Michigan State Chapter
For Immediate Release
***Press Release***
Monday, December 3, 2018
Contact:
Valerie Blakely 313-704-5150
Pastor and Young Activist Choose to Do the Time Instead of Pay
the Fine!
Lansing: Today Rev. Bill
Wylie-Kellerman and Tommy Tackett turned themselves in to the 54th District
Court, in Lansing, regarding the action taken on May 21st, at the Michigan
Department of Human Services. They were immediately taken into custody to begin
their 12 day sentence.
In May, as part of the
Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, a group of Michigan
residents blocked the doors and entered the Michigan Department of Health and
Human Services.
On that day legislation
was pending that would have required recipients of food and health aid to work
80 hours per month, but by a clever stipulation exempting white rural counties
and binding black majority ones. They stopped office business as usual to ask:
Who will DHHS serve? Systemic racism? Corporate development? Neighborhood
clearing? Or will it serve justice? Will it serve people, poor and Black and
all?
FACTS
●
44 % of
children in Michigan live in poverty
●
Tens of
thousands live without water in their homes
●
Emergency
management has gutted our democratic process and directly impacted 51% of black
residents and 16.6% of latinx communities
●
Black
residents are incarcerated at 6 times the rate of their white peers
●
Our
immigrant communities are under attack with illegal raids, intimidation
tactics, and fear of deportation
Rev Kellerman and Tommy Tackett took
action to demand justice from the
government that serves “We The People”, to shine a
light on poverty and systemic racism and
to demand that the people being most impacted be heard!
During their court appearances on
October 30, they pled “no contest” and were sentenced by Judge Delucca of 54
District Court to “$300 in costs and fines or 12 days in jail”.
Eight activists decided to pay the
fine; however, after some deliberation and prayer, this morning, Rev Kellerman
and Tommy Tackett turned themselves in and will serve 12 days in jail.
Tommy Tackett says, “This was a moral action rooted in my deepest spiritual
values, to hold the department of human and health services accountable for
crimes against humanity, including their role in the mass water shut offs in
Detroit.” Tommy adds: “In good moral conscious I cannot bring myself to pay the
fine. When the judge said it was going to be 12 days in jail, I had to ask
myself “what are our communities worth?” And what am I willing to give in this
struggle for justice.”
Minister Emeritus of St Peter’s Episcopal
Church and longtime Detroiter, Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellerman gave this statement on his decision to serve jail time, “I believe that civil disobedience and
non-violent direct actions have moral trajectories to them – lines which can be
played out in a variety of ways. I am willing to be held accountable and to give
an accounting of my actions. Whether one goes to trial or enters a plea, as we
did in this case, it represents an opportunity to “go on record” with our
commitments. That is also the case with my choice as a matter of conscience to
do the 12 days instead of paying the fine.
Facing the prospect of
jail, we are mindful, as the Poor People’s Campaign stresses, that though
People of Color make up 37% of the US population, they comprise 67% of
prisoners in county, state and federal systems.
We pray our decision
about this sentence will truly be in the service of justice.
“Everybody’s got a right
to live!””
For more information about the Michigan Poor
People’s Campaign: https://www.facebook.com/events/281403469378655/
BACKGROUND:
The
Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is co-organized by Repairers
of the Breach, a social justice organization founded by the Rev. Barber;
the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice at Union
Theological Seminary; and hundreds of local and national grassroots groups
across the country.
The
campaign is building a broad and deep national moral movement – rooted in the
leadership of poor people and reflecting the great moral teachings – to unite
our country from the bottom up. Coalitions have formed in 39 states and
Washington, D.C. to challenge extremism locally and at the federal level and to
demand a moral agenda for the common good.
A Poor People’s Campaign Moral Agenda,
was drawn from this listening tour, while an audit of America
conducted with allied organizations, including the Institute for Policy Studies
and the Urban Institute, showed that, in many ways, we are worse off than we
were in 1968.
The Moral Agenda, calls for major
changes to address systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war
economy and our distorted moral narrative, including repeal of the 2017 federal
tax law, implementation of federal and state living wage laws, universal
single-payer health care, and clean water for all.