Black Lives Matter South Bend is criticizing Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow for reporting a group of kids to police after he says they ransacked a food pantry and intimidated staff.
On Wednesday Critchlow posted a video on Facebook asking for help identifying the youth. He said after loitering in the trustee’s parking lot for a while, the five boys had entered the building and gone into the free community pantry. It was closed but a key had been left in the door because staff had been restocking it with donated food.
Critchlow said staff told them the pantry was closed but they started stuffing bags with food anyway. He says they got physically aggressive with staff as they ran around the pantry and they left some of the items strewn around the parking lot when they left.
On Thursday Critchlow posted again on Facebook, saying they had identified the kids. He said rather than calling police, he initially wanted to see if a family member or community leader close to the boys could facilitate a discussion and provide guidance. But he learned they’ve been vandalizing and stealing from other local organizations over the past few weeks. He said he had contacted several people in the social services field who had attempted to provide them guidance without involving police. But since the kids were still committing the acts, he called police and filed a report.
Black Lives Matter South Bend co-founder Jorden Giger says Critchlow was not only wrong to post the juveniles’ images on social media. He says the group believes police should never be called on youth, even for violent crimes.
“It was wholly inappropriate for him, as a public official, someone with a platform, influence, who has a following, to blast these young people without really demonstrating that he made any meaningful effort to contact organizations or individuals who have influence within the Black community or the west side of South Bend, to try to course correct the behavior of these youth," Giger says.
Critchlow declined WVPE’s interview request. In a statement he said, “The incident makes me very sad but my responsibility and number one priority has to be protecting the safety of my staff and the services we provide the community. When a crime is committed, you report that to the police for them to handle.”
