Editorials

Commentary: It was a stupid thing to do

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By Gary P. Custer

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

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A recent incident could seriously affect our ability to provide you the information you have come to expect from us.

At about 2:20 p.m. April 16, an unknown Flint police officer (in uniform and driving a patrol car) arrived at our office. I assumed she was there in her official capacity, so I unlocked the door and invited her in.

She introduced herself and said she was concerned about the activities of one of my "employees."

She said East Village Magazine had been printing things discussed at the West Flint Community Watch meetings that the reporter was told not to print. If we did not stop we "would not be welcome at the meetings," she said, because things are said at neighborhood meetings that should not be printed — especially when there are important people like city council members there.

Thinking I must have misunderstood what she had said, I asked her if she was saying that we should run only information approved by the groups we cover. She said "yes."

I told her it was up to the editor to decide what should be reported about a public meeting, not the participants.

She replied that I was not qualified to make that decision.

I responded East Village Magazine has been covering neighborhood groups for more than 21 years.

She repeated that we "would not be welcome" in the future if we published anything the group did not approve in advance.

I asked if she meant that we would not be allowed to cover any neighborhood group meetings, such as Central Park, Carriage Town and Cody, that cops regularly attend?

She responded she "would not be surprised" if we found we "were not welcome" at any neighborhood group meeting. It is very "irresponsible" to print what any neighborhood group does not want printed, she added.

I suggested the West Flint group write a letter stating its specific complaints.

"About what?" she said. They (the West Flint group) sent me. There is no need to write a letter because West Flint is a very powerful group of dedicated citizens who have close contacts with all other neighborhood groups, she added. She repeated that anything that she or any member of a group said they did not want reported should not be reported or we would find that we were "not welcome."

She ended by saying, "I came to tell you, but obviously I am not getting through to you."

This attempt to dictate what we can publish poses several potentially serious threats to East Village Magazine that would not affect a commercial publication.

It could adversely affect our ability to attract the qualified volunteers to write the news stories, sell ads, deliver the magazines and do the hundreds of other tasks necessary to produce East Village Magazine. The people we need, people willing to give their time to keep Flint residents informed about neighborhood issues, might hesitate to undertake a volunteer job that could subject them to outside pre-publication censorship, attempts by armed police officers to intimidate them or hostility from neighborhood groups.

Local businesses owners, who pay part of our expenses by advertising, might decide that it would be better to avoid any chance that their ad in East Village Magazine might offend someone — especially a cop.

Contributors, who pay most of our expenses, might hesitate to contribute to a publication which, according to their neighborhood cop, "is irresponsible."

Members of neighborhood groups might find that they have to make a choice about who attends their meetings or who they talk to about neighborhood issues — their neighborhood cop or our reporters.

In short, a cop could make it difficult, if not impossible for us to continue to provide the information neighborhood residents need to protect and improve their neighborhoods.

It is a threat we have to take seriously.

What are we going to do about it?

In the future, we will be looking for any evidence that the threat is being carried out.

We have a good relationship, based on mutual respect, with every neighborhood group, police officer and public official we deal with regularly. Most groups have at least one member who is an East Village Magazine volunteer.

If we find any attempt to intimidate any of our volunteers, contributors, advertisers or information sources, or to adversely affect our ability to provide the information more than 8,000 families expect us to provide, we will use every legal recourse available to ensure that it never happens again.

For now, we will continue do what we have been doing for the past 21 years and encourage the police department to take care of its public relations nightmare.

You will find the story she tried to kill on page 7.

—GPC

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