Bringing action and accountability to our community.

Bringing action and accountability to our community.

Started
July 7, 2021
Petition to
Signatures: 117Next Goal: 200
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Why this petition matters

Started by Kelly Ayers

On Sunday, July 4, 2021. Our Islamic family celebrated with our Hispanic friends next door for the fourth of July by having a barbeque and setting off fireworks (within the allowed time as approved by the Village of Three Oaks & The State of Michigan.) For this barbeque, we retained permission from Town Hall to block part of the alley to play corn hole. During our get-together we had unpleasant neighbors staring at us and taking videos from their phones in their yard. There was no yelling or fighting the whole night as this was a family event. At nightfall fall we started to set off fireworks safely and as permitted by the State of Michigan. At roughly 11:20 p.m. we had an officer show up at our residences. The officer did not provide a name but clearly was in uniform for Three Oaks. The officer stated that there was a single call and a complaint of fireworks raining in their yard. This officer was very rude and carried himself very unprofessional, making up any excuse to shut our party down, such as threatening to give us a ticket for littering. Even though we were clearly within our right as we paid a firework tax when we purchased the fireworks to cover such events as approved by the State of Michigan. Before leaving, this officer also threatened to come back at 11:46 p.m. to insure we were no longer lighting the fireworks we purchased. There were many other people in our community lighting fireworks this night, there were also people lighting fireworks beyond the approved time of 11:45 pm. In our community, we pride ourselves on being a melting pot. Helping a neighbor in need. Being civil, kind, and respectful. July 4, 2021, we feel we were disrespected and discriminated against due to our religious beliefs and ethnicity. We were the only multicultural party singled out and threatened to be shut down. Please help us get this incident noticed and prevent any more discrimination and racism within our beautiful community. We are seeking that this officer is stripped of his qualified immunity to ensure this never happens to anyone in our community ever again and that all members of our community are treated equally. There are many signed witnesses to this event.

 

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Signatures: 117Next Goal: 200
Support now