DETROIT – The Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony did not mince words about Sunday evening’s wild police shooting of a woman motorist that started as a routine traffic stop.
“This was unnecessary,” Anthony, the president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, said on Wednesday (Oct. 29) night. “You don’t shoot at a person who is leaving who poses no threat, unless, of course, your life or the lives of other citizens are in fact being threatened.”
The NAACP put out a statement on Wednesday saying that Sunday’s shooting was:
“A tragedy that should never have occurred. It presents an opportunity to test the strength and the trust between the Detroit Police Department and the community-at-large.”
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Anthony praised the work that the Detroit Police Department and police Chief Todd Bettison have done to bridge the gap of trust between officers in the city, after decades of mistrust due to police brutality and misconduct often going unchecked.
He says, however, that Sunday’s incident is proof that more work remains to be done.
“I’m so glad that Chief Bettison came out quickly and transparently and indicated that we have a no-tolerance policy for this kind of behavior that doesn’t happen in every city,” Anthony said. “So, I commend the chief for that.”
“I’ve been through the days of STRESS – Stop the robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets,” Anthony said, referencing the infamous Detroit police unit that killed 22 Black men between 1971 and 1974. “We’ve come a long way since then, and we don’t want to go back now.”
Bettison announced on Monday that the unnamed officer violated multiple policies and that the unidentified woman who was shot would not face charges.
“There definitely were procedural violations,” Bettison said. “I’m holding the officer accountable for that.”
Anthony called the officer’s suspension and potential charges proof of a change in how DPD deals with issues like this.
But he says there still needs to be better training and continued transparency to ensure that relations between citizens and police continue to improve.
“You have a relationship between the community and the police department based upon trust and mutual respect. We don’t want to go back to those days when you didn’t have that,” Anthony said. “We can take heart in the fact that we are not what we used to be, but we quite ain’t what we need to be.”