Hosted by Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile, Detroit Will Breathe and Moratorium NOW! Coalition
Wyoming at 8 Mile Rd., Ferndale – 12 NOON
The Racial Profiling Across 8 Mile committee will be holding a press conference to announce placement of their first billboard challenging racial profiling of Black and Brown people.Black activists have observed suburban police from the Michigan State Police Department, Southfield, Ferndale, Hazel Park, Warren, Eastpointe, Oak Park, Royal Oak Township, and Harper Woods seemingly target Black drivers with “driving while Black fines.”
According to a study by the Detroit Justice Center published on March 1, 2020, entitled “Highway Robbery: How Metro Detroit Cops & Courts Steer Segregation And Drive Incarceration”, “ In Oakland County, for example, data shows that non-white people are arrested at disproportionately high rates in every single judicial district.
”The police prey on Black drivers because it is revenue-generator for municipal and district court budgets. Because of historic revenue shortfalls in state and local budgets caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are particularly concerned that this racist practice will escalate as a way to enhance government revenues.
