A grieving mother speaks out as activists continue to advocate police reform

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Marcia Kittrell spoke to a room full of community members and activists on Tuesday.

“I’ll let you mess with my money, if I had a man, you could mess with my man, but don’t you mess with my children,” Kittrell said.

Her 51-year-old son, Dante, was shot by South Bend police July 29, next to Coquillard Elementary School.

His death revamped the activism community in South Bend.

“I was at the scene,” Kittrell said. “They would not let me go to my baby.”

Activists said they believe Kittrell should have been part of the response to Dante’s mental health crisis, as he suffered schizophrenia, according to Kittrell.

“We had code words,” she said, “ways to calm him down.”

The town hall Tuesday was the second of its kind, but the first since a prosecutor ruled the police shooting a “justifiable homicide.”

Members of the public had time to ask questions or make comments. Jorden Giger, co-founder of Black Lives Matter South Bend, presented research into alternative forms of policing, particularly in mental health crises.

Two empty chairs next to the speaker podium had printed photos placed on them, one for South Bend Mayor James Mueller and one for Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski. It represented those whom organizers believe should have been in attendance.

“We want to make it known that they were invited; they opted not to come,” said Trina Robinson, President of NAACP South Bend.

Robinson called for Mueller to be voted out of office, and Ruszkowski to be fired.

“We need to understand that the mayor works for us, we do not work for the mayor,” she said. “So the mayor can’t tell us how to assemble, he can’t say we’re being divisive. He cannot tell us that we should be patient.”

Marcia Kittrell also chimed in to let the crowd know that Mueller never reached out or apologized to her, despite attending two of the same events as her where they sat near each other, she said.

Among the speakers such as Giger and Robinson was a community psychology professor at Indiana University South Bend, Dé Bryant.

“That’s part of what we’re doing tonight, is to talk about what those next steps might be,” Bryant said. “And to look at that in expansive enough way. We have low-hanging fruit that we can do quickly, as well as, what do we want in the long-run? That’s the goal for tonight.”

The police shooting was ruled a justifiable homicide, and while activists say they accept that fact, it does not change their resolve.

“The killing of Dante Kittrell was sort of part of a pattern, not an individual mistake,” said Paul Mishler, Co-Founder of the Michiana Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. :So our view, and this is especially important given what the findings from the city and the prosecutor’s office are, is we have no doubt that the officers were following protocol in what happened with Dante. But that’s even more damning, in a way, because it doesn’t need people with bad motives.”

Rather, they said it bolsters the need for a reformed police protocol to mental health emergencies, and the creation of unarmed mobile crisis response teams.

The City of South Bend is hosting a Community Action Group meeting Sept. 6 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the gymnasium of Brown Intermediate School in South Bend. The public is invited to attend.