Amrit Kohli of Ferndale in no way resembles a cop.
Clad in sandals and a George Floyd “Say his name!” t-shirt, the Nigerian-born Kohli is a software contractor but says he much prefers living his dream: folk singer and peace activist. He favors total change in policing, starting with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. If elected sheriff, he’d put a stop to what he says is racist law enforcement and the pursuit of non-violent offenders. And he’d “defund” the department, diverting money to mental-health programs.
Kohli’s name will be on August primary ballots in Oakland County, as the lone Democrat running for sheriff against the incumbent Republican, longtime Sheriff Michael Bouchard.
If no write-in candidate outpolls Kohli, he’ll also be listed on November ballots. Yet, Kohli isn’t running. And, if elected, he says he will not serve. The timing conflicted with his new album, he says.
“I was ready to go up against Bouchard, but it was the juxtaposition of releasing an album dedicated to George Floyd. That was a conflict,” he says, referring to the African-American man who was murdered in 2020 by a white police officer in Minneapolis, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd used a counterfeit $20.
His new album, available for listening on Spotify and other online music sites, is called “Mama, I Can’t Breathe,” said to be the last words of Floyd as he died.
“Also, I was getting significant pressure from the cease-fire movement” to drop out, Kohli adds. He’s been active in promoting a cease fire by the Israeli military in Gaza. Kohli was one of 17 people who spoke to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners on July 18, repeatedly asking the board to pass a cease-fire-in-Gaza resolution. Commissioners listened to the 90 minutes of comments, then declined to pass a resolution.
'Maybe he'll change his mind'
Kohli most certainly isn’t a police officer, and certainly wasn’t prepared for his first political campaign. But right now, although he says he’s not running, he’s all that Democrats have in Oakland County’s race for sheriff.
“Maybe he’ll change his mind” and run for sheriff after all, said Kermit Williams, vice chair of the Oakland County Democratic Party. A write-in candidate in the Democratic primary would need to outpoll Kohli to take his place on November ballots, Oakland County Election Director Joseph Rozell said.
Whoever is on ballots for the Democrats must face an incumbent widely seen as unbeatable. In six elections, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard has been bulletproof – politically, that is. Bouchard is a Republican in a county that, throughout his 25 years as sheriff, tilted steadily more Democratic. When he started as the top cop in Oakland County, in 1999, Bouchard joined a solid red slate of GOP officials, all serving under county’s late GOP standard bearer, L. Brooks Patterson.
They were backed by what seemed to be an insurmountable Republican majority on the county board of commissioners. To keep it that way, Patterson even engineered passage of a state law, applying only to Oakland County, to fend off Democratic efforts at redistricting.
Yet, since then, all of that has flipped to blue – except for the sheriff. Bouchard has found himself to be a lone Republican with a countywide office, serving with a left-of-center county board of commissioners that is not at all sympathetic to Bouchard’s history of strict marijuana enforcement.
Politically untouchable?
The current mix of commissioner is more interested in housing subsidies than a new deputies’ training center that Bouchard for years has sought. Still, despite the county’s political shift from ruby red to vivid blue, the popular Bouchard seems politically untouchable. And because of that, Democrats have consistently failed to give him serious opposition. In 2020, Bouchard defeated Vincent Gregory, who’d had a long career as a Wayne County Sheriff’s deputy but who never rose to a command job. And Gregory, who died in 2022, had been a state senator.
In two previous elections, the Democrat fielded Sgt. Jane Boudreau, an employee of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, who at one point was fired for misconduct in office, then lost a lawsuit against the department and Bouchard, filed in federal court to regain her job.
This year, Bouchard has no official opposition at all, for the top job at one of the nation’s larger police agencies. But he’s not smug or laughing about that. He sounds worried when asked about Kohli’s token opposition having gone away.
“Here’s the thing," Bouchard says. "Even though this person is not qualified even for an entry-level position in our department, he’ll poll about 40% of the vote, just by being on the ballot. But when you call 911, we don’t answer saying, ‘What’s your political party?’ I’ve said for years, Michigan needs to make this office non-partisan, like judges.
“And we need to require at least five years – that should be the bare minimum – five years of police experience. We did that for judges. That was a state law that we passed when I was in the Legislature. I’m running one of the biggest police agencies in the country."
Bouchard has spent 37 years in law enforcement, beginning as a Beverly Hills cop – in Michigan, that is. His training includes time at the FBI Academy in Virginia, as well as a major in criminal justice and police administration at Michigan State University.
A prominent Democrat, however, says that police experience and training, although desirable, shouldn’t be required by law for those seeking a county sheriff’s office.
“Police experience is strongly needed, but I look at the sheriff’s job as more of an administrator,” says Nancy Quarles of Novi, a former Oakland County commissioner, now chair of the county’s Democratic Party organization.
“As long as the sheriff surrounds himself with people who have that police experience, I think they can manage it,” Quarles says.
Making music
Bottom line? August ballots will list “Amrit Kohli” for Oakland County sheriff, and countless Democrats will unwittingly vote for him. Kohli wishes people instead bought his recordings.
“My priority is my music,” he said last week, over lunch with a reporter in Ferndale. He’s excited about his next concert. He’ll appear on Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. at Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea, 123 West Washington, in Ann Arbor.
Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com
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