Belleville Police Chief: Strawberry Festival should be cancelled

Belleville Police Chief Gene Taylor told the City Council on Monday that Strawberry Festival should be cancelled in the future because of the mob of 1,500 that overwhelmed police and terrorized families on Saturday night.
“The Strawberry Festival last weekend was the worst one I’ve ever seen in my 30 years in Belleville,” Chief Taylor told the council, noting it also was unusually rowdy on Friday with several arrests.
Chief Taylor said he usually comes in after hours to check on his officers and the situation and so he came back on Saturday night in plain clothes in his pickup.
He said what he saw made his mind flash back to when Belleville had fireworks on the island and the mob mentality took over.
He said Cpl. Ken Voigt was in charge of the shift Saturday and fights were breaking out all over the community. He said fights exploded into confrontation of large groups. On West Columbia Avenue, the groups stopped traffic.
Chief Taylor said he was in Tuscan Manor with a reserve officer and they were working to get about 50 subjects out of that area.
He said Cpl. Voigt requested assistance from area departments and not only Van Buren Township, Sumpter Township, and Huron Township sent officers, but Metroparks and Michigan State Police came. Others couldn’t spare officers.
Chief Taylor said the crowd stopped traffic dead and proceeded with a mob mentality. He said citizens who were trying to help keep the mob out of Tuscan Manor were overcome. In the area of West Columbia and Church Street mob members were pounding on cars, but it was not a riot, Chief Taylor said, adding there was no looting.
“It was a very, very large crowd out of control,” Chief Taylor told the council. “Fortunately for the City of Belleville, the crowd broke into three parts at Church Street. If it headed to Five Points and down Main Street, it could have destroyed the vendors’ booths.
“This was a tinderbox waiting for the right match,” Chief Taylor said. “If we tried to make an arrest, it would have exploded. We could not use chemicals because there was no wind and the residents would suffer.”
Chief Taylor said this was a flashback for him to 25 years ago when the fireworks were enjoyed from the island. He said it was just for families and it grew larger and larger until there was no access to the north end of town because of the crowd.
Chief Taylor said last Saturday people on the west end of town were concerned about their safety. He said on Monday he got many complaint calls from citizens, including one from a senior citizen who had 25 people he didn’t know in his front yard, with some pounding on the front door and trying to get in.
“As the police chief of the community, this festival is compromising the safety of our community,” he said. “The City Council should look long and hard at the festival and cancel it in the future.”
He said he came to town at 9 p.m. just to check things out and didn’t get home until 2 a.m.
He said the problems had nothing to do with the beer tent, which had no real problems.
He said if the mob had exploded, “We would have seen Belleville on national TV.”
Chief Taylor said the problems have been escalating every year and now it’s the worst it’s been in 30 years.
He said most of the troublemakers aren’t from the tri-community.
“You are voted into office to preserve the safety of the community,” Chief Taylor reminded the council.
He said to add to the problems, on Friday the police department had a phone failure and nothing could come through on two numbers. The 2710 office number was working and a clerical worker was able to pass on information from an important call, he said.
Chief Taylor said he had a concern for his officers because there was difficulty with the radio frequency. He said they used the cell block area in the department for detaining prisoners on Friday while paperwork was being done, but couldn’t on Saturday because all the officers had to be out on the street. All people arrested would have to be taken to Van Buren Township lockup.
Mayor Tom Fielder said he would take this information to the Strawberry Festival Board and asked Chief Taylor to give his presentation to them.
“There have been suggestions,” Chief Taylor said. “But, if other suggestions don’t come forth, we should cancel the festival.”
He said the festival board was concerned about the fights last year and this year it’s five times worse.
Mayor Fielder said the Strawberry Festival Board is a private organization that comes to the city for permission to operate.
“We can reject their application if that’s what it comes down to,” Mayor Fielder said, adding AT&T was to blame for the phone lines that were not working, but they have been fixed.
Cpl. Voigt said that Friday night was bad, “as bad as I’ve seen it in 25 years, but Saturday night was … hard to describe.”
He said police closed the carnival an hour early at request of the carnival. There had been 32 fights on the midway and there were just six officers on duty. Tuscan Manor was overwhelmed and downtown needed protection.
“We don’t have enough cops to deal with this many people,” Cpl. Voigt said. “We couldn’t make an arrest. Bottles were thrown at us. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He said Dude’s had some brawls, and he’s seen 25 years of bar brawls, but this was far worse.
