Why Police Chief Says Trump, BLM Supporters Were Treated Differently:

Detroit Police Department Chief James Craig is responding to allegations that President Donald Trump’s supporters were treated differently than Black Lives Matter supporters in recent rallies.

Craig said the difference was that the people who rallied for Trump — gathering outside the TCF Center in Detroit in response to the presidential election — were “peaceful.”

Law enforcement officers ushered Republican challengers from the TCF Center on November 4, after election officials told the challengers the room was at capacity and they couldn’t re-enter it. Although some believed they were barred from the area because of their party affiliation, the Detroit Free Press noted that both Republicans and Democrats were kept outside the ballot counting area, which challengers of both of the parties pointed out.

That was the same day the Associated Press and other sources called former Vice President Joe Biden winning Michigan.

On November 6, supporters of Trump gathered outside the TCF Center, demanding a re-count.

Detroit Will Breathe, a Black Lives Matter group that has protested police brutality in Detroit, criticized Craig for the difference in treatment between their group and those rallying for Trump, the Detroit Metro Times reported Thursday (November 12).

The publication reported that law enforcement didn’t deploy rubber bullets and tear gas toward Trump ralliers as they did toward Black Lives Matter protesters. Participants of Black Lives Matter demonstrations were teargassed and shot with rubber bullets after disobeying the curfew in place at the time, according to the Metro Times.

Detroit Will Breathe is suing the Detroit Police Department. A countersuit is also in the works, the Metro Times and Fox 2 reported.

"What they conveniently left out, they were peaceful,” Craig told Fox 2, speaking of those who gathered in support of Trump. “They were chanting and we gave them — just like we gave Detroit Will Breathe — an opportunity to exercise their right to free speech. But not one time did they attack this police department and the one instance when we made an arrest, it was made without incident and it had nothing to do with the protest. And so, factually wrong once again.”

Although some have called for Craig’s resignation, the police chief stood his ground: “I’ve said it and I will say it again: no, no. I’m not leaving. You leave.”

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