Indeed, Detroit cops' behaviour towards Detroiters (or out-of-town
guests) isn't exactly exemplary.
IIRC, in 2001, there were nearly a dozen unarmed civilians shot dead
by Detroit cops in situations where the use of lethal force was
certainly questionable. (Can you count holding a rake as "being
armed"?)
Don't judge Detroit by the opinions or behaviours of its police
officers, judges, elected officials, bankers, insurance agents, pawn
shop owners, etc. etc. In short, parts of the establishment that are
meant to be enforcers of one sort or another aren't usually known for
their forward-thinking ideals or behaviour. Much of the real spirit
of Detroit exists in a tense relationship with these enforcers, who
for instance don't like people hanging out on their front porches
with friends late on summer evenings. To cops and judges, we're all
potential perpetrators. In a similar vein, and more on topic, the
independently-organized events that made house and techno viable in
Detroit weren't exactly the kinds of events that cops endorsed
either, though it was back in the day before the media scare about
raves, ecstasy, etc.
As for the future of the DEMF->now->Movement festival, if the most
regressive elements of the police force had their way, *both* the
Downtown Hoedown and the African American World Fest would have been
shut down in their second years. Thankfully, the police aren't in
charge of scheduling Hart Plaza.
My .02, of course.
-marc
At 9:34 PM -0400 5/28/03, Sheralyn wrote:
So many posts about party's being busted by the cops.
To you out of towners I'm offering a Detroiters apology for our
"wonderful police department". What can I say they are cops, some
of them are not known for using all their mental faculties when they
should :). Just a little joke to anyone in law enforcement.
As a native Detroiter the police behavior makes no sense to me. How
often does Detroit have loads of international visitors as well as
folks from other states. Maybe during the auto show and then most
of the international vistors are media or car executives from non
USA car companies. Not nearly as many people as for the
DEMF/Movement.
SO here we have this great festival that has already been reported
to be behind the 8 ball money wise, the organizers have put up their
own money pulled a rabbit out of their hat and made it happen. And
what do the Detroit police think, "oh yeah lets go harrass folks so
this can never happen again.
GO figure.
As far as conspiracy theories for the cops actions go I offer this.
Kwame Kilpatrick, our hip-hop party mayor has been in big time hot
water the last few weeks. Each day the local paper has a new
article about alleged bad behavior on the part of the mayor or his
security detail. Much of it may be untrue, but my grandmother
always said "where there's smoke there'e gotta be at least a small
fire". In any case, the mayor is being closely scrutinized by the
media and all his actions are being watched. Kwame is usually the
first one dancing and sweating it up at local party's and clubs
according to the grape vine, with his problems of late I'm sure he
had to lay low for "Movement".
Maybe he is one of those people that don't think anyone else should
have fun if he can't so he sent the cops out to bust up everyone
else's fun.
Ciao
