A2Politico: County Law Enforcement Leaders Kiss Up To Perps While Crime Rates Skyrocket

by P. D. Lesko

The May 27, 2023 video sent to me of the new Ypsilanti Chief of Police Kirk L. Moore shows him speaking to a small crowd, a little more than a dozen people, excluding elected officials. As the videographer pans around the sparse circle, the camera takes in an equal number of men dressed in orange t-shirts that stand “guard” on the outside of the circle. Ostensibly, the “guards” are members of a local non-profit called Supreme Felons, Inc. Why is the Ypsilanti Chief of Police speaking to residents while surrounded by perps? He looks like the dictator of a Banana Republic who needs guards to protect him from the rabble, as opposed to a public law enforcement official.

In actuality, Moore was trotted out like a wind up doll for a political photo opp. He obediently delivered a campaign endorsement for “our next Sheriff, Derrick Jackson.” Since the Supreme Felons, Inc. front group was the brainchild of Jerry Clayton and Jackson, and is controlled by Derrick Jackson, the Dir. of Community Engagement for the County Sheriff, it was little more than another desperate attempt by Jackson to mainstream criminals who, emails and text messages show, were used to swindle taxpayers out of $1.2 million in federal funds with the help of County Commissioners and the County Administrator. They all knew (according to Greg Dill the County Administrator) the Supreme Felons, Inc. grant proposal was peppered with fabrications.

This new Ypsilanti Chief of Police inherits a department in a town of just 20,000 people. Yet, in Ypsilanti, almost 10 percent of residents are victims of crime each year. Historically, only one in four of those victims has a resolution to their victimization (crime solved). In the “Meet and Greet” video shot by a member of Supreme Felons, Inc. and posted to his social media account, there stands the new Ypsilanti Chief of Police shoulder to shoulder with felons, perps, while talking up his policing cred.

The new Ypsilanti Chief of Police leads a department that reported 2,428 crimes in 2021. Officers made just 619 arrests. His department has thousands of unsolved crimes going back to 2010, thousands of victims who never got justice. Yet, the first month on the job Kirk L. Moore played for the camera as the guest of Derrick Jackson and Jackson’s gang of sexual predators, wife beaters, drug dealers, thieves, child rapists, and a murderer on parole.

At the end of the (long) comments by Jackson and the short comments by Moore, there was a prayer circle. (O Lord) give Chief Moore the strength to do his job.

Chief Moore will need more than the help of some higher power. Based on his scripted performance in that video, his policing (and political) instincts are impaired; he clearly lacks a spine.

Ypsilanti desperately needs a chief of police who will stand up for victims and focus on preventing and solving crime, particularly violent crime. What they got is a political cartoon character. He grinned as he elevated the jackboots on the ground fantasies of perps and their very own Il Duce, Derrick Jackson.

What local law enforcement officials offer Supreme Felons, Inc. members (a County contractor whose members’ background checks, if any, are not shared with the County) is a fantasy. Felons are paraded around in public, child support deadbeats preen in selfies from public schools and post photos of themselves with kids in juvenile detention. They pretend to be “role models.” The men who founded Supreme Felons, Inc. are a murderer on parole and a child rapist. The group’s members include a murderer on parole, drug dealers, thieves, sexual predators and wife beaters.

At a Supreme Felons, Inc. anti-gun violence rally in spring 2023 at which the County’s Chief Asst. Prosecutor Victoria Burton-Harris was present, these “life experts” publicly blamed gun violence on single-parent households headed by women, and rap music. Burton-Harris joked and smiled as she urged the Black people at the rally to protect themselves, because the system (her system) is so obviously flawed.

Along with Kirk L. Moore, county officials, the County Prosecutor and his Chief Asst. Prosecutor, the County Sheriff and the Sheriff’s Dir. of Community Engagement are desperate in their efforts to mainstream and elevate violent crime and criminality under the guise of giving felons a “second chance.” Felons deserve a second chance. However, murderers, rapists, wife beaters, child rapists and thieves can never be role models for children, or anyone else.

