The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is filing two discrimination charges against the Grand Rapids Police Department for two cases. MDCR director John Johnson Jr. says one was the handcuffing and detention of eleven-year-old Honestie Hodges, a Black girl, when they were looking for her white aunt for a stabbing.
“She did not fit the definition of the suspect. She was compliant, visibly afraid, and in tears,” says Johnson.
The other was for the handcuffing and detention of Melissa Mason in January 2020 for an expired license tab and expired driver’s license, even though she followed officers’ commands. Hodges died in 2020 of COVID-19 at the age of 14.
Johnson says more charges could be on the way pending the results of more active investigations following nearly 80 resident complaints.
