ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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GOVERNMENT
Gaps in tax plan effects play out for ‘U’ students Distribution of higher income brackets on campus means bill will benefit most CARLY RYAN
Daily News Editor SAM SO/Daily
Ann Arbor residents gather at the Human Rights Commission meeting to discuss the formation of a review board for the AAPD at City Hall Wednesday.
Human Rights Commision wants transparency, liability from AAPD
Councilmembers echo calls from 70 residents for civilian police review board GRACE KAY
Daily Staff Reporter
Seventy Ann Arbor residents called for increased accountability and transparency from the Ann Arbor Police Department at the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission Wednesday. This comes after several local incidents of police brutality, and institutional responses many residents view as insufficient. Because of the unprecedented number of residents in attendance,
a member of the fire department stopped by on an anonymous tip to move the HRC to the City Council Workroom. Participants carried signs with slogans such as “Civilian Police Review Now!” and “No false solutions.” Difficulties with relations between the AAPD and the Ann Arbor community erupted in 2014 when an AAPD officer shot and killed 40-year-old Aura Rosser, a Black woman, after the officer claimed Rosser had charged at him with a knife. Rosser’s death was not the
only example of the AAPD’s questionable use of force. Since Rosser’s death, numerous incidents such as the violent arrest of Ciaeem Slaton at the Blake Transit Center, the rough handling of University of Michigan student Dyshon Toxey and alleged mistreatment of several Black students during tailgates have led residents to question whether these are issues of race and how the AAPD can be held accountable for their actions. Residents have reacted to the tenuous relationship between
the police and citizens through various protests and initiatives calling for a new way of policing the AAPD. While the Ann Arbor City Council initially responded to the uproar in early 2017 by approving a $200,000 contract with a consulting firm, Hillard Heintze LLC, many residents considered the unsatisfying, and even counteractive. Long-time Ann Arbor resident Shirley Beckley expressed frustration with the long-standing impasse in relations with AAPD. See HRC, Page 2
University alum Sean Smith graduated last winter, and now works as a fellow in LSA Dean Andrew Martin’s office. When he goes home to visit his family, Smith says his family relies on him for more information on current events. Recently, his family has been pressing him about the passing of the tax bill, but narratives like his family’s are often left out of resources, leaving Smith, and many others, confused. “When I went home, the first thing my family asked me was how I feel about the tax bill,” Smith said. “They expect me to have the knowledge being first-gen, but I just haven’t been able to find it. The biggest thing that I can say is that there is no perspective from my tax bracket in the conversation. That should be telling.” In late December, Congress passed the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in decades. The
bill slashed the corporate tax rate, doubled the size of inheritances shielded from taxes and allowed pass-through businesses greater deduction. But most startling to many students at the University of Michigan are the changes for individual taxpayers. According to PBS News, Americans making over $500,000 a year would see a net benefit worth 3 percent of their income – approximately $21,000 in 2019. However, all Americans making $30,000 will be giving up more in taxes, and middle-class Americans making between $40,000 and $75,000 will have tax cuts that dwarf in comparison to those of upperclass Americans. In Washington, D.C., Democrats voiced strong opposition to the bill. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., went so far as to say the bill is ruining America because of the financial burden it will place on low-income Americans. But at the University, which See TAX, Page 3
Panel kicks off MLK weekend events LSA SG to Homeless deliberate with discussion on gentrification in MI man found
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
ANN ARBOR
on building renovation
Students can often be culprits of rising urban inequity in both Detroit, Ann Arbor
Group also pushes toward new changes to academic calendar in coming year
To mark the beginning of the University of Michigan’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Symposium, the Institute for Social Research held a panel Wednesday afternoon discussing the various effects of gentrification in Detroit and across the United States. The University’s theme for this year’s MLK symposium is “The Fierce Urgency of Now,” which Dory Knight-Ingram, a senior editor for the Institute of Social Research, explained relates deeply to the topic of gentrification. “Gentrification is now and it is urgent,” she said. “It is a multifaceted situation, and there is no simple answer, but we are trying to raise awareness.” Piper Simmons, a coordinator for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research which organized the day’s events, explained the consortium chose the topic of the panel with care. Gentrification, she noted, engages with both the MLK symposium theme and the University’s ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. The panelists examined the effects of gentrification through diverse lenses of sociology, social work, architecture, personal experience and population studies. Their overarching goal, explained Margaret Levenstein, director of ICPSR, was to provide the audience with the tools to think about this multifaceted and
ABBY TAKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
LSA Student Government convened for the first meeting of the winter semester Wednesday evening to discuss three upcoming resolutions regarding the academic calendar and building conditions at the University of Michigan. Public Policy junior Lauren Schandevel and LSA junior Meaghan Wheat attended the meeting to discuss their resolution that would create a new minor: Collaborative Learning Across Socioeconomic Statuses. Schandevel and Wheat said they hope to bring related courses together and encourage students to take courses across departments, including African and Afro-American Studies, American Culture, Economics, History, Psychology, Public Policy, Sociology and Women’s Studies. The pair said they have gathered support from various department chairs, and have received expressed interest from the Sociology and Women’s Studies Departments See LSA SG, Page 3
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KATE JENKINS
Daily Staff Reporter
fast-growing issue. “I think this is a great panel, and one of the things I really like about having a discussion like this is that people often feel like gentrification is something which happens to them,” she said. “I’m hoping that having these various perspectives will help us to understand better how we can all have agency in determining the future of the communities in which we live.” Panelist Shayna Brown, a 2017
Music, Theatre & Dance graduate, revealed she has been thinking about the effect of gentrification since her freshman year at the University when she came home from school and asked her mother about new construction in Detroit. Many have hailed the city’s comeback in recent years, with millions of dollars in investments pouring into development downtown, but residents like Brown’s family found themselves left behind.
“She was like, ‘That’s not for us, that’s for tourists,’” Brown said. “I thought, ‘That’s an odd thing to say,’ and I didn’t understand, so I decided to do research.” Brown conducted an independent study on gentrification and, like all four panelists, remains invested in the complex issue. Other panelists included Tam Perry, assistant social work professor at Wayne State See MLK, Page 3
MICHAEL BARSKY/Daily
U-M alumna Shayna Brown speaks during a panel titled Examining the Effects on Gentrification at the Institute for Social Research as part of the MLK Symposium event Wednesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 54 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
by activists in cull park
Some residents point to new hazards to A2 citizens imposed by deer cull RILEY LANGEFELD Daily Staff Reporter
Activists demonstrating against Ann Arbor’s deer cull discovered a homeless man living in a designated shooting zone for the cull Tuesday. The deer cull began in 2015 after City Council approved sharpshooters to reduce the population of deer. The demonstrators said their discovery demonstrates the city’s negligence in organizing the cull, which is currently in its third day of operation. City administrators were unaware the man was sleeping near one of the bait piles used in the cull. The homeless man, who was visited and interviewed Tuesday by The Ann Arbor News, said he is aware of the culling operations and has not been in any immediate danger. He said he is confident in the contractor’s safety protocols and isn’t concerned about his safety. Though the city does not disclose details of culling operations while they are happening, two years ago See DEER, Page 3
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................7