On Saturday, Aug. 31st of Labor Day weekend, the Michigan State Fair in Novi was in full swing when suddenly shots rang out from the parking lot Southwest of the fair. It was later identified that a 14-year-old boy by the name of Darean Davis had been shot and killed by a shooting that stemmed from an argument. In the last two years, Berkley residents as well as all Michiganders have seen an outbreak in gun violence as well as violence as a whole, especially at fairs and carnivals. From just 2013 to 2022, Michigan alone saw a 25% increase in gun deaths. Berkley Days, an annual fair that happens in Berkley, Mich., has had to be shut down in both 2023 and 2024 due to fighting and possible gun violence. What does this mean for Berkley residents and Michiganders? How does this affect local or state fairs? How will this impact gun safety laws as a whole?
After the shooting at the fair on Saturday of Aug. 31st, many attending the fair said they were shaken by the incident, including Mich. state Rep. Jason Morgan, who explained that, “The whole point of the Michigan State Fair is for people to come together in community and have fun and relax, for families to worry if they’re going to be safe going to these types of things is just horrible”.
No matter the curfews, restrictions, or police present, it seems like fairs or carnivals like these often have problems with violence. As mentioned earlier, Berkley Days was shut down in 2023 due to fighting. Because of this, police and security had much more of a presence during Berkley days in 2024. While Berkley Days had been planned to be much safer in 2024 compared to 2023, fights still managed to break out the Saturday it was open, resulting in a shutdown for the second straight year.
Berkley High School Sophomore Jack Fouts, who was attending Berkley days when it got shut down in 2023 says, “I was in line for Tecnopower, and I heard about kids getting into fights, I didn’t think much of it, but I saw a bunch of people crowded around”. Once fights broke out, Fouts says that, “We all started running, and we were a little scared because we didn’t really know what was happening”. Regardless, Fouts says he “questioned the safety of it a little, but my thoughts about it didn’t really change that much”, and that he will, “100%” continue to go.
Sgt. Arnie, a police officer for Berkley Public Safety who works on helping keep Berkley Days safe says that, “in the last 2 years, Berkley Days went from just a wide open carnival, anybody can enter at any time, to being fenced off for security reasons”. He also says that for the future, “We’ll probably assign several more officers, reach out to other agencies to see if they can send a couple of guys to help out too, just to have more of a police presence there to hopefully deter any wrongdoing.” As far as violence and if it continues happening in future years at Berkley Days, Sgt. Arnie says that, “if it doesn’t stop and it continues, I think Berkley Days will eventually become like a lot of other fairs and carnivals and just be shut down for good.”
Going forward, there will continue to be more safety restrictions put in place at local and state fairs, as well as more gun laws, but the question is, will this actually prevent violence, or even save lives.