“We were kicked off the VB radio frequency, onto our old frequency,” he said, adding that Van Buren Township dispatch can’t hear them at the high school, senior highrise, Sumpter/Bemis, and other locations.
He said, “We were essentially kicked off the frequency and officers had to call three to four times before there was a response. Our union members don’t deserve this. Dispatchers couldn’t hear us,” Voigt said. Voigt is union president.
He said the city will have to shell out some money for a repeater for the radios if this continues.
“We have our festival in a residential area,” Chief Taylor said, in discussing the problem. He said the fireworks were moved to Beck Ball Field and Sumpter has fireworks at its fairgrounds.
“We put it in our residents’ backyard,” Chief Taylor said, adding the event is growing too big. He said it’s a family event until about 5 or 6 o’clock and then it changes over. He said there is a gap between the midway and St. Anthony and that’s where the crowd assembled.
Dave “Doc” McPherson said he lives on Edison near Columbia and over the years many family members came to enjoy the festival. He said the chief is underestimating what happened with the mob mentality.
“My hat’s off to this police department,” for containing the crowd, McPherson said.
He said he was going to repeat the threats his family got from crowd members to the council so they would know how his family felt, but decided against it.
“We were threatened and harassed. It is my house and I don’t want to be threatened any more,” McPherson said, asking when the Strawberry Festival Board would meet again so he could attend.
He said he was on Main Street for three days with the Friends of Michigan Animals Rescue group, where he volunteers, and there were no problems. He said the problem was with the carnival.
“We’ll see if the Strawberry Festival has a plan and if you’re not satisfied with it you’re welcome to come in and say so,” Mayor Fielder said.
Rick Dawson asked for clarification. The mayor was taking the issue to the Strawberry Festival Board and bringing it back to the council?
The mayor said his intent is to tell the Strawberry Festival we have a problem with crowd control and there could be no carnival.
People in the audience called out NO and said the recommendation was no Strawberry Festival at all.
Dreama Arnett said what happened at Columbia and Church streets was an abomination and the people who live in this area were scared.
“I’m appalled you would even let this go on again,” Arnett said, adding there shouldn’t be a festival.
Mayor Fielder said it would be totally inappropriate for the city to cancel the festival without talking to the board first. They’ve been having a festival for 31 years, he said.
Marion Caldwell said there was a crash at midnight as someone speeded down Henry Street and hit the barrier. She said she watched the car bounce into someone’s house.
“This is something that won’t be solved tonight,” said Councilwoman Lori Hecksel. She suggested forming a safety committee and involve Van Buren Township.
She said she would rather not have the festival than have residents in jeopardy. She suggested exhausting dialogue first, but, “We’re not going to say we’ll keep going and hope for the best.”
Councilwoman Kerreen Conley recommended a comprehensive de-briefing of police and for everyone to tell what went on and then have a dialogue.
“We’re hearing about some of this for the first time, and it’s much larger than some of us thought,” Conley said. “Then we’ll see if there are things that can be done.”
City Manager Walter Mears said he had a conversation with the chief and asked if he needed help from him on Monday. He said he will present a report to the council on the issue.
“The Strawberry Festival needs to know about this as soon as possible,” Conley said.
“We do have control of the festival,” said Councilman Bill Emerson. “If the agreement is not satisfactory, then no festival.”
Ralph Mayer said he needs to know what the council thinks about the Strawberry Festival before the November elections because it’s important to him to know.
Chesley Odom said in the past he ran the Polish Country Fest at St. Mary in Orchard Lake and they made over $750,000 this year. He said the festival pays $20,000 for extra police in addition to Orchard Lake Police and security officers. There are 20 police hired just for the carnival rides.
“The solution isn’t to cancel, but to make it safe,” Odom said, adding people look forward to the festival.
Don Bluhm suggested the festival be moved to the 4-H fairgrounds. Have the parade in town and have it march over there.
After the meeting, Cpl. Voigt said two carnival workers told him that Belleville is the worst community they come to.
“Carneys complaining about us?” he said in mock surprise.
He and Chief Taylor agreed some of the mob was divided into those wearing red bandanas (Bloods) and those in blue (Crips), who are wannabe gang members.
Chief Taylor told of a green car that drove from Church Street with no lights to behind the Oakwood Medical Clinic and he was able to get the license plate number. Then he heard a be-on-the-lookout for a person wanted for drunk driving and felonious assault, for running into someone with his vehicle on purpose. Since they had the plate, Van Buren Township found the car at I-94 and a Belleville car made the arrest.
Published 6-21-07