that helped spawn the coalition which Scott, a 1960s civil-rights activist turned TV producer, heads.
"The Malice Green case really did create the synergy in the city and people were really upset about that," Scott said.
The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality was founded in 1996 by Wayne State University professor Gloria House and Marge Parsons. They were upset about crack and cocaine sentencing disparities and the large number of young African-American motorists police were pulling over. Scott was among the early members; he joined and became spokesman for the organization in 1996.
Day-to-day concerns
Since then, the coalition has protested, concerning Detroit, the record-high number of police shootings, hangings in local jails, the 2000 shooting of deaf Detroiter Errol Shaw, Officer Eugene Brown's record nine shootings and the 2003 federal consent decree against the department. The group also raised awareness of last year's police Taser death involving Warren police and the terrorism charge lobbed at a Clinton Township man who allegedly bit his neighbor.
Over the years, the organization has grown and is now run from donated office space in Ron Glotta's law office in the Michigan Building at 220 Bagley.
Scott and a staff of 10-15 volunteers hear from people complaining of police brutality in metro Detroit. He said that the coalition handled 2,554 calls last year, tackled 10%-20% and referred the rest to attorneys, public agencies or other groups.
The coalition operates on an annual budget of about $100,000, primarily made up of grants and in-kind donations. Scott expects an educational arm of the coalition that aims to promote peace in neighborhoods and raise awareness about the criminal justice and law enforcement systems will get 501(c) 3 status soon. The Internal Revenue Service designation makes a nonprofit organization formed for charitable or other purposes exempt from most federal taxes. Those organizations are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in political campaigns involving candidates for elected offices.
Scott has been asked to speak to groups around the country about countering police brutality. His cell phone is always on, an eloquent quote at the ready for news media callers.
Incident in Greektown
But the man who is the opposition to police brutality has experienced it. Scott said that in 1994, he was attacked by Detroit cops in Greektown after disputing a charge of loitering -- thrown to the ground, kneed in the back and threatened.
Perhaps that's why he's willing to take on authority, including Detroit's police chiefs present and past.
"Warren Evans is setting the department back," Scott said. "It's backward, backward, backward. Ella Bully-Cummings had some challenges, but she at least tried to set up a frame to work with the community. He's slipped into this macho dream world."
Evans disagrees with Scott's assessment of his oversight of Detroit police.
"Advocacy from all segments of the community is helpful for the city and for the police department, quite frankly," Evans said. However, he added that "when you criticize, you ought to have your facts right. Mr. Scott oftentimes does not have the facts or misconstrues."
Evans cited Scott's claim that complaints are up, when the department's figures show they are down. Scott also said he's investigating eight or nine fatalities at the hands of police, but Evans said there were no shootings or in-custody deaths last year involving his department.
"I've had a history with Ron Scott going back 20 something years," Evans said. "Ron knows I'm not the enemy. He just has to pontificate."
Man behind the microphone
The son of a teacher and postal worker, Scott's professional life began behind a microphone of a different sort. He was a professional singer as a child before moving to radio. His broadcast career began at age 15. By college, that love of audio evolved from music into journalism, as it would later morph from radio to TV.
In 1963, Scott marched with Martin Luther King Jr. But he said it was a three-hour speech by Black Panther Party leader Kathleen Cleaver in Detroit in 1968 that truly inspired him.
"I saw the Black Panther Party and it was one moment of epiphany -- this is what I should be doing," he said in his whirlwind of a workspace, several yards from a poster with Malcolm X's picture and a sign that read "Protect habeas corpus and jury of our peers."
Scott organized the Detroit chapter of the Black Panthers and began what would become a lifetime of community projects and consciousness-raising that outlasted the group -- including a breakfast program for Detroit schoolchildren, the Jeffries Project rent strike, anti-apartheid divestment and support for liberation movements in Africa.
"This really just congealed the fact that people my age literally have an impact on changing the world," Scott said.
Professionally, Scott was growing, too. He went to work for the Wayne County TB and Health Association, then in the 1970s segued into television, producing on local TV. He launched Ron Scott Video Productions in the 1980s, which still is in operation. Over the years, he blended his media savvy and love of activism by taking to politics and working with elected officials.
As he takes on law-enforcement officials full-time now, his message is clear, whether shouting it at a rally or simply talking at a Police Commission meeting:
"We're not anti-police. We want to do the right thing."
Contact ZLATI MEYER: 313-223-4439 or meyer@freepress.com
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