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Copping an attitude

News Hits slammed Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer last week for allegedly doing zilch after the city’s two daily papers began cranking up coverage of police department troubles. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News both printed stories about the high number of civilians Detroit police have been shooting and the department’s allegedly shoddy investigations of these incidents.

Six weeks prior to that, when Metro Times wrote a story covering much of the same ground, the administration said the big problem was greedy attorneys wanting to cash in when police officers are forced to fire in the line of duty.

Curious to see if more attention under the media spotlight had changed the mayor’s mind, News Hits last Monday asked spokesman Greg Bowens what his boss intended to do about the situation. Bowens’ response: not much.

The situation obviously changed sometime that same day, because by Tuesday (after this rag had gone to print) the dailies were reporting that Archer had ordered Internal Affairs to investigate all police shootings rather than the Homicide Section, which, according to numerous sources, has been handling them in a less than thorough way (can you say, "See no evil"?). As soon as the MT hit the streets Wednesday morning, Bowens was hitting his speed dial to make a few points.

First off, he wanted us to know that it’s not easy to be a cop. In fact, he says, it has become an increasingly hazardous occupation in the last few years. According to Bowens, in 1997, one officer was injured by gunfire compared to 10 in 1998, and 13 in 1999; and five police officers have been killed since 1994, when Archer took office.

"This is the kind of environment that these 4,000 officers have to work in. No one is telling that side of the story," complained Bowens.

It’s true. That part of the story has been the focus of no one’s coverage recently. And part of the reason why is that Archer and Chief Benny Napoleon also have been ignoring the public’s woes – for at least three years. Since 1997, the members of the grassroots Police Brutality Coalition have been banging their heads against city hall’s doors and receiving little response, says coalition spokesperson Arnetta Grable.

But the coalition members are not the only folks who have been trying to get the city leaders’ attention. It was attorney Dave Robinson – a former Detroit cop of 13 years – who played a lead role in divulging the department’s ugly secrets to the media. And he seems satisfied with the results – at least so far.

Robinson says that Archer’s decision to hand over police investigations to Internal Affairs is a good first step. That’s if IA is anything like it was when he was a cop 14 years ago.

"I know when I was on the police force the Internal Affairs section was a force to be reckoned with," says Robinson.

Now, he says, it is up to the people in power to make sure the department does what it is supposed to do.

The people in power, huh?

As we’ve seen this week, left to their own devices, the powers that be will do nothing unless they are sufficiently embarrassed into taking action.

As far back as 1997, then-City Councilman Mel Ravitz was raising concerns about the amount of money the Police Department was paying out in civil lawsuits.

And when the Metro Times and Michigan Citizen both released well-documented stories about police shootings and the shoddy investigations that followed, all the administration did was blame the victims and their attorneys.

The "people in power" seem to only hear the truth when it is printed in the daily papers.

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Raising a stink

As demonstrations go, the protest held at Sybill Inc. on Detroit’s southwest side last week offered up the opportunity for some particularly effective chants.

A class action lawsuit against the industrial waste-oil recycler has been filed, with about 27,000 residents included in the suit that alleges quality of life in the area is seriously affected by the stench coming from the plant.

More than 100 people turned out for the demonstration, in which people wore surgical masks over their faces and carried signs bearing pictures of a skunk and the words "Sybill Stinks!!!"

Among the chants being shouted: "One, two, three, four – we don’t want your stink no more; five, six, seven, eight – it’s that funky smell we hate."

With at least five schools located within smelling distance of the plant, a contingent of kids also showed up, shouting, "Sybill, Sybill you’re so cruel, we can’t even learn at school."

"It’s tough to concentrate on your work when you’re gagging," explained activist Kathy Millberg.

"This was a real strong showing," said Dan Pederson, one of the event’s organizers. "It helps us to gain momentum for the fight."

News Hits stopped by to watch the action for a bit, but didn’t stay too long. The noxious odor spewing from the plant was just too much to stomach. Sybill has sued Wayne County, saying it has been unfairly targeted for air pollution violations.

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Conflict? What conflict?

The highly regarded Center for Public Integrity has just released the results of a two-year investigation looking into incidents of conflict of interest on the part of state legislators throughout the country.

The nonpartisan government watchdog analyzed financial disclosure reports filed in 1999 by 5,716 state legislators. It found that:

• More than one in five legislators sat on a legislative committee that regulated their professional or business interest.

• At least 18 percent of the legislators had financial ties to businesses or organizations that lobby state government.

• Nearly one in four legislators received income from a government agency other than the state legislature, in many cases working for agencies the legislature funds.

And how did Michigan stack up? Well, there was a lengthy report looking at the conflicts arising from the marriage of state Sen. Dianne Byrum (D-Onondaga) and James Byrum, the executive director of the Michigan Agri-Business Association – while she served as vice chair of the Michigan Senate’s Committee on Farming, Agribusiness and Food Systems and was a member of the ad hoc Michigan Senate Taskforce on Agriculture Preservation. Otherwise, there wasn’t much to report.

Which is good news, right?

We should be so lucky. The problem, according to the Center, is that "the Wolverine state is one of only three states that do not mandate any form of financial disclosure from its elected officials. While the other two nondisclosure states – Idaho and Vermont – employ part-time ‘citizen legislatures’ that meet for less than five months, Michigan maintains a full-time legislature that paid Byrum roughly $57,000 in 1999, not including a $10,000 expense allowance."

The report went on to note that, even if Byrum had been required to disclose her husband’s position, "there are no ethics statutes in place that would prevent her from voting on legislation benefiting the association or its members."

"There is no ethics law," Karen Merrill, director of Michigan Common Cause, told the Center. "It’s really pathetic.

According to the Center’s report, Gary Gulliver, administrator for the Michigan Law Revision Commission, said that "theoretically, there is a body that could issue opinions on ethics, but that it has never met."

So how do you make your legislature corruption free? Michigan has shown the nation how: Don’t require legislators to file financial disclosure statements that would allow the public to detect financial conflicts of interest, and don’t institute rules that would keep those same legislators from voting on issues in which they might have some financial stake.

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The best of times

Five weeks ago about 60 linen workers belonging to UNITE (Union of Needle Industrial Trades and Textile Employees) went on strike in Philadelphia when contract negotiations broke down. Linen workers in Detroit and Chicago – who do the hard task of cleaning company uniforms and hotel bedclothes – quickly followed, walking off their jobs in support of their union brothers and sisters and in hopes of squeezing a few dimes out of the industry. They also demanded a pension plan and better health coverage. Last week, the linen companies came around. For Detroit linen employees, their top wage will no longer peak out around $7 an hour, but $8 within three years. Amazingly, this is the best contract linen workers around the country have gotten in 20 years, says Bryan Savoca, UNITE representative. The contract was ratified in all three cities earlier this month. Five more agreements are expected to be made in metro Detroit in the next 30 days and will affect about 1,000 local workers, says Savoca.

The raise means yearly increases of about 32 cents an hour – or $12.80 for a 40-hour week, before taxes – for each of the next three years.

After all, according to economic forecasters, these are the best of times.

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Reporter Ann Mullen contributed to News Hits, which is edited by Curt Guyette. Guyette can be reached by phone at 313-202-8004 or via e-mail.