Discriminations

Chetly Zarko reports that the two Democrats on the Michigan Board of Canvassers, egged on by their cohorts in BAMN, engaged in disruptive, borderline violent civil disobedience today by refusing to comply with a Michigan Court of Appeals order to place MCRI on the November 2006 ballot.

Read Chetly's chillling report, and this similar report from the Associated Press. The Michigan Dems remind me of Bull Connor and Sheriff Jim Clark, not only because of their disgusting tactics but because those tactics are employed to preserve racial preferences and to block a measure that would require the state to follow a policy of neutral, color-blind non-discrimination.

UPDATE [15 Dec.]

Jennifer Gratz sends excerpts from a Michigan Information and Research Service (MIRS) report on BAMN's storm-trooper tactics at the Board of Canvassers meeting. (Requires subscription).

Excerpts from the excerpts:

The Board of State Canvassers today declined to put a proposal to ban racial considerations in college admissions and government hiring on the 2006 ballot despite a Court of Appeals order to do so.

Influenced heavily by a raucous crowd of protestors and, at times, 250 Detroit-area high school students, Canvasser Paul MITCHELL switched his vote to "no" within minutes of explaining to the unsympathetic crowd why he had to do what the court was ordering him to do. Having run out of stall tactics, fellow Democratic Canvasser Doyle O'CONNOR didn't cast a vote, telling officials he couldn't hear the motion to put the measure on the ballot over the booming "No Voter Fraud" chant.
....
The resulting scene was that stuff motion pictures are made of....

The meeting was recessed at 12:30 p.m. after the high school students, spurred by BAMN organizer Luke MASSEY worked themselves into near-riot status by chanting, "No Voter Fraud" and "You Say Jim CROWE, We Say Hell No," standing on chairs and waving their middle fingers. The more the Canvassers tried to quiet the crowd so they could put MCRI on the ballot, the louder the crowd got and the closer the mob moved to the front table.

The testimony table was knocked down. Chairs were kicked over. The floors on the second floor shook. The four canvassers were ushered into a separate room while Lansing police kept the crowd contained.
....
Mitchell attempted to speak publicly for the first time that day. He talked about the role of the Canvassers and their need to follow the law. He responded to suggestions made earlier in the day by BAMN members that Canvassers opt not to vote, openly violate the Court of Appeals ruling or resign out of protest.

"If I walk out of this room, if I resign, what have I done?" said the Board's only African-American member.

"Be a black man about it, please," shouted one person.

"I want to go to college," yelled another.

"Rosa PARKS broke the law, too," came yet another heckler.

Yes, but Rosa Parks broke the law to uphold the principle that all people should be treated equally, without regard to race. The BAMN thugs and their misguided, misled high school legions --

Lansing Police brought a 17-year-old Detroit woman to the station for disorderly conduct. Lt. Lisa PHILLIPS said the woman was cussing and swearing loudly outside the Lansing Center, in earshot of the general public. At the station, the young woman allegedly didn't have a firm grasp on the issues that spurred the Canvassers' meeting.

-- hold that principle, as well as civility itself, in contempt.

The next time you hear someone say that "the people" favor racial preferences (if you ever do; most know that they don't, which is why preferences have to be imposed by unaccountable officials such as judges and elite university administrators), keep in mind how contemptuous the BAMN thugs and their Democratic allies are of the right of those people to decide for themselves whether they want to prevent their state from discriminating on the basis of race.

UPDATE II [15 Dec.]

Here is Jennifer Gratz's own account of the proceedings, via email:

I'm just now arriving home after another heated Board of Canvassers meeting. This one lasted from 10:00 am - 3:30 pm and had the same basic result as the 7-hour-BofC meeting last July; that is the board deadlocked and therefore took no action. The difference this time is that the Court of Appeals has ordered the board (through 2 different opinions, see links below) to certify the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) for the 2006 ballot. Because the board outright-defied the court order, tomorrow we will be asking the Court of Appeals to hold board members in contempt of court.

About 10 minutes before the meeting began, 3 busloads of Detroit high school students were marched in by our opposition group, "The Coalition to defend affirmative action ... by any means necessary (BAMN)". These students were taken out of class, they were missing exams, and they had no idea why they were in Lansing -- except to scream, yell, and stomp their feet, when prompted to do so.

The board meeting started with board member Doyle O'Connor (D) standing on his soapbox talking about how he disagreed with the Court of Appeals decision and about why he disagreed with the MCRI. The board then allowed two and a half hours of testimony (in which MCRI took up, at most, 10 minutes). None of the testimony had anything to do with the court decision; all of it was how strongly our opponents disagreed with the MCRI. We were often called racists and liars. Our opposition called on board members to either vote "no" or resign. They told board members that "a few days in jail for standing up for what the believe would not be that bad." They shouted that Martin Luther King, Jr would have gone to jail to keep the MCRI off the ballot.

