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REPORT: Proud Boys Plan Rally in Downtown Grand Rapids Saturday
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A demonstration to oppose the Proud Boys is also planned to start 1t 10a.m. .
Fox 17 spoke with Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack ahead of the rally, who says he hopes for no violence:
My first thought is that it s not good, but they do have freedom of speech. So, I m sure they ll be putting their hate messages across the United States whenever they have the opportunity. Violence just continues to follow the Proud Boys from city to city and now the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County as a whole we have to deal with it. I m just asking everybody to not resort to violence because it doesn t prove anything. It takes away from all messages.
How Kalamazoo-area policing has changed in wake of George Floyd protests
Updated 2:10 PM;
Today 2:10 PM
Police use tear gas to disperse protesters for violating curfew in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, June 2, 2020. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell
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KALAMZOO, MI – There have been months of protests and discussions about changing policing in Kalamazoo County since the May 25, 2020 death of 46-year-old Black man George Floyd.
The man responsible for Floyd’s death, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, was found guilty April 20, of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Chauvin will be sentenced in eight weeks. He knelt on Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, including 3 1/2 minutes after Floyd took his last breath.
Police reform, community at the heart of new Kalamazoo chief’s vision
Updated Jan 13, 2021;
KALAMAZOO, MI Police reform is not anything new at Kalamazoo Public Safety, Chief Vernon Coakley said, but it’s something he remains focused on three months into the job a job he said he is built for.
“Reform was on my mind a long time ago,” said Coakley, who took over as chief in October, said in an interview with MLive Wednesday, Jan. 13. “I’ve been in this profession for 28 years. I didn’t always do it the right way.
“1993 is when I started in law enforcement and it was about tickets, arrests and incarceration. That’s how we solved problems. As I grew to be a man, where my heart is, where my faith is, things changed for me.”