I don’t have time to write about the entire episode right now, but, as the election is tomorrow, I wanted to draw your attention to an interview I did a few weeks ago, during episode 51 of the Saturday Six Pack, with Radical Washtenaw co-founder D’Real Graham. Graham, as you may know, has spent the past several months waging an ambitious write-in campaign for the office of County Prosecutor against incumbent Brian Mackie, who, in the opinion of many, has not been as aggressive as he could be when it comes to things like holding police officers accountable for their conduct, and putting programs in place that would seek to reduce the number of local people being sent to jail for non-violent offenses. So, I know it’s late, and the election is tomorrow, but, if you have a moment, please start listening to the following recording, beginning at the 1:27-mark, where you’ll hear Graham and I talk about everything from last year’s police shooting of Ann Arbor’s Aura Rosser, to the four-point plan he’s promised to put in place if elected… Here’s Graham talking with me in the AM 1700 studio.
[If you would like to listen to episode 51 of The Saturday Six Pack, you can either download it from iTunes or scroll the bottom of this post, where you’ll find the Soundcloud file embedded.]
Here, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Graham’s four-point plan, is what it entails.
Once elected, D’Real R. Graham will:
1) take the lead in implementing a completely revisioned first-responder protocol
2) steer everyone accused of a non-violent offense into appropriate rehabilitative programs or transformational spaces, rather than jail
3) deconstruct and reimagine—from the ground up, with community direction and concensus—the mission and responsibilities of the Prosecutor’s office
4) prosecute all forms of police misconduct, and require all investigations into police misconduct to be handled by investigators who are in no way associated with or representative of any law enforcement system
