"My husband, Rev. Edward Pinkney, is being followed by a special investigator. The financial expenditure to hold hearings and trials, and now to hire this person, could be spent to lift our community out of poverty. On April 15, 2005, justice in Berrien County took a giant step backwards. I am ashamed to claim Berrien County, Michigan as my home -- a county that is known for police beating and killing of Blacks. Berrien County will forever be known as the county where Judge Paul Maloney stole an election from the people of Benton Harbor. Judge Maloney is a well-known racist. The people of Benton Harbor believe it was all about race. I, however, believe it was about the "haves": Whirlpool, Cornerstone Alliance, and Gov. Granholm. My husband was charged with four felonies and one misdemeanor, "crimes" that were created by the Berrien County justice system. I attended my husband's "voter fraud" recall trial every day, and trust me, it was not about justice. In March 2006, my husband's first trial ended in a mistrial. There were two Blacks on the jury. My husband had complained for five years about the systematic exclusion and under-representation of Black jurors in the Berrien County court system. When his second trial had an all-white jury in our city, which is 96% Black, I knew this would be a problem. Midway through the trial the Judge locked the Courtroom to spectators, who could only come in before the session began. Security was increased. The jury reaction was to retreat into the blind desire to uphold the system as in the South, where a Black man's word meant nothing. The prosecutor Gerald Vignansky's poisonous behavior had the obnoxious odor of a racist. This man fabricated and falsified evidence, bribed witnesses, and then threatened his own witness because he would not perjure himself. We must stand up and defend democracy."
— Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney
"On July 2, 2007, at 4 a.m., a cross-burning ceremony took place in Benton Harbor on the front lawn of Addie Kyle, a well-known Black woman and resident for over 40 years. The Supreme Court banned cross burnings carried out with the intent to intimidate. Cross burnings are an instrument of terror and are inextricably intertwined with the history of the Ku Klux Klan, which following its formation in 1866, imposed a reign of terror throughout the South, whipping and murdering Blacks…Wilson Chandler, a graduate of Benton Harbor High School, was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the NY Knicks. He received several death threats saying, 'Mr N******, you will never sign that million dollar contract.' When do the people stand up and say no more?"
— Rev. Edward Pinkney
"The homeless have no hope for a job, no vision. Some have no education to get the jobs that are here today. It sometimes makes people insane. The government could build halfway homes and furnish them."
— Orlandis Page, a homeless man
Mary Carter, a Benton Harbor senior citizen, stands in the historic Jean Klock Park overlooking Lake Michigan. Whirlpool and the developers are trying to turn the town’s park into an expensive golf course.
PHOTO/DAYMONJHARTLEY.COM
"People are desperate. They are taking aluminum off houses or stealing air conditioners to sell the copper. One man was electrocuted trying to get copper off a phone pole. The economy is forcing people to do things they've never done. The corporations are taking over, destroying the neighborhoods, not caring that what they do to people. It's all about making money."
— Mary Carter
"The 'leaders' of Benton Harbor have taken out a mortgage on the future of our children. The people have been given a bad check. Mark Mitchell, Marcus Robinson, Rose Red Hunt, Greg Vaughn, City Manager Pete Mitchell, Rev. James Atterberry, and many pastors and commissioners -- you know who you are. [GOD] is watching you. Stop the take-over by Whirlpool and Harbor Shores."
— Rev. D. Smith
"Benton Harbor has many water shut-offs. Why can't they put the water on and then make arrangements for people to pay? This is not white people. This is my own race. We have incompetent people as our City Officials. I am getting petitions and maybe someone will listen and not treat us as nobody."
— Effie Y. Brown, a life-long resident
