One man in Muskegon Heights, MI is causing quite a stir lately — he’s taken to walking his young daughter to and from the school bus stop each day with a rifle in his hands.
Michael LaMay states that his daily armed escort of his daughter to her school bus stop is simply for her protection. Michigan is an open carry state and LaMay says:
“I’ve been doing this on a daily basis, every day she goes to school. To make sure she gets there safely and home safely.”
LaMay, however, unlike so many other “ammosexuals” out there carrying pink and star-spangled assault rifles into Starbucks and Chipotles, is a complicated case.
Muskegon Heights (and the greater Muskegon area) have witnessed a drastic escalation in violence the last number of years. Nearly everyone who has lived in or around Muskegon for any amount of time talks about how things “used to be,” perhaps only half a generation ago, but now there are guns, violence, constant shootings, and the bloodshed only increases as the weather gets warmer.
Muskegon is currently bracing for its ever-blooming new ritual of summer violence already. Often referred to as “Little Detroit” or “Little Flint,” Muskegon gets its reputation through its excessive violence and its place in the sex and drug trafficking circuit running from Chicago, up through Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Muskegon, over to Lansing, Flint, and back on down and around to the Detroit/Ann Arbor scene, where it’s a short skip and a jump to Canada. That, despite a small population of just under 11,000 residents for Muskegon Heights and roughly 38,000 for the city of Muskegon; whereas Flint’s population hovers around 100,000 residents and Detroit’s low numbers even now still count around 700,000 people (and that’s not counting the many outlying communities around Detroit.) Already this spring the Heights has lost a young basketball star shot down randomly in group of people as he made his way to a basketball banquet at the nearby high school. Many fear it is only the beginning for the season.
There’s a reason groups in Muskegon County are applying for $300 thousand in grants to curb local violence, based on a program out of Boston called Operation Ceasefire. The grant money would help fund increased police patrols throughout Muskegon and Muskegon Heights. It would also fund a part time position for data collecting within the Heights Police Department where better analysis of crimes can be conducted. A tip line would also be promoted.
What follows is a small excerpt from one grant outlining a bit of Muskegon’s problems:
“There are six (6) identified groups with gang potential operating in Muskegon County: Brook Brothers Affiliation (BBA), G-Block, Wood Street (aka Slime Money), Get Money Boys, the Blood Violence and SUR 13. Most of the groups listed above consist of 10 or more members and are localized within the cities of Muskegon and Muskegon Heights. Some of these groups include male and female members and are in existence primarily for the purpose of narcotic and weapons sales.
“Recently some of the local gangs have unified themselves together to combat other gangs. For example, the Wood Street Gang and the BBA have joined together to comabt the Blood Gang which was previously composed of the East Park Gangsters and the Mason Street Mafia. The joining of these otherwise disconnected groups is a disturbing development.”
LaMay also reasons, considering the above:
“…with the way things are going around here, it’s obviously become unsafe to just be walking down the streets.”
Still, it has to be somewhat disconcerting for folks in a predominantly African American community to see a white man walking past their homes with a rifle openly in his hands. Some neighbors are certainly not happy about the matter. One Muskegon Heights resident, Roy Simpson, stated:
“Come on, he should have that for protection at his own house. Not around here.”
Then again, LaMay is using a legally registered gun peacefully, for protection only, to protect his daughter in a dangerous neighborhood so she can get to school — all within the confines of the law. If there are any good uses for guns, this has to be a potential candidate.
Another neighbor became verbally abusive with LaMay as he passed by, cursing and asking if she had the right to just prance around with a gun in her hand openly too, to which a police officer responded that, no, she specifically couldn’t because he knew her personal legal history.
But, LaMay claims he doesn’t wish to cause any trouble. Though he realizes carrying an open rifle to the school bus stop is a controversial move, he states that it is far more important to keep his daughter safe.
Initially, the Muskegon Heights Police Department in Michigan were understandably concerned about LaMay’s actions. They approached him for questioning about a week ago.
LaMay stated:
“At that point, they confiscated my weapon, but everything came back clear.”
LaMay seemed to hold no hard feelings over the interview, claiming the police were only doing their jobs and returned his firearm after a few days.
Local Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson says that he is aware and monitoring the situation, and though he doesn’t advocate it, his hands are tied because Mr. LaMay is not breaking any laws.
Fair enough, but still one has to wonder in this day and age, in this country — with America’s race problems — what kind of story this article might be covering had it been a black man walking his daughter to the bus stop with a rifle in his hands. That would make an interesting experiment, but it’s doubtful that anyone would be crazy enough to try it out just to prove what folks already know about the good old U.S. of A.
And finally, sadly, whatever one thinks of Mr. LaMay’s actions, none of the above seems to address the underlying societal problems that create the need for such decisions in the first place, that create such environments and breed such contempt and indifference within communities and people. Rather, it builds its system for policing and criminalizing those most in need, expands its prison system and makes way for cheap labor.
Until we begin to think about such questions, let alone come up with some answers, the violence will continue and more and more LaMay’s will continue to surface — the circle of fear roll ever onward. One has to wonder how the public would respond if LaMay offered to escort others’ children for them, as well. No doubt, people are scared of all the gunplay, but are they so scared they seek the “safety” of another gun as did Michael LaMay, or will folks find a more peaceful, less confrontational, creative approach to keeping their children safe — in Michigan and elsewhere — among the fevered blisters of violence popping up across the country from day to day?
Time, and the presence or absence of hope, will tell.
