Detroit police commission chairman says he was hushed on Aiyana case

[Ed Barrow]

Source: Detroit News

The chairman of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is accusing Deputy Mayor Saul Green of "interfering" with the board by asking members to withhold information about the Aiyana Stanley-Jones shooting.

Board Chairman Mohamed Okdie made the accusations in a June 14 letter to Mayor Dave Bing, saying Green told him to refrain from talking to the media about the case, in which 7-year-old Aiyana was killed by a police bullet during a raid the morning of May 16.

"Mr. Green ... attempted to direct the activity of the board by advising me as to what he 'preferred' that we do," Okdie wrote. "He (said) he did not want us to hold a press conference and asked that we say nothing at all regarding the case."

During an interview Friday, Okdie accused Green of "trying to control the board. They don't want the board to be an independent entity to oversee their police department."


Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100619/METRO01/6190324/1409/Detroit-police-commission-chairman-says-he-was-hushed-on-Aiyana-case

[Dirigo]

1. Police Commissioners Sitting On The Board

As a former chairman of a city board of police commissioners I can't see why any board member would want to interfere with any internal on-going investigation of the police department. Why rush to get headlines and be on the 6 o'clock news? Why not listen to the chief and his ranking officers to make sure the publics right to know is being addressed where appropriate. It seems unseemly to me to have any one commissioner buck the system and by doing so do more harm to the city than is necessary. Surely the city attorney, the district attorney, the state attorney general and others are all involved to some extent and it makes perfectly good sense to wait and let the police spokesman and/or attorneys speak to the press without compromising any investigation. This is not the purpose of the Board of Police Commissioners. There is ample time, a place and a process if any commissioner has a grievance and it is not fighting with the Mayor's Office and making a fool of himself and mocking the civility and legal requirements that is required of any board. It sounds to me there is a personality class between the deputy mayor and the police commissioner more than anything else. Maybe the time is ripe for the commissioner to resign early and let a less strident publicity hound occupy that seat.