It would be lunacy to send troops to Detroit, as Trump has threatened.
“This is pre-emptive warfare.”
"I'm going to do something, that I can tell you, because we're not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore ... Oakland is a mess ... We're not going to let this happen in our country." – Donald Trump.
The starting point of this discussion is the actual numbers.
BLM is straight up about police brutality. Black people are murdered six times more than White people during interactions with the police. They are more likely to be stopped in the first place with or without cause, and 85 percent of those stops result in some sort of arrest, compared to 70 percent for White people who are generally only pulled over with cause. They are more likely to be tased or beaten, as well.
Despite the violent-crime, fear-mongering hysteria? Overall crime is down dramatically since the 1990's. But murder by police is the exact opposite of this trend. Let that sink in. Way less crime, way more extra-judicial murder by pig.
If overall crime is down, why have we militarized the police with tanks, military grade armor, and chemical weapons? Of course, we can go back to Cheney's wet dream of 911; terrorism was Bush's excuse for militarization, and the drill they ran in Boston for one teenager under Obama was a complete display of a city under military siege. Is it just weapon sales, or something more nefarious? Why now does the Turd want to sick the Feds on us?
“Way less crime, way more extra-judicial murder by pig.”
There are think tanks funded by the richest people in the US who fear they could lose their very extreme privilege should the people become seriously fed up with living in poverty. They are paid to research everything from media, to video games, to social media to branding and marketing. Despite the knuckle-dragging candidates they vet and sell us to keep the status quo, they include scientists and social engineers who know climate change is a factor, and they know that when you outsource jobs you profit more but risk an unemployed populace that cannot purchase your products. Yet they are paid handsomely to tell us everything is "great" and we are doing awesome.
The whole country has suffered since the 90's, poverty levels are near or above the Great Depression levels. They sell us "simplify!' and "declutter" as a way to "free" ourselves to the joys of not being able to afford damn near anything.
They fear a class war, that we will rise up. This is pre-emptive warfare.
None has suffered worse than my Detroit. The auto industries and surrounding cottage industries that supported it are vast hulking piles of rubble and decay. The gorgeous neighborhoods of my youth are reflected in my own home. I can afford food, maybe a cheap ass picture to hang, but my windows are being held in with duct tape. Detroit houses are crumbling of poverty, repair is expensive and food and heat matter more to existence. In a repeat moment of Joe Kennedