An article published in by the Michigan Independent Media Center in June of 2003 titled “What Caused the Uprising in Benton Harbor?” (http://archive.michiganimc.org/newswire/display/2512/index.php) addressed this dynamic:

“‘This whole riot, it didn’t just start on Sunday. It’s been building up for ten years.’ This was the response of Rev. Pinckney, a community activist in Benton Harbor Michigan to the uprising that has been attracting national attention for the past several days. Few articles have been written about the uprisings thus far that have bothered to trace its roots beyond the death of Terrance Shurn which occurred late Sunday night, June 16th. Coverage in mainstream media tells a uniform story: Terrance Shurn, a 27 year old motor cyclist was drag racing at 100 mph when a police chase ensued, which ended in Shurn’s death as he crashed into an abandoned building. The Associated Press article, which has been circulated widely, features interviews with police officers and city officials. It includes no interviews with residents as to the circumstances of Shurn’s death or the history of race and power relations in the area, which many say fueled the riots.

Reverend Pinckney is a Benton Harbor resident involved in an ongoing effort to expose criminal injustice and corruption in the Benton Harbor court system. He is a long time community activist and the executive director of BANCO (The Black Autonomy Network Community Organization).

From his perspective, the death of Terrence Shurn and the uprising that followed were predictable outgrowths of deep injustices that are rooted in Benton Harbor and its relationship to neighboring St. Joseph. Historically, Benton Harbor was a vibrant town with the lure of factory jobs during the 30′s and 40′s and later as a resort town. Until as recently as fifteen years ago, Benton Harbor was ‘Beautiful.’ Since then, he says, ‘everything’s been taken out.’ Since he has lived there, Pinckney has seen the water department, the courthouse, the hospital and basically anything that could make money move across the river to St. Joseph. Residents of Benton Harbor don’t own anything. The fact that sixty percent of all property in Benton Harbor is owned by white absentee landlords who pull money out of the city and across the river helps provide a context to the burning of houses which took place during the riots. Pinckney insists that while the state charts unemployment in Benton Harbor at 25%, in reality it is closer to 70%. Schools in Benton Harbor receive $6,700 per student compared to $12,000 per student in St. Joseph. But economic disparity between the two cities, and the history of power and exploitation that has formed it, is only one branch of the root system as Rev. Pinckney sees it.

Serial police brutality has set the frame for race relations between Benton Harbor residents and the police force which is 99% white. Recent incidents include the strangling of young black man by police officers and the death of a seven year old boy, who was a bystander to a police chase. According to research that Pinckney has compiled, black men aged 14 to 28 are fourteen times more likely to be killed by a police officer than the national average. Given the statistics and the incidents still fresh in people’s memories, Pinckney says ‘you basically have two options when a cop wants to pull you over: you can stop and get beat up or thrown in jail, or you can keep going, knowing that it’s probably going to be worse for you… nobody wants to get pulled over by them.’”

“The City festered in that condition until the summer of 2003, when the police killing of a young black man erupted into a short and destructive outburst of rebellious anger.”

The police killed him? He died fleeing from the police and crashed into a house after they terminated the chase. He made that choice to flee. In doing so he took his life in his own hands and it ended. Fortunately he didn’t take anyone else with him. You might want to check your facts before posting inaccuracies.