EAST LANSING, Mich — A downtown East Lansing business owner is calling for change after another incident of weekend violence was captured on security cameras.
- Downtown East Lansing business owners are concerned about weekend violence affecting their operations.
- Ali Haider, a convenience store owner, is asking the city to reinstate a loitering ordinance.
- The previous loitering ordinance was amended in December 2020 after city council discussions.
Thursday, I showed you security footage of an incident that took place in an East Lansing convenience store. Now, I'm following up and digging into the store owner's calls for change.
WATCH: East Lansing store owners demand action on downtown weekend violence
"It's horrible to watch something like that," said Ali Haider, who owns a convenience store in downtown East Lansing.
Haider says Friday's incident, captured on security footage, wasn't the first he's experienced.
"So just before this incident happened, I actually went to the city council on Tuesday," Haider said.
I found that East Lansing used to have a loitering ordinance. Looking through the city's code archives, a section of the city's disorderly conduct ordinance previously stated in part that people could not "loiter, remain, or wander in or about a place without apparent reason and under circumstances which warrant alarm for the safety of persons or property..."
That ordinance was amended in December of 2020 after months of discussion from the city council to see what was "worth policing," according to previous city council meeting recordings.
Haider believes some of the issues he and other businesses have seen downtown stem from the lack of this ordinance.
"My ask was to bring out a loitering ordinance," Haider said.
He says that downtown safety has especially become an issue on weekends, and hopes the city will open discussions about bringing the ordinance back.
"It's a very, very crazy scene if you come between 1 am to 3 am. This downtown is crazy. It's been really hard to run a business, and it's really hard to keep employees because nobody wants to work when it isn't safe," Haider said.
As of Friday, there is no item regarding the loitering ordinance on the agenda for the next city council meeting on September 23. I'll continue to follow this issue and bring you the latest as it develops.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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