Detroit City Council demands ‘Justice for Trayvon’

This piece initially ran this morning as my Detroit News column. The boss asked me to run it here, and when he says "jump," I say "how high?" Before reading you should know that - as a result of Michigan's Emergency Manager law - the Detroit City Council no longer has any real power. Despite that, they've been allowed to stay in their positions and collect their pay as the city circles the drain. They use their time in interesting ways... Detroit City Council has finally proven its worth. Not content with their image as a gaggle of worthless, backbiting has-beens, it members have stepped up to the plate and done. . . something. Let the record show that, when the chips were down, the Council was there – ready to make the tough calls.

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On Tuesday, with a unanimous vote, they supported a resolution supporting an NAACP petition demanding that federal civil rights charges be filed against George Zimmerman. Sure, the city’s in bankruptcy. Detroit is flat broke. Pensioners are about to lose their livelihoods, and Southeast Michigan has sailed over the precipice of financial ruin. All of this happened while the Council continued, for decades, to squawk at each other. They were desperate to ignore real issues and target each other’s weaknesses in a never-ending battle that placed personal pride above civic responsibility, appearances above reality, and phony race-baiting above solutions. People like JoAnn Watson, Kwame Kenyatta, and Monica Conyers fiddled while epidemic crime, blight, poverty, and decay took hold of Detroit’s neighborhoods.

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Outsiders were portrayed as the source of the city’s ills as the Council continued on its path to ruin. Everything that occurred within Detroit’s borders was blamed on something outside of Motown. Theft was the fault of the national economy. Poverty was the result of American racial norms. Violence was simply a reaction to hostile suburbanites. As a result, Detroit has become a national laughing stock. Our city is best known for death, decay, and collapse. Far from a functional metropolis, we’ve become a warning sign. “Here there be dragons.” “Abandon all hope.” “Next stop the Twilight Zone.” Now that they’ve been stripped of any real authority, the Council has pulled itself together and said “enough is enough.” They’re no longer content to be ignored. They are important, and they want to make sure you know that. Our country faces issues of the utmost seriousness and – convention be damned – the Detroit City Council has decided to weigh in. ...On the Zimmerman verdict. One might think that presiding over the highest murder rate in the United States might draw their attention away from such issues, but no. The death of Trayvon Martin – six states away – has not escaped the watchful eye of Detroit’s Council. They’re nothing if not attentive. There’s no way to know how many people were shot this past weekend in Detroit. A call to police is no guarantee that a shooting will be investigated or even show up in official DPS records. We think over 400 were murdered last year but, honestly, there’s really no way to know the actual number. The odds are that our official crime statistics woefully under-represent the facts and, thanks to decades of mismanagement, they’ll continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But, hey. Who cares? The Council will offer no resolutions for homegrown crime victims and self-defense will not be tolerated. A “white Hispanic” shot a black teenager in Florida. That’s the kind of thing that a savvy Council member can exploit while they lean back, twiddle their thumbs, and watch our local crime rates soar. Thank God we continue to pay these people to guide our city.

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