During a vigil turned demonstration Thursday night one participant was taken into custody.
Anthony Morgan was taken into custody while gathering with Eastern Michigan University students in front of the Ypsilanti Public Library on Michigan Avenue Thursday, in solidarity with the nine victims of the attack in South Carolina.
Morgan made a blog post about his experience on the site radicalwashtenaw.com. “I was arrested but not informed of my rights,” Morgan wrote. “I was detained and isolated without communication. I was placed in uncomfortable conditions and strategically engaged by officers in the department. I was not brutalized, I was victimized. I was not arrested, I was 'snatched' and detained.”
Morgan was released at 6 a.m. Friday. Though in a cell for several hours overnight, he was never arrested, never charged and never given due process, according to Darius Simpson, an EMU senior majoring in political science, who organized the following night's events.
"They told us 'He's a grown man. He knows what he's charged with,'" Simpson said.
The following night, Simpson went to the front of the Ypsilanti Public Library to participate in the celebration of Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the abolishment of slavery.
“I know Tony, who was arrested last night and I found that wrong,” Ypsilanti resident Peter Solenberger said at the celebration. “I wasn't there last night so I wanted to come down in solidarity tonight.”
“I think that it's important to be here,” recent EMU graduate Satasde Roberts said. “I think it's important to acknowledge today because a lot of African American's don't even know what today is, what it represents and what this means for our people. It's an important day in our community, in our lives. I think that it's important to acknowledge it and recognize it.”
