Chelsea police chief won t drop charges against protesters, legal battle continues Omar Abdel-Baqui, Detroit Free Press Protesters demonstrated in front of the Chelsea Police Department Friday, confronting Chief Edward Toth after he said the department will not dismiss charges against people who protested in the streets over the summer in a case that has divided the small town and has led to a constitutional court battle.
Toth said Friday that it is not within the Police Department’s authority to drop civil charges after they have been submitted to the court and that it is up to a judge to rule on the charges, which is scheduled to occur Monday. This follows a City Council meeting earlier this week in which the body voted unanimously to recommend that police drop pending charges against protesters for impeding traffic.
Protesters demonstrated in front of the Chelsea Police Department Friday, confronting Chief Edward Toth after he said the department will not dismiss charges against people who protested in the streets over the summer in a case that has divided the small town and has led to a constitutional court battle.
Toth said Friday that it is not within the Police Department’s authority to drop civil charges after they have been submitted to the court and that it is up to a judge to rule on the charges, which is scheduled to occur Monday. This follows a City Council meeting earlier this week in which the body voted unanimously to recommend that police drop pending charges against protesters for impeding traffic.
Detroit saw a summer of civil unrest that will be remembered for generations.
Thousands of people hit the streets daily for months to protest police brutality and the treatment of Black people in the U.S. Tear gas coated the sky, rubber bullets flew, and hundreds of protesters were arrested. All the while, the novel coronavirus ran its course through Detroit, killing more people in the city than anything else aside from heart disease.
Also in 2020, the FBI said it foiled a plot involving more than a dozen men planning to kidnap and possibly kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; the Detroit Police Department significantly expanded its surveillance capabilities on several fronts; Detroit had a bloody year, with a sharp increase in shootings and homicides; Wayne County s sheriff died of COVID-19; and despite many fewer cars on the road, there was an uptick in fatal crashes and freeway shootings.