At about noon, after the board's attorney told the board that the only legal option they had was to certify MCRI for the ballot, Lyn Bankes (R) began to read a motion to certification. At that moment, Luke Massie and Shanta Driver (the leadership of our opposition) started chanting and the rest of the crowd joined in. They were standing on chairs, knocking tables over, pushing their way to the front of the room so that they were yelling in the faces of board members and surrounding supporters of MCRI (see link below for video). MCRI’s opposition jumped up and down and stomped their feet so much that I've learned the building's management was concerned about the integrity of the building (the meeting was on the second floor).

The room was evacuated and the people that were acting respectfully (reporters, representatives from the AG's office, an attorney and 2 PR people from our opposition, board members, and MCRI officials) were ushered into a secure location while police tried to regain control. The board decided to take a lunch break and reconvene at 2:00 pm.

When we reconvened, there was about half an hour of arm-wrestling by board members and then Lyn Bankes re-read her motion. MCRI's opposition again started chanting & stomping and the meeting, again, ended up in complete chaos. The board members huddled around the court reporter and voted on the motion.

After the room was cleared, we learned that the 2 Republican members voted to certify, 1 democrat (Paul Mitchell) voted No and the other democrat, Doyle O'Connor, abstained. This is a complete disregard for authority, for the law, and for the people's right to petition our government and to vote.

Even with the circus-like activity that ensued today, I am confident that MCRI will be on the 2006 ballot. We’ll keep fighting, not only for the right to equal treatment under the law, but also for the people's right to vote on this issue.

Thank you for your continued support.

Jennifer Gratz
Executive Director, MCRI
PO Box 1398
Southgate, MI  48195

Video:
http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/2076781.html (Click Link, then Click on the Video link underneath headline, it should start with the weather for about 15 seconds and then proceed to about 2 minutes of coverage from the board meeting)

Original October 31st Court of Appeals Ruling (9 pages): http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/documents/opinions/final/coa/
20051031_c264204_49_264204.opn.pdf

December 7th Court of Appeals Ruling (1 page): http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/documents/coa/
public/orders/2005/264204(71)_order.pdf

UPDATE III [15 Dec.]

From the Detroit Free Press:

"This has been a victory of mob rule," said Chris Thomas, director of elections for the Michigan Secretary of State. "Never before have I seen such absolutely incredible and unprofessional behavior from lawyers urging this disruption. They used these children as pawns."

After being urged by the crowd, including an unidentified man who said: "Be a black man about this, please," Democrat Paul Mitchell, the only African American on the board, voted against placing the proposal on the ballot. Democrat Doyle O'Connor did not vote.

Three votes were needed to put the measure on the ballot. Supporters of the ballot proposal asked the Michigan Court of Appeals later Wednesday to find the board in contempt.

Shanta Driver, a spokeswoman for BAMN, said the two busloads of Detroit students went because they knew their futures depended on the board's actions.

"We knew that with enough pressure that it wasn't going to get on the ballot," said Johnathan Crutcher, a 16-year-old junior at Cody High School.

So, according to BAMN, blacks are doomed to failure if they are judged by the same standards as everyone else; they have no futures unless they are give special preferences because of their race.

That is even more offensive than the 16 year old Crutcher being taught that the way to get what you want in a democracy is to apply "enough pressure," by any means necessary.

UPDATE IV [16 Dec.]

Two Republican legislators have written a letter to the Democratic Governor, Jennifer Granholm, urging her to

use her power to remove the public officials for "gross neglect of duty" or "corrupt conduct." Another GOP lawmaker was preparing legislation aimed at taking away much of the Board of State Canvassers' authority.

Was the Governor outraged by the lawlessness of the BAMN stooges who disrupted the meeting and the two Democratic members of the Board of Canvassers who refused to comply with the court order? Apparently not.

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Republicans were overreacting and should be outraged by allegations that some of the signatures were gathered through fraud.

And what exactly was this alleged "fraud"?

Critics of the ballot proposal say backers misled voters — including many minorities — into thinking they were signing petitions to strengthen civil rights, not ban race and gender preferences in government hiring and university admissions.

Let's see. One-time Republican presidential candidate George Romney was governor of Michigan, and he too claimed to have been "brainswashed" into supporting our initial policy in Vietnam. Now some Michigan voters -- or rather, BAMN activists claiming to speak for some Michigan voters -- are claiming that they were misled by assertions that a proposal that would ban all discrimination based on race was a civil rights proposal.

Imagine that. Must be something in the water, or schools in Michigan, that inculcates gullibility. I mean, really! In this day and age, when all good people know that protecting civil rights means bestowing race-based privileges, how could those voters possibly have been led to believe that banning racial preferences would protect civil rights?

UPDATE V, Release 1.0 [16 Dec.]

Additional discussion, photos, and a dramatic video capture of the BAMN riot in the Board of Canvassers meeting can be found here.

UPDATE V, Release 2.0 [16 Dec., 5:00PM]

Chetly Zarko's material, including photos and videos, linked in UPDATE V, Release 1.0, has been significantly revised and expanded. Re-visit it if you've already been there.