RESOURCES:
"A Ripple in Ann Arbor" Premiere Event
AADL Archives: Photos and Articles of 1995 Ann Arbor Rapist Case
SMART Analysis of AAPD Traffic Stop Data, 2017-2019: Final Report July 2023
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and I'm here today with Ann Arbor City Council Member, Cynthia Harrison. We are talking about the short documentary film, "A Ripple in Ann Arbor". It tells the story of a search for a serial rapist in Ann Arbor in the 1990s, and it revolves around the unfocused and invasive tactics used by police at the time to find the perpetrator. The film delves into an innocent man who took the city to court to expose these tactics and reclaim his dignity. We're going to explore this. First of all, welcome, Cynthia!
Cynthia Harrison: Thank you so much, Caroline! Thank you for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: These events that happened in the 1990s, there was a huge amount of racial profiling going on. And it caused a lot of distress in the community. You're very instrumental in addressing racial profilings today. We've had a lot of incidents regarding traffic stops, etc. But with regard to this documentary film, tell me what prompted you to want to turn it into a movie?
Cynthia Harrison: Well, Caroline, what prompted me to want to turn this into a movie was basically to help to educate the community about something horrible that occurred within our community here in the City of Ann Arbor to the Black community as a result of this investigation for this serial rapist. Really, what prompted that idea was close to a year and a half ago at City Council, we passed a resolution to begin working on municipal reparations. That resolution entailed directing the city administrator to do a harms report on happenings within the city as it pertains to the Black community, policies that impacted Black Americans in Ann Arbor, like housing policy and also how policing negatively impacted the Black community within the City of Ann Arbor. Because I was born and raised in the City of Ann Arbor, and I actually have never left, I've lived here my entire life, I lived through of this serial rapist investigation. I was a young adult at the time. I knew that once we passed municipal reparations and getting the harms report completed, that there would be questions about why are we looking at municipal reparation in a city that claims to be so liberal and progressive. I felt obligated to help to educate the community around this dark history that happened here within the City of Ann Arbor that we love so much.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. And I just want to clarify for our listeners that, in May of 1994, the rape and murder of 32-year-old resident Christine Gailbreath was what shocked the Ann Arbor community. And this, of course, led to a highly publicized serial rape investigation by the Ann Arbor Police Department. As we stated earlier, this led to a lot of racial profiling. Now the, the Ann Arbor Police Department, I believe had linked DNA evidence to three previous cases in Ann Arbor. They then created a task force to help identify the perpetrator. But unfortunately, it turned out the only physical details the living victims could recall were that he was a Black man, and members of the public sent in hundreds of tips. The police department sought to make use of this DNA evidence in collaboration with the Michigan State Police Crime Lab. And over the next several months, the police investigated hundreds of Black male residents of Ann Arbor. This is what was so harmful at the time because so many Black men were unfairly profiled. Correct?
Cynthia Harrison: That is correct. Yes, hundreds to the tune of 600 to 800 Black men were questioned, and over 160 Black men who were coerced into giving their blood to provide DNA to prove their innocence. It was open season on Black men that lived and/or traveled within the City of Ann Arbor. People lost jobs. Individuals were pulled off of busses. People were yanked by their hair walking down the sidewalk.
Caroline MacGregor: Really?
Cynthia Harrison: Yes, yes. There was, at least I know, one individual, his door was kicked in. And he was taken to the station for questioning that lasted hours to the tune even of at least a day or two. So, you can imagine these men were living in fear and their families as well. The community was not even aware that the police suspected there was a serial rapist out there in the community.
Caroline MacGregor: But it's left a really sour taste in the mouths of many of those men who remember what took place.
Cynthia Harrison: Yes. We have heard even from individuals from around the country that no longer live in the City of Ann Arbor. Often, you hear or you see individuals that are like, "Yep, I remember," "Yes, that happened to me," or "It happened to someone I knew," or "It happened to a family member or a neighbor." It was an extremely trying time, as you can imagine, for the Black community. And that's really an understatement.
Caroline MacGregor: I'm sure. And with regards to the movie, you approached local filmmaker Aliyah Mitchell in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library Archives, and the film is going to be released on November 9th in a truth and reconciliation event at the Michigan Theater. It's free to the public. And I know in speaking with Aliyah Mitchell. She talked a little bit about how she went about filming the movie. And we'll play an excerpt of my chat with her?
CAROLINE MACGREGOR: "So, let's go to you, Aliyah, and the actual making of the documentary. Tell me about this."
ALIYAH MITCHELL: "Yes. And so, I really appreciate some of the conversations I've been lucky enough to have with Cynthia. It really, I think, brings out her passion for this project. And why doing it now was really meaningful."
CAROLINE MACGREGOR: "Was this one of your first movies or have you done several before?"
ALIYAH MITCHELL: "So, I work full-time at the University of Michigan. I do film production there as well, just very different types of stories. My approach is typically in the short film style. I knew that I wanted to talk to as many people who had memories or experiences as possible. I wasn't just speaking to men who gave blood but also men who remember being stopped before the investigation was announced. They could feel something was happening because they were experiencing an increased police presence. I wanted talk to people who were asked for blood but then refused. So, I wanted to present a more complete picture of what were the experiences of people at that time. I sat down with two members of the Coalition for Community Unity who could really, I think, nailed down how did this creep into the community but also this aspect of we need to do what's necessary in the name of protecting women. This didn't work, and it had massive impact on the people who were involved, likely, most of all, the women who were, I think, further harmed by this."
Caroline MacGregor: Cynthia, it sounds like it was something that was a very important subject to her as far as covering accurately and conveying what happened and the ripple effect it had on the community, hence the title.
Cynthia Harrison: Absolutely, yes! She did an excellent job! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have such a partner in this and somebody like Aliyah, who really cared deeply about this subject in wanting to tell the story in the best way possible. And she did! She put her heart in it. She put everything that she could possibly give into this film.
Caroline MacGregor: And I want to add one thing here. Finally, after all these cases of racial profiling, there was another attempted assault in December of 1994 when a primary suspect was identified--Irvin Mitchell Jr. And Irvin Mitchell Jr. was tried and sentenced in July of 1995 for the murder of Christine Gailbreath and the rape of three other women. Although his conviction relied on DNA evidence, the 160 voluntary blood samples collected by the Ann Arbor police did not lead to a match because he had refused a blood test. So, with Mitchell behind bars, some Black men in Ann Arbor began to speak out against this racial profiling that they had experienced. And Blair Shelton was one of those, and he eventually sued the Ann arbor Police Department for the return of his blood sample and DNA profile. And he was actually fired from his job. He recalled being stopped eight additional times by the Ann Arbor Police Department, despite voluntarily giving blood to prove his innocence. As a result, the AAPD returned the blood samples in 1996.
Cynthia Harrison: Yes. When the police department decided that they were going to basically cast a net and catch as many as they could to bring in for questioning, all it would have taken was one person to say, "Maybe this is not the best way to go about this," or to talk about the consequences here for all these innocent men to have to have gone through this type of torture. I mean, this ruined lives. People lost jobs, they lost their dignity, they were embarrassed at school, on the street, in public transportation. I believe Blair Shelton lost a job twice. It was horrific! When you look at reparations, people think automatically money and a check. But another form of reparations comes from the word "repair". So, the film is truth-telling, and then comes the acknowledgement. We're telling the truth about this dark part of our history in the city that we love so much. The repair comes in the form of an apology. There was no real apology that was given to the Black community. The apology is going to come from officials that sit in their current seats. And then, how do we make sure that something like this does not happen in the future? Truth-telling, acknowledging, repair, and future prevention of something like this ever happening again--it's a story that needs to be told. There are people that have lived here for decades that didn't know about this. It's a story that must be told.
Caroline MacGregor: My guest today has been Ann Arbor City Council Member, Cynthia Harrison, and we've been discussing the short documentary film, "A Ripple in Ann Arbor". Thank you for joining me today, Cynthia!
Cynthia Harrison: Thank you so much for having me, Caroline! I really appreciate you spotlighting this very important event that is coming up! I really appreciate it!
Caroline MacGregor: And, of course, thanks to Aliyah Mitchell, director of the documentary, "A Ripple in Ann Arbor". This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti, your community NPR station.
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