A community in Michigan is criticizing the Livonia Police Department for being biased in reporting clients.
Delisha Upshaw, a concerned citizen, recently called out the LPD for selectively posting arrests on their social media.
According to Upshaw, she routinely sees notices of alleged crimes perpetrated by Blacks in the suburban Detroit city posted on the department’s Facebook, even some that are not violent, according to Metro Times.
She submits that the police purposely withheld information about the arrest of a man that beat a 13-year-old teen at the local recreation center on June 8.
She said on Facebook that after LPD was called and the child’s mother arrived at the scene, the mom saw “the attacker had not been handcuffed or restrained.”
Upshaw continued to say the attacker continued to use “racial insults” in front of the police and only attempted to run after realizing he was about to be arrested.
“LPD didn’t include this arrest in their series of ‘who we arrested this week’ posts,” she wrote.
The police posted his arrest on its Facebook platform on June 26.
The department detailed the incident, saying Moeez Irfan, 29, “physically bumped into a 13-year-old male on a stairway, hurled racial slurs at him, and struck him in the head multiple times” and has been charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, resisting & obstructing police, and habitual offender third offense.
Police say both the child and the man were taken to hospitals. The minor was taken to a hospital to be treated for the injuries he sustained in the attack. Irfan was placed under psychiatric evaluation.
Once Irfan was released on June 16, he was arrested and booked in Wayne County Jail with a $50,000 bond and received a probable cause conference scheduled for June 29.
Many commented on the post of Irfan’s arrest. A couple asked what took the police so long to post.
“Wow, how scary. How are we just now hearing about this?? I’m glad to know he’s in custody,” one resident wrote.
“I was wondering how long it would take them to post about this,” said another resident.
The teen reportedly suffered a concussion and memory loss and wasn’t able to finish seventh grade because of the incident.
