3/29/25 sage’s demands/response to the city of howell’s 3/28 letter

“SAGE would like to publicly state our official demands to the City of Howell and reiterate our previous decision to shape change in Livingston County through community building, action, and support. SAGE is first and foremost a charitable organization with the goal of removing white supremacy, racism, transphobia and other systems of oppression in Livingston County. These demands reflect what we see as necessary steps towards achieving freedom from these systems of oppression. Howell City leaders recently responded to an unofficial draft of these demands posted on facebook. We have reviewed the city’s document and would like to offer several immediate thoughts. 

In each correspondence with the city, SAGE has become aware of many deficits in our city officials' understanding of systems of oppression and what it means to view Livingston County as steeped in white supremacy. As members of SAGE, we understand that developing biases based on race are an inevitable outcome of living in the United States. We do not hold ourselves above the other residents of our community but absolutely value individual commitments to learning about and addressing personal biases. We have no interest in working with those so unwilling to see racism in themselves when we readily acknowledge our own capacity for racist thoughts and behaviors. 

Though City officials reference collaborations throughout their response, the city is aware that SAGE will not collaborate with state organizations in this manner. We seek partnerships only with those whose missions and values align with our own. We know the power dynamics produced during collaboration with state organizations will always favor the unexamined biases of elected officials and law enforcement. Each of these demands was developed intentionally to simply require action from city officials and our collaboration should not be a condition of compliance. 

1. Fire Howell City Manager, Erv Suida. He made the presentation blaming a Black resident for the neo-Nazis protesting our film event, bringing further shame on the City. Between this and his Drag Queen Bingo fiasco, Suida has done enough damage to the City of Howell’s reputation on the state and national stage. While city officials provide their own metrics of Mr. Suida’s successes as City Manager, we do not view these examples as relevant to the impact of his recent actions. We make every effort to avoid assumptions regarding any bias or intent behind Mr. Suida’s actions but those actions alone are sufficient justification for us to demand the termination of his employment with the city. Mr Suida holds a powerful position in this community and it is our responsibility as residents to question his capacity and voice our opinions regarding his position.

2. Record City Council meetings - transparency is required for accountability. Promises made by the city mean nothing if they are not on the record.

3. The City of Howell and the HPD need to advertise SAGE’s LivCo Bias Incident & Hate Crimes Data Collection Form  -In August, after the first neo-Nazi courthouse demo, SAGE requested a meeting with City officials to discuss proactive and reactive strategies to hate and bias incidents as outlined in the Michigan Alliance Against Hate Crimes 'Community Response Manual'. At that time we requested that a reporting form be created and were assured it would happen. Seven months later and it still doesn't exist. This tool, which we created with the assistance of the MI Department of Civil Rights, is only helpful if folks know that it exists.

4. Draw from law enforcement budgets to fund an independent review of Howell PD’s and Livingston County Sheriff department’s responses to hate crimes/instances. Use these data to identify deficits in police capacity and address these by redistributing responsibility and funding to alternative entitles for community support and safety, as described in demand 6.

5. Develop mechanism to effectively address community needs and form a 'Hate & Bias Response Team' as outlined in the Michigan Alliance Against Hate Crimes 'Community Response Manual'. This will fulfill an immediate community need demonstrably beyond the capacity of current  law enforcement. When marginalized community members called the police in fear during the first white supremacist demonstration at Howell’s courthouse, they were told that white supremacists groups were comparable to Black Lives Matter and Pride. The Howell Police Department and the Livingston County Sheriff's Department cannot or will not differentiate between hate groups and groups addressing the needs of our minority community members.

 6. Publicly identify, including photos, all the white supremacists that local law enforcement has identified as being associated with the increasing white supremacist demonstrations. Officials have withheld the neo-Nazis identities, some for at least seven months, while publicly demonizing members of SAGE and minority community members by name. Our most vulnerable population deserves to have such information shared to make informed decisions for the safety of their families. 

7. Provide all the police cruiser videos and any law enforcement body cam footage from the white supremacist film protest on February 6th, 2025.

We are not looking for another commentary from the city about professionalism, integrity, and responsibility when we so clearly have different concepts of what each of those look like. What we do expect is for city officials to show us what being safe and inclusive looks like by following through on the above identified needs of marginalized community members. In order to foster the truly welcoming environment that we all seek, more than just words will be necessary, meaningful action must be taken.”