Free read, May 5-9: Nessel explains dropping charges against protestors, Benson's book tour hits Detroit
Here's what was happening this week
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Can you believe we’re almost one month away from the start of Detroit’s 2025 elections? That’s right. Absentee ballots go out June 22, meaning it’s time to figure out your voting plan.
In the meantime, if you’re free Thursday or Friday next week, join me at Babo.
Next to Dessert Oasis, Babo is the best place to catch Detroit’s politically connected. In the past few days, I’ve caught up with Saunteel Jenkins, Garlin Gilchrist and Kevin Miles (Jake from State Farm) while posted up at their bar.
Jocelyn Benson’s “The Purposeful Warrior” book tour
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson explained the meaning behind her new book, “The Purposeful Warrior.”
Benson is the Democratic front runner in Michigan’s race for governor, which includes Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.
She said the book emerged from her experiences standing up to a first-term President Donald Trump amid false accusations of election fraud. She drew parallels to historical moments in the Civil Rights movement such as the Selma protests of 1965.
Benson said she finished writing the book over a year ago, and it became a call to action for everyone to be a “warrior with intention, with focus and with purpose.”
Nessel explains why she dropped charges against pro-Palestine protestors
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel blasted a Washtenaw County judge this week for what she said was an unprecedented request to recuse herself from the case that became a political lightning rod.
“Instead of me being put on trial for being a Jewish prosecutor and the Jewish Federation being put on trail for an email they should not have sent, that we would dismiss the charges,” Nessel said Thursday.
The attorney general expressed disappointment that she was asked by Judge J. Cedric Simpson to recuse herself from the case against seven pro-Palestine demonstrators she charged with felonies. The attorney general spoke on stage Thursday with state Rep. Noah Arbit, D-West Bloomfield, in front of a crowd at the “Town Hall on Hate Crimes & Extremism,” in West Bloomfield Township.
Nessel announced last week the charges would be dropped after the court issued a motion to recuse herself from the case, which she said was “damaging.” She threatened to take another attempt to remove her from a case because of her Jewish faith to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Asad Ahmed Siddiqui, Michael Mueller, Oliver Kozler, Avi Benjamin Tachna-Fram, Henry David Mackeen-Shapiro, Rhiannon Willow and Samantha Lewis were charged by Nessel last September with felony counts of resisting a police officer, as well as misdemeanor trespassing.
“The next thing that happened was a motion to disqualify me as the prosecutor of the case because I was too ‘bias,’” Nessel said using air quotes with her fingers. “The same claim by the way that had been made against me by Rashida Tlaib. She wouldn’t say why I was biased, I was just bias.”
Tlaib did say why she believed Nessel may be biased, and alleged the university conspired with Nessel because she was a political ally. Some of the UofM Regents are donors to her political campaign.
“We’ve had the right to dissent, the right to protest,” Tlaib told Metro Times last year. “We’ve done it for climate, the immigrant rights movement, for Black lives, and even around issues of injustice among water shutoffs. But it seems that the attorney general decided if the issue was Palestine, she was going to treat it differently, and that alone speaks volumes about possible biases within the agency she runs.”
Defense attorney Amir Makled credited the motion to an October Guardian report detailing Nessel’s personal, financial and political connections to university regents calling for the activists to be charged with felonies.
One of the campus protestors, Lewis, told me over the phone the day her charges were dropped she was “shocked and relieved,” but her fight isn’t over. Lewis is still facing charges from a separate case involving a protest at an annual student organizing fair.
And Nessel’s office is still charging several individuals related to off-campus vandalizations that took place at the homes and workplaces of university officials.
Raids including federal and local officers took place last month at five homes in Washtenaw and Wayne counties in an investigation into acts of vandalism against Jewish officials that caused an estimated $100,000 in damages.
“Dana Nessel frames herself as a democratic bulwark against the Trump Administration, yet has demonstrated continuous collaboration with Trump’s federal government to repress the popular movement for Palestinian liberation,” said Liz Jacob, an attorney at the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice.
Movement weekend is coming
There’s a number of places I’ll be during Movement weekend that aren’t the festival itself. You can scroll through Resident Advisor to find the pre or after parties that best fit your vibe.
I’ll be at El Club for MIKE, Navy Blue, Anysia Kym and more on Sunday, May 25. There’s an afterparty happening at Paramita featuring DJ sets by MIKE and Anysia Kym, but you didn’t hear that from me.
The festival is May 24-26 at Hart Plaza. You can buy tickets here.
Jeremy Moss running for Congress to replace Haley Stevens in Oakland County
State Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, is running for Congress in the state’s 11th Congressional District, the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens.
Moss told me he would go to Congress to be a disruptor and deliver tangible results for working class residents.
“It was disruptive when I became the youngest member of my hometown city council… it was disruptive when I became the first out LGBTQ member of the Michigan Senate… it is disruptive now that I am advocating to take on the legislative institution, the governor’s office, to open up our records and bring more public scrutiny to how government functions.”
Moss said the country is in a moment of “crisis and tension,” which will take some disrupting “to reset some things.”
Before Moss made his announcement earlier this week, we spoke on the phone at length about representing the Oakland County district which doesn’t include Southfield, the city he currently represents. The Congressional seat he’s vying for represents West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Pontiac, Ferndale, Royal Oak, to White Lake and Waterford.
The Oakland County lawmaker said he was propelled to think about what his next career move would be after his attendance at a Republican House member’s anti-gay press conference went viral. When the Republican declined to take questions on his bill to ban same-sex marriage, Moss took the podium — stealing the attention away from the legislation that took aim at him.
“This is a moment that calls for that type of leadership,” Moss said. “There’s no question that the new way forward is a new generation of leaders. There are people in the U.S. House that have recognized that and made the transition, and I’m confident that there will be other members of senior leadership in Washington who will recognize that the baton needs to be passed.”
Moss will likely have the most political qualifications to show regardless of other candidates who enter the race — he’s been an active member of the Michigan Legislature for a decade and was the campaign co-chair that got Democrats the Democratic majority in the Senate.
“Some of the issues that we have carried to the finish line have been fought for for decades,” Moss said, referring to the passage of protections for LGBTQ residents as part of the state’s civil rights laws.
Moss, who is Jewish, has also stood with Israel when it has become increasingly unpopular for Democrats to do so.
Moss was present at an event held at a Farmington Hills home last week which included business leaders and donors hearing from AIPAC guest speakers who spoke about the importance of having a presence in Michigan.
“There are a lot of Jewish liberals in this district who feel isolated and don’t know where their political home is,” Moss said. “I’m able to give them some representation. There is a liberal case to be made for supporting Israel and I think I will find a lot of support for all of my positions in this district.”