KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Wednesday, Kalamazoo city officials had announced that a city-wide curfew issued this week has been lifted.
In a video released via Facebook, both Mayor David Anderson and City Manager Jim Ritsema announced that the curfew is no longer in effect. The police zone downtown has also been ordered removed.
“As Mayor of the City of Kalamazoo, I deeply believe in the values expressed in Black Lives Matter,” Mayor Anderson said. “I also express that I am representing out the City Commission feels and how City Administration feels. That is of primary importance. We all recognize that we have reached a point in this country – even though it seems like right now, this is an immediate issue of concern, these have been issues of concerns for generations.”
Manager Ritsema then provided a response to events occurring Tuesday night, including the curfew, protests and suspicious structure fires.
“We still want to encourage people to stay safe and keep eyes out for activity that needs to be reported, but we are going to be removing those restrictions this afternoon,” Ritsema said. “While we will be lifting the curfew and the downtown police zone, I want to assure the public that our Public Safety Officers will be out this evening with extra patrols in the neighborhoods and around vacant structures, so we can deal with any destructive activity that occurs.”
Ritsema also addressed concerns about the presence of the National Guard downtown.
“They were stationed along the perimeter of the police zone to supplement our officers so we could free up resources to police the rest of the city and respond to calls for service,” Ritsema said. “They were not brought in a military style, it was peacekeeping only.”
Ritsema also explained how the city supports peaceful protests.
“We’ll stand by you in solidarity, we’ll take a knee with you as was done last night,” Ritsema said. “We want to get through this so we can get to action and take that raw emotion and convert it to action that will change lives and change systems. Our goal is not to stop protests, but really to stop the damage and destruction that are caused by some that attend the protest. Our understanding is that there are groups that come to these protests to cause chaos, and those are the ones we are concerned about. We will support protests that are peaceful, but we cannot have illegal and criminal activity.”
Ritsema then talked about a series of structure fires that occurred late Tuesday night, starting with those that ignited in the North Side neighborhood.
“The house that was completely destroyed was the one fully involved, and it was such a hot fire that it caught other structures near them on fire,” Ritsema said. “While there were multiple fires, the source of the fire was one home.”
There was also a structure fire reported on the South Side on Stockbridge Avenue, and an investigation is now underway.
“We are fully investigating these fires to determine how they were caused, and if we determine they were arson, we will prosecute if we can find out who did those fires,” Ritsema said.
Some of the structures damaged in the fire were actually meant to be used for affordable housing.
“One of the units that was destroyed last night, the city was actually in partnership with the property owner on converting them to affordable housing units,” Ritsema said. “We stand committed to continue with that support and rebuilding that structure to provide housing that is much needed in our community and on the North Side.”
Following Ritsema’s remarks, Mayor Anderson made a statement on what will happen going forward.
“We are committed to supporting neighborhoods, our neighbors that live in neighborhoods, and I’m specifically talking about North Side right now, but that doesn’t just include the North Side,” Anderson said. “North Side suffered last night. There were individuals who owned structures, happened to be African American entrepreneurs, that were severely damaged in this fire. That is something that we cannot allow for people to suffer. We’re committed to that.”
Anderson also reinforced the main point that the curfew and “no-go” zone downtown is officially lifted as of this afternoon before speaking further about what the city will do next.
“I’m assuming that we can come back together and self-police our neighborhoods and downtown,” Anderson said. “We not only tolerate protests, we encourage protests. We encourage hearing voices. And the way that we can be most helpful at the City of Kalamazoo, and Public Safety is committed to this, is that our involvement will be for the protection of protesters. That is our intent and involvement.”
Anderson says that communication between the city and planned protesters is highly encouraged.
“If you would like us to be best in terms of helping you, let us know when you intend to protest, what streets you would like to walk down,” Anderson said. “We will help make sure that you are safe. I encourage that continued expression of our deepest angst, worries and desires for the future. I intend to do everything I can to make sure we continue to do this work together.”
Anderson maintains that the city will begin addressing these matters as soon as possible.
“It’s not always going to be obvious or clear what that next best step is, but as soon as we can, the commission will be getting together and beginning to make proposals about the immediate things we can do to make Kalamazoo be that equitable place that we all desire,” Anderson said.
Similar to Kalamazoo, the City of Portage also lifted it’s curfew order Wednesday morning. Portage had only issued the curfew for one night, but the order in Kalamazoo could have lasted as long as one week.