Local law enforcement leaders, and elected officials on the County Commission, have elevated criminals both in private and in public in ways that raise questions about the commitment our law enforcement and elected leaders have to protecting the public and victims of crime, particularly victims of violent crime.

At an April 1, 2023 Washtenaw Dem event moderated by the Sheriff, Clayton first distanced himself from Supreme Felons and then glorified the “work” of criminals. Clayton ignored victims.

Billy Cole, the “president” of Supreme Felons, Inc., had the hubris to tell those present at the Dem event how much of his life plus 60 year prison sentence he had served (poor him). Cole pointedly did not say the that he had gone to prison for shooting 24-year-old Mark Simpson twice in the head while the victim was on his knees and bound. He did not say he went to another state to escape justice and while in that state he robbed a bank. Cole also forgot to mention that while he was in prison his sentence was extended for aggravated assault, after Cole attacked and seriously injured another inmate.

It’s unfathomable that the County’s Chief Asst. Prosecutor Victoria Burton-Harris stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the sexual predators, thieves, wife beaters and murderers in Supreme Felons, Inc. Burton-Harris has posed for multiple chummy photos with Supreme Felons, Inc. “president” Billy Cole and “managing director cum second vice president and director of programs” Bryan Foley. I tried to find a photo of Burton-Harris standing beside a victim in Washtenaw County–any victim who was seeking justice, or who had received justice. I was unsuccessful.

Emails and texts between Derrick Jackson, his employee Marvin Gundy, child rapist Alan K. Fuqua, murderer Billy Cole and thief Bryan Foley revealed that Supreme Felons, Inc. is a front group disguised as a non-profit. Supreme Felons, Inc. is controlled by Sheriff’s Dept. employees, and scored $1.2 million in ARPA funds, because the Sheriff pushed for the allocation of the funds. The organization’s first “president” appointed by Derrick Jackson and Marvin Gundy (via personal text messages) was Fuqua, the Supreme Felons, Inc. “co-founder.” Jackson and Gundy appointed Billy Cole “vice president.”

After A2Indy made Fuqua’s involvement public, Derrick Jackson, Marvin Gundy, and Sheriff Jerry Clayton, “disappeared” Fuqua from the group. They didn’t get rid of Fuqua before he (as a representative of Supreme Felons, Inc.) was sent out during the pandemic on behalf of the County Health Dept. as a “trusted member of his community” to talk up COVID vaccines. Fuqua was paid by the County to work as a “trusted member of his community.”

New “president” of Supreme Felons, Inc. Billy Cole, a murderer on parole from a life plus sixty year sentence, subsequently told WEMU: No one, including the County Sheriff, knew Fuqua was a registered sex offender. Cole spoke as if a child rapist was more of a monster than a murderer who ended the life of a young man by tying up the victim and then shooting him twice in the head.

Cole told WEMU that no one knew about Fuqua’s criminal record. According to murderer Billy Cole, Marvin Gundy and Derrick Jackson were clueless that Fuqua had spent 17 years in prison for child rape even as they both sent texts to Fuqua, Billy Cole and Bryan Foley telling them who would have which leadership position within Supreme Felons, Inc. In one text to Fuqua, Cole and Foley, Gundy tells them not to say anything about Supreme Felons without first getting permission “from us.”

In a text, Gundy told Bryan Foley that he would be the “Managing Director” of Supreme Felons.

Sure enough, in July 2022, after the County Commissioners doled out $1.2 million to the felons, Foley identified himself at a public meeting of the County Commissioners: “I’m Bryan Foley and I’m the Managing Director of Supreme Felons.” Foley, in an organization that appears to be populated by what the Urban Dictionary calls “title whores,” has since given up his moniker as the “managing director” to occupy the post of co-vice president and program director.

This politically self-serving elevation of brutal criminals as “role models” and “mentors” amounts to some of the most morally corrupt political gaslighting I’ve ever seen.

