By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
ANN ARBOR, MI –
About a thousand protesters marched on Governor Rick Snyder's residential neighborhood in Ann Arbor on Monday night. They marched to ask Governor Snyder to repeal the state's controversial emergency manager law.
The rally started at on the eastern edge of Ann Arbor, and about a mile and a half from Governor Snyder's house. Protesters marched, chanted and sang, hoisted signs and lit candles. They wound in a long line through the tree-lined neighborhood of gently rolling hills spotted with the occasional large house. They were greeted outside of Snyder's gated community by the governor's chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore.
Reverend Charles Williams II of Detroit's King Solomon Baptist Church told Muchmore to tell the governor that the law negates the will of voters in struggling communities.
"And we need democracy here, in Detroit, Benton Harbor, Inkster, Ecorse and Flint," Williams said.
"Will do," Muchmore said. "We'll do that. Thank you very much."
Willaims thanked him.
Muchmore says the governor wants to work with people living in financially strained communities, but that the cities must also be protected from insolvency.