The Free Press held the first of two public discussions on crime and public safety coverage two weeks ago, and we got more than we bargained for.
We got a robust dialogue — no arguing and no debating — but a conversation among people about what the newspaper can do and has done to inform the public about crime and its implications.
“Just to get those people in the room talking is, in my opinion, something that should be done periodically,” said Cmdr. Lawrence Meyer of the Wayne County Warrant Enforcement Bureau.
“The representatives there had a variety of different interests. The open dialogue was helpful and tremendously exhilarating, just to listen to different members of the community and what they feel about what’s happening out there.”
Meyer was one of 13 participants at the Detroit roundtable. Others included Susan and Max Bandy, the parents of slain Detroit policeman Shawn Bandy (Max was a Detroit policeman for 27 years and now is a Livonia officer); Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga; Minister Malik Shabazz, director of National Field Operations for the Black Panther Party; Arnetta Grable, executive director for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, whose son was killed by police in 1996; and two Free Press readers, Lucy McMurtrie and Barbara Goldman.
Meyer, head of a regional task force that tracks down criminals on outstanding warrants, said the media plays an important role in making communities safer.
“When you look at fugitives, if you say too much, it might cause people to say, ‘My God.’ So we don’t want to cause a public fear. But 50 percent of crime is committed by people already in the system,” Meyer said. “If we concentrate on getting them back into confinement, then we are going to ultimately reduce the amount of new offenses committed. Police can’t do it all.”
Susan Bandy said the dialogue could lead to better understanding in the community. “Let’s face it, the press, to many people, is negative,” she said.
But Bandy said reporters were not intrusive when reporting about her son’s death in 1996.
“My son would have felt honored to have so much attention, because he died as a hero. People need to see that also. People need to know the newspaper and media are trying to make it work, and people need to know you care enough to bother with us.”
Panelist McMurtrie of northwest Detroit said she “hadn’t read much on police and crime, but being there reminded me how they had used gangs in churches in Boston to bring crime rates down, and I talked with Arnetta about that. You’d call that networking.”
Shabazz agreed.
“It’s good when blacks, whites and others are involved, when police and victims get together in one room and are honest. You can’t put a value on honesty. There is a lack of opportunity for these people to be in the room together.”
Free Press editors and writers heard other things as well. Panelists generally said the newspaper should do more to edify and inform, not just entertain readers, and that the newspaper appears to be less liberal in its opinions than it used to be.
The crime and public safety conversation was part of a national credibility initiative by newspaper editors. A second discussion is planned later this summer in Oakland County.