The County Sheriff, his staff, the County Prosecutor, his Chief Asst., and now the Police Chief of Ypsilanti want everyone, including the victims of crime in this county, to believe thieves, drug dealers, rapists, sexual predators, and wife beaters in orange t-shirts (as opposed to orange jumpsuits) are the answer to rising community crime, including violent crime. The actions of these law enforcement leaders is insulting to the victims of crime, particularly those who’ve been subjected to violent crime, and who have never had their days in court.

The elevation of predators as “role models” is also an insult to the intelligence of County residents and taxpayers. When County Commissioner Shannon Beeman was confronted by her constituent leaders about her vote to hand a murderer on parole and a child rapist $1.2 million in public money, Beeman began to cry. She attacked The Ann Arbor Independent’s reporting. That same reporting recently won a prize from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Two of the three candidates running for Sheriff have embraced the criminal element as if the felon vote were going to win them the race; to hear the Sheriff candidates Derrick Jackson (who has no policing experience) and Alyshia Dyer (the majority of her experience was as a patrol officer on the Huron River) explain their Violent Felon-Sheriff Candidate Love Club thusly: A murderer, child rapists, thieves, wife beaters and drug dealers in orange hoodies have “history on their side.” The rest of us who question this sick farce are the real monsters, according to Derrick Jackson in a Facebook post.

The third candidate for Sheriff, Ken Magee, has repeatedly questioned whether Jackson and Dyer have a commitment to the principles of law enforcement. Magee has three decades of law enforcement experience, including extensive leadership experience. He has no interest in elevating felons as role models. Instead, his campaign materials say he intends to focus on holding law enforcement personnel accountable, transparency, tackling the County’s opioid crisis and policing that provides justice to the victims of crime. Derrick Jackson recently referred to Magee’s priorities as a “return to draconian policing.”

Dr. Celeste Hawkins, the President of the Ypsilanti Board of Education is an enthusiastic supporter of Supreme Felons, Inc., and she has endorsed puppetmaster Derrick Jackson’s campaign for Sheriff. Allowing a murderer on parole and other felons onto the grounds of an Ypsilanti middle school to enforce discipline is just what the Spin Doctor ordered with no objections from Dr. Hawkins.

Alyshia Dyer, a former Sheriff’s deputy with seven years of experience (she now rounds it up to a decade), has participated in multiple “interviews” with a registered sex offender who passes himself off as a “mental health” and “accountability” advocate within the Black community. His “specialty” is mental health awareness for Black boys and men.

This man’s events, including interviews with Dyer, took place at the headquarters of Men Like Us, an organization founded and controlled by Ardis Lewis, Jr. Sheriff’s candidate Dyer has discussed her campaign, her political aspirations and her proposed policing policies at length with a child rapist in a “club” that police records show since 2021 has been the site of dozens of assaults (including one with intent to murder) shootings, and alleged sexual assaults.

This candidate for Sheriff has defended her chummy affiliation with a registered sex offender with the excuse that felons deserve a second chance. Yes they do, but remorse is an important part of forgiveness. A registered sex offender who “ministers” to underage boys and young men, and who passes himself off as a “trusted” community leader is little more than a self-deluded charlatan.

Alyshia Dyer’s pal Nate Frazier was arrested and charged for repeatedly raping a boy under the age of twelve. Frazier was also charged with CSC 4th degree (cohersion). Frazier called me a few months ago to tell me he was not a member of Supreme Felons, Inc. (Bryan Foley made him call, he said.) Ironically, prior to that call I had obtained Frazier’s Trial Court records. They were horrifying: Frazier was charged with multiple counts of CSC 1st degree and one count of CSC 4th degree (cohersion). The victim was a boy under the age of 12 and Frazier raped the child repeatedly.

Court records showed that Trial Court Judge Darlene O’Brien and then County Prosecutor Brian Mackie had sentenced Frazier for the single CSC 4th degree charge. The CSC 1 degree charges (which carry a life sentence in prison) were dropped. He had to register as a sex offender and serve a short probation, but Nate Frazier served no prison time. He spent two years in the County Jail. For comparison, Alan Fuqua, who was “disappeared” after being selected by Marvin Gundy as the “president” of Supreme Felons, served 17 years in prison for CSC 2nd and 4th degree charges.

The Washtenaw Trial Court records showed that Frazier has repeatedly attempted to get the record of his sex crime conviction expunged. When he spoke to me, he insisted his crimes were not “serious,” and as such he was working with an attorney toward expungement.

I don’t know about Alyshia Dyer, but I consider the repeated rape of an 11-year-old boy a serious crime. That Nate Frazier does not, that he lied to me about his crimes and minimized them, speaks volumes about his own probable pathology. Alyshia Dyer’s elevation of Frazier coupled with her efforts to justify her poor judgement, speak volumes. Her inability to put victims of crime above her own desire to curry favor among Black voters is tragic. Here are facts Dyer could reasonably be expected to know (these come from public records):

• In Oct. 2013, the first time Frazier attempted to have his record expunged, then Michigan AG Bill Schuette filed an objection. Judge O’Brien dismissed Frazier’s Application to Set Aside Conviction (expungement).

• In July of 2021, Frazier again filed an Application to Set Aside Conviction. In Oct. 2021, there was an Objection filed to Frazier’s Application. In Jan. 2022, Judge O’Brien once again dismissed Frazier’s motion.

Here’s Frazier in a Facebook page “editorial” about the recent shooting of four young men and the death of two of them:

“You parents do need to get a hold of your kids because if you don’t know what your kids are doing at the age of 12 14 16 years old it’s not for me to judge but that’s a sign of insufficient parenting. We have to talk to our kids have real conversations with them see what’s going on with them so many of these kids are crying out for help and we are ignoring them they’re not being heard so they take it to the streets then when they do something now we want to listen but now it’s detrimental and it has caused hurt and pain for not just the parents but the victim’s parents.”

Why are two of the three candidates for Sheriff bound at the hip with registered sex offenders, murderers, rapists, child rapists, wife beaters and thieves, and not the victims of these crimes?

• Candidate Alyshia Dyer is Facebook pals with Nate Frazier and has publicly accepted Frazier’s endorsement as the best candidate for Sheriff.
• Derrick Jackson is Facebook pals with registered sex offender Alan Fuqua. According to text messages between the two men, Jackson worked with Fuqua to organize the non-profit, and to write the grant application submitted to the County Board of Commissioners for $1.2 million in federal funding.

The fallout from this self-serving political exploitation of registered sex offenders, wife beaters, murderers, rapists and thieves is clear: While selling these felons to the public as community mentors, role models for kids and community violence interrupters, community violence in Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Twp. has soared. Since July 2022, when Derrick Jackson/Jerry Clayton’s front group Supreme Felons, Inc. was given $1.2 million to reduce community violence, Michigan State Police records show that assaults, shootings, murders, sex crimes and robberies have increased in both Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township.

Crimemapping.com shows that since just Jan. 2023, when Supreme Felons, Inc. began to receive its federal funding through the County, in the city of Ypsilanti with its 20,000 residents, there have been more than 650 crimes reported. According to the most recent Michigan State Police data, in Ypsilanti murder and non-fatal shootings are up 300 percent. The County Sheriff’s Dept. has seen a 33 percent increase in murder rates and a 100 percent increase in non-fatal shootings, and a significant increase in assaults and sex crimes.

Serving up the County’s vulnerable Black and Brown children to felons for photo shoots, celebrating and elevating violent criminals, grifters and habitual victimizers is the name of the game currently being played by the County Sheriff, the County Prosecutor’s Office, two candidates for Sheriff, members of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, the President of the Ypsilanti School Board and the Superintendent of the Lincoln Consolidated Schools.

Black is white. Up is down. And felons are the poor, misunderstood victims. As for those of us who question this systemic corruption of the criminal justice system? According to Sheriff candidate Derrick Jackson, we’re the monsters on the “wrong side of history.”