by P.D. Lesko

About 100 people attended the October 15, 2024 Ypsilanti City Council meeting. Inside the Council chambers, protesters repeatedly disrupted Council’s efforts to discuss Resolution No. 2024-240 “Directing the city manager to use all appropriate resources, including police presence, to ensure a safe downtown for all residents, visitors, and business owners; and that these resources shall be used to uphold and respect the civil rights of all residents, visitors, and business owners.” Outside the building, more protesters with drums and whistles tried to disrupt the meeting, as well.

Protesters held up signs, including one that called for “Shelter Not Police.” Certain public speakers had their speaking time interrupted, were subjected to verbal abuse by the protesters, and Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown repeatedly asked the propesters to show respect or face ejection from the meeting.

Ypsilanti business owners have, for the past several months, complained about growing crime in the downtown Ypsilanti business district, and particularly in the Washington Street area. Business owners and residents have been complaining about the City’s growing homeless population defecating on the downtown sidewalks. This has led to protesters demanding free outdoor toilets in the downtown area, as well as the construction of a new shelter.

The Ypsilanti City Administrator said during the meeting that a new homeless shelter was not an expenditure the City could afford. He suggested that a new shelter would have to be paid for by Washtenaw County.

Third Ward resident Jeff Muir spoke during public comment: “We have some people here that want us and you to believe that until there’s a shelter, no other city business should go forward. That’s wrong and that’s false. We have some people here who aren’t from Ypsilanti who insist that if they don’t get exactly what they want a 100 percent then no other city business should proceed. That’s false and wrong. We have some people here who think that they’re 100 percent right about absolutely everything and when they insist that anybody and everybody with different opinions are racist.” Muir went on to refer to the protesters as “hooligans, hooligans.”

Max, a ten-year resident of Ypsilanti and a homeowner, offered comments that opposed Resolution 240. “City Council this is on you….The time to act on the issue we’re talking about now was years ago. A lot of this is on you. Do you not understand how extreme this is? Your constituents are the landlord class who want to make it impossible to live here. Police do not make us more safe. I have a degree in Criminology, maybe that will mean something to you. Broken window policing does not work. The Police will assault us, abuse us. If you really, genuinely, think police are the answer to this, please, please just do a Google search.”

In July 2024, Broken Windows Policing returned to Philadelphia, PA. After taking office this year, Philadelphia’s Mayor Democrat Cherelle Parker issued an executive order “to permanently shut down all pervasive open-air drug markets” in the city’s Kensington neighborhood, where residents have long lived with rampant drug use, crime and homelessness. The Philadelphia Police Department began with a “warning and opportunity” window offering vagrants and drug users shelter and treatment. On June 18 the police shifted to enforcing the law.

Ypsilanti resident, property rehabber and real estate broker Alexander Monroe spoke as well.

“I also want to support Resolution 240 for the increased police presence downtown. I’ve personally had death threats going around downtown. We need security. I’ve had many experience with YPD. They’ve always been polite and cordial. Our police can and do the right thing,” said Monroe.

Elliot O’Hara, another speaker, called for City Council to “discard” Resolution 240 and to instead fight for “housing, rent control, and taxing the landlords.” O’Hara, a white man, said that the City Council members’ loyalties were with white supremacists, and that a shelter in the City of Ypsilanti “should have been built in the 90s.”

Ward 2 Council member Patrick McLean then kicked off the Council’s discussion of Resolution 240, which he sponsored.

“This resolution directs the City Manager to insure the safety of the downtown area.” McLean said that of the residents from whom he has heard, “about 80 percent of those living and working downtown support the resolution….Downtown right now is not completely safe. Businesses are leaving right now. The reputation of our downtown as a destination is being damaged right now. We have to do something right now. I am not interested in waiting while some of the problems get worse. My Resolution suggests that police are part of the solution,” said McLean.

Half an hour after the meeting began Ypsilanti Police showed up to do crowd control outside of the building. Stewart Beal, an Ypsilanti landlord who has been accused of neglecting to maintain his properties and charging exploitative rents, spoke at the Council meeting. He subsequently posted to the Ann Arbor Politics Facebook page outlining his experience:

“7:45pm – Public comment started. Half of the speakers were masked activists calling the council members nazi’s and gestapo and worse, half the speakers were business people and residents of the city speaking for the resolution to restore public safety and normalcy to downtown….When a business owner or resident tried to speak, the masked activists in the crowd would shout them down, call them racist, scream obscenities. It was totally wild.

“9:15pm – All the speakers on the sheet had spoken, the Mayor asked if anyone else would like to speak. I asked to speak; I talked for 2 minutes about how downtown has changed for the worse in the past 2 years, how public safety had gone down hill. I got interrupted 9 times in just 2 minutes from people shouting absolutely insane stuff from the crowd. The mayor threatened to kick them out but didn’t, just let them keep yelling it. When I was done and tried to walk out, 5 masked activists blocked my exit with their bodies blocking me in the council chamber while screaming really horrible insane stuff in my face. I tried to push through them in a nice way…I couldn’t push through though without getting rough with them so I didn’t, and a police officer recognized this and grabbed my arm and pulled me through.”

Despite Council member McLean’s pleas, his resolution was tabled at midnight, because there was a 3-3 split, with two Council members absent.