A little over a week ago, the Grand Rapids Police Department was involved in the death of a man named Da’Quain Johnson.

After being called about a potentially armed Black man on a bicycle, the police sent a K-9 after Johnson. He was viciously attacked by the dog, and officers descended on Johnson, pinning him to the ground. In a video released by his family, you can see two officers directly over Johnson as the dog continues its attack. An officer announced that Johnson had a gun, despite him clearly posing no real threat. Instead, Johnson was shot three times in front of his family.

To many in Grand Rapids, this story is, unfortunately, tragic but not unfamiliar. The story represents an unbroken pattern of racism and discrimination from the GRPD.

As documented by a collection of testimonies and data in a zine titled “The Monsters We Know,” the Grand Rapids Police Department has a history of unpunished racist incidents and abuses of power. These actions disproportionately target and harass people of color. This behavior has culminated in the last four years, with the deaths of several people due to police violence. The most infamous of these was the killing of Patrick Lyoya — an incident still fresh in the minds of the people fighting for justice for Johnson, with many questioning how nothing could have been done since Lyoya’s death to prevent these tragedies.

In a move typical of Grand Rapids leadership, the prosecution of the officer that killed Lyoya ended abruptly; after one mistrial, the city refused to retry the case. Given this track record, it is difficult to imagine a different conclusion to the present situation. 

The people of Grand Rapids came together at a City Commission meeting last Tuesday to voice their concerns and anger at the killing of Johnson. I attended this meeting as well. I had initially intended to use the public comment portion of the meeting as an opportunity to speak out against the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but I felt compelled to call attention to GRPD violence as well.

To me, when a department such as GRPD is repeatedly unaccountable for unnecessary police violence and blatant racial discrimination, there is little to no difference between their terror and the terror ICE inflicts on so many communities. Therefore, I believe that if you oppose ICE, you must oppose the GRPD as well. 

It was a brutal and sobering experience to hear the raw stories from the community members who spoke up at this meeting. There was heart-wrenching testimony from Johnson’s neighbors, friends and family, as well as many of the committed community organizers and activists who have been calling for justice since the murder of Lyoya. 

However, I especially want to direct readers to timestamp 47:20 of the full commission video linked above. This is the section of the video where Johnson’s mother gives a moving speech, expressing grief over her son, as well as anger over the blatant injustice of the system that took his life. 

She ends her speech with a sentiment felt by many in the community, including myself. How long is it going to take until these elected officials address these underlying issues? How many more deaths will take place until something is done to fix the systemic issues of racism that are so blatantly present in this police department?

The responses from the city commissioners don’t give me much hope that things will change in any meaningful way. Throughout the meeting, they gave little to no eye contact with the people speaking, and even cut off a couple of people while they were giving words.

One of the commissioners began her speech by addressing how public commenters were mean to her on the internet, before inexplicably quoting Hamilton. The others spoke vaguely about “healing.” Not one of them uttered Da’Quain Johnson’s name. 

No one committed to releasing body camera and autopsy footage, or the 911 call that sealed Johnson’s life. I wish I could say this incident will lead to changes in the Grand Rapids justice system, but unfortunately, the responses from city commissioners left me feeling as though it will be some time before we see real change. Until then, we must call out and demand justice.

Say their names:

Patrick Lyoya

Samuel Sterling

Riley Dogget 

Da’Quain Johnson

And so many more…

Justice to all victims of police and state violence.