Dearborn Police Commander Andrew Zelazny (front right) updates city officials during the Oct. 19 mayoral briefing regarding the steps the Police Department is taking to keep the community safe during the volatile political climate created by the violent uncertainty occurring in Palestine and Israel, as City Attorney Bradley Mendelsohn (left), Dearborn Chief Operating Officer Amanda Bright McClanahan (third from left) and other city officials listen.
Zelazny says threats are being taken seriously
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Threats and security measures are being taken seriously by the Police Department during the violence in the Middle East, as police personnel continue to work with other law enforcement agencies.
Police Commander Andrew Zelazny updated city councilmembers and other city officials the evening of Oct. 19 during a briefing chaired by Chief Operating Officer Amanda Bright McClanahan.
Because of Dearborn’s large Arabic and Muslim population, the city has become a focus of threats as military engagements escalate between Israel and Palestine.
Zelazny said the department’s priority is to keep people calm and to reassure them that the community will get through this.
He said the city is fortunate that the command staff has been together for more than six years and has been through a lot of critical incidents together.
“We work well together, we’ve been through a lot, through COVID, the George Floyd protests and the Hampton Inn – many critical incidents,” Zelazny said. “We have a lot of practice in hectic times.”
He said the Police Department is not a normal police operation, and it is focusing on the issues at hand during the violence occurring in the Middle East and how it directly affects Dearborn.
Zelazny said at this time it is “all hands on deck,” and everyone is out on the road and covering both planned and unplanned events.
“We are monitoring social media,” he said. “As you can imagine right now, social media is the biggest issue we are sorting through right now.”
Zelazny said that while there are nasty and hateful things being said online, the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, renders some statements legal and non-enforceable. However, Police Department personnel are investigating many things brought to their attention, and they will work with prosecutors when it is appropriate to file charges.
“The entire department is working together to cover Friday prayers for the mosques, and we’re covering Christian churches,” he said. “We don’t really have a synagogue footprint here, but we still have a group of faith-based community members we work with and stay in touch with, so this is a real all hands on deck approach.”
Zelazny said he recently met for two hours with Wayne County Emergency Manager Sam Jaafer, and with FBI officials, including the assistant special agent in charge, and with Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington and representatives from the Detroit Southeast Michigan Information and Intelligence Group to discuss recent events.
He said he continues to communicate daily with representatives from the groups, and DSMIIG provides Dearborn police officials with most of the intelligence it receives.
Zelazny said police officials have a list they have developed over the years, which includes critical infrastructure and schools, churches and mosques, which he said are being checked on a regular basis.
He said they have only received a few complaints locally that needed to be investigated, and of those, specifically a threat made Oct. 17 on social media, charges were filed and it was turned over to the prosecutor’s office.
“We are on top of all these things, but things can change in an instant,” Zelazny said. “The protests and gatherings are something that over the last 10 to 12 years in Dearborn in the free protest zones, we have been dealing with protests quite a bit throughout the years, so we are pretty adept at handling this.”
He said they are utilizing the Wayne County Reserve and Michigan State Police resources for help with these events.
Zelazny said the Police Department works around the clock, there is no leaving at the end of a normal shift, and the command staff is on the phone constantly.
“We are on top of this, and we will be on top of this,” he said. “We are planning for long-term.”
City Council President Michael Sareini said he wanted to make sure that there was consistency with respect to what threats were investigated.
“When you don’t do that, you send a message of weakness,” he said. “We have to go by the letter of the law through the whole process.”
Sareini said that on Oct. 13, a Livonia school football team was playing a game at Dearborn High School, where his son plays football, and before arriving, team officials wanted to verify that there were no problems in Dearborn that would impact the team.
“There was a student that posted ‘I’m going to blow the school up,’ on a social media posting,” he said.
Sareini said he was left with the impression that no action had been taken about the online threat, and he thought that all threats against school should be taken seriously.
Zelazny said the case was thoroughly investigated, as is every case that is brought before them. He said that they follow protocols and make consistent decisions.
Sareini said he wants to know the specific protocol that is followed anytime a threat is made against a school.
McClanahan said they would try to identify the decision process that was used in this specific case.
Sareini asked about the process to get a permit to hold a protest event.
McClanahan said that the city has free speech zones outside Henry Ford Centennial Library, east of the police and court building, and outside of the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. She said gathering in city parks is also permitted.
McClanahan said if a crowd moves into the streets, the Police Department’s job then becomes to protect the public, which is why Dearborn has coordinated heavily with its law enforcement partners. She said the city will work to ensure that people’s constitutionally protected right to protest can occur, and that the city is protecting the public’s interest.
McClanahan said the recent protest gathering that occurred inside the Michael A. Guido Theater at the COMPAC was a result of a paid rental. She said it was confirmed that the crowd did not exceed the legal fire capacity and that they did not observe anything that was of concern.
Sareini said the current situation in the Middle East is a very tense situation.
“You used to get the news and decipher what you want,” he said. “Now you pick the news to match what you feel, and that’s the way it is in the world.”
Sareini said many community members are worried about people who are in the region where the conflict is occurring.
He said he wants to make sure that residents here remain calm and safe.
Councilmember Ken Paris expressed concern over protests that begin in a park and then, unplanned, take to the streets, as happened the evening of Oct. 18 when people at Ford Woods walked to Fordson High School. He said that initiating an unplanned walk puts both the public and the participants in danger.
Paris said that because this has occurred before, police officers are beginning to anticipate the unexpected. He fears, however, that without planning and barricades, a car might get through.
“If something happens, if some car mows down a group of people in that demonstration coming down Ford Road, who is it on?” he asked. “Are we going to be pulled into any lawsuit for these injuries and anything worse?”
Paris reiterated that it must be conveyed to event planners that demonstrations require tremendous resources and advance planning to keep people safe.
At the request of Councilmember Kamal Alsawafy, Zelazny confirmed that he was not aware of any credible threats of which residents need to be aware at this time.
Zelazny said his recent intelligence briefing indicated a low credible threat rate, which demonstrates how social media can cause people to become upset over a perceived danger.
Councilmember Mustapha Hammoud praised the Police Department for the respect and professionalism with which the police officers treated the people demonstrating.
He thanked the officers and the city’s leadership team for giving people an opportunity to let their voices to be heard.
Councilmember Robert Abraham acknowledged that Dearborn residents will publicly protest, and city officials are prepared to respond appropriately.
“We are prepared, we have the resources,” he said. “We have to fundamentally say this is who we are. This is the fabric of our people, our community, and we can guide it, but we can’t direct it.”
Abraham also said that it is important to provide resources now to protect demonstrators and deal with the cost later, rather than leaving people unprotected and regretting it if people are hurt.