Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


The City of Howell is denouncing hate groups following an incident Thursday evening in the downtown area that coincided with a screening of the documentary "Face of Hate" at the Historic Howell Theater.


The City issued the following release:

"Howell Community Leadership continues to denounce these messengers of hate, including messages that insinuate hate is tolerated in our community. “HATE HAS NO HOME IN HOWELL.”

The Howell community is morally strong, with people doing incredible things daily. This Michigan-based group, White Lives Matter – Michigan, is part of a larger organization called While Lives Matter – Global, a State of Michigan problem, NOT JUST HOWELL. When this group came to Howell in July, Howell Police identified several members through a traffic stop as these demonstrators illegally covered their license plates in fear of retaliation.

Yesterday, the Livingston County Sheriff's Department conducted a traffic stop in coordination with the Howell Police Department and other assisting agencies on the U-Haul vehicle as it was leaving the area, and one member of this group was identified. We would encourage the media to use FOIA so they can begin identifying these individuals and bring light to who these masked messengers of hate are and the organization they represent.

While the greater Howell community and Livingston County are proud to have business owners showing documentaries like The Face of Hate, we ask them to be careful when they work with activist organizations that bring untrained, masked, and armed individuals as “protection.” While we believe that WLM is a small group of morally misguided individuals, they are very careful and “pride” themselves on operating within the law and their constitutional rights.

The City of Howell strongly denounces the SAGE organization for irresponsibly bringing masked, untrained, armed individuals as “security” to their event.

The City of Howell and surrounding agencies had a significant presence of both uniform and plain-clothed officers in that area to ensure everyone’s safety; the decision to bring these people to a community event was dangerous, escalating, and irresponsible and should not be celebrated by local media outlets. We would ask that local businesses that decide to host events like this in the future work with local law enforcement and not allow activist groups to jeopardize the safety of people within their businesses.

The City of Howell is ready and willing to assist the State of Michigan in dealing with this organization, whose membership spans the state. The City would also recommend that the media engage in journalism instead of repeating an inaccurate past and exposing the members of this group who are allowed to hide behind masks. Let them answer the tough questions from their homes or their places of employment so their neighbors and co-workers can see what they do under the veil of a mask".