EDITORIAL: Ann Arbor is Not Ferguson
THE INVESTIGATION INTO the police shooting of Aura Rosser is complete and the Michigan State Police have handed their findings over to the City of Ann Arbor as well as the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s office. County Prosecutor Mackie will determine whether to bring charges against the AAPD officer who shot and killed Rosser on Nov. 9. The AAPD initially refused to release the names of the officers involved in the incident until The Ann Arbor Independent used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the information. Shortly before the public records would have been released to this newspaper, the AAPD chose to release the names of the two officers involved.
The AAPD has steadfastly refused to release the incident report or dispatch records related to the shooting, just as the police initially chose to do in Ferguson. However, the ACLU of Missouri threatened suit, and the police then released the incident report. The Michigan ACLU, headed by Ann Arbor’s Kary Moss, attempted to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain public records related to the Rosser shooting, including the incident report, dispatch records, audio and video recordings. Unlike the ACLU of Missouri, the ACLU of Michigan did little more than grandstand. The ACLU of Michigan attorney involved suggested it was too much trouble to sue for the release of the documents sought through FOIA since the documents would be released eventually.
Ann Arbor is not Ferguson. According to 35 pages of improperly redacted public records released to The Ann Arbor Independent, the majority of citizen complaints filed against AAPD officers during 2014 allege varying degrees of bullying and rude behavior, as opposed to police brutality. However, we must point out that an alleged sexual predator employed by the AAPD was allowed to quietly resign this past summer. After the resignation, the city’s Police Chief hid from the public for months the officer’s alleged predation of women to whom he had issued traffic tickets.
Ann Arbor is not Ferguson, for better and for worse. We are disappointed by the Michigan ACLU’s refusal to push back against Chief Seto’s persistent lack of transparency. We are proud that the majority of the officers in his employ treat Ann Arbor citizens with the utmost care, respect and courtesy.