Washington, D.C. lawyer Kevyn Orr, 54, addresses the media at the Cadillac Center in Detroit on March 13,2013.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined the fight against Detroit’s emergency financial manager on Friday, calling for mass, nonviolent protest in the city to fend off what he called an attack on residents’ voting rights.
Jackson and several other opponents to an EFM pledged to file a lawsuit next week challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s new emergency manager law. It takes effect Thursday and grants broad powers to the incoming emergency financial manager, Kevyn Orr, a Washington, D.C., bankruptcy lawyer.
“As opposed to having a city council that’s democratically elected and a mayor, you’ll have a plantocracy, a plantation-ocracy, replacing a democracy,” Jackson said.
Full coverage: Detroit’s fiscal crisis
Jackson was joined by Detroit City Councilwomen JoAnn Watson and Brenda Jones, U.S. Rep. John Conyers and a union representative at a rally inside city hall that drew about 100 people. He also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene to protect Detroiters’ rights to vote.
“We marched too long and bled too much and died too young for the right to vote to have a governor … take away the impact of our vote,” said Jackson, president and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Gov. Rick Snyder’s office responded late Friday with this statement: “The governor encourages citizens to come together to be part of the solution to move Detroit forward towards everyone’s goal of a creating a vibrant, thriving city … Continued litigation and organized disruptions will only delay the revitalization process and cause the eventual solutions to be more difficult.”
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A spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party said Jackson’s words were irresponsible.
“The citizens are anxious for solutions, and it’s disappointing that all the Rev. Jackson wants to do is provide some sound bites and stand in the way of necessary solutions to fix Detroit’s problems,” Michigan GOP spokesman Matt Frendewey said.
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s office would not comment on Jackson’s visit. Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro Tem Gary Brown also declined to comment.
Snyder, a Republican, announced Orr last week as Detroit’s emergency financial manager to address the city’s cash crisis and long-term liabilities of more than $14 billion. His first day on the job is Monday.
Critics have said Orr’s appointment takes away residents’ right to elect their leaders. Orr has said it’s a matter of law and not a violation of constitutional principles for Snyder, as the elected chief of Michigan, to step in to correct problems in the state’s largest city.
Such explanations have done little to quiet the opposition.
Earlier this week, Conyers of Detroit and U.S. Rep. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, both Democrats, asked for a General Accounting Office investigation into the use of any emergency manager laws and history in Michigan. Several %Lutheran congregations from Detroit will travel the city via bus Sunday to oppose the EFM and speak out against other problems facing the city.
Jackson warned that Orr’s arrival could harm the city. He described a scenario in which rich people buy up acres of neighborhoods, turn them into vacant lots and sell off the property, forcing residents from their homes.
“Detroit cannot be reduced to a rummage sale,” he said.
Herb Sanders, a lawyer who worked with Stand Up for Democracy — the group that circulated petitions last year to repeal an earlier version of the state’s emergency manager law, said details of the legal challenge to the new law will be discussed Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the NAACP, organized labor and other groups are expected to file the challenge.
Jackson, who repeatedly used the phrase “emergency czar” and previously protested the emergency financial manager in Benton Harbor, urged Detroiters to protest. He did not provide specifics of the protest when asked later.
“It’ll be soon,” he said.
Demeeko Williams, 27, said he was hoping for more information from Jackson about how Detroiters would protest. He said he attended the rally because he’s concerned about his constitutional rights, but he was suspicious of Jackson’s agenda.
“It’s probably to add to his résumé,” Williams said, adding that he recognizes Jackson’s place in history as a civil rights leader.
“What can he do different than when he does the bank protests?” Williams said. “I want to be a part of the biggest turnaround in American history.”
Source: Detroit Free Press
Contact Joe Guillen: [email protected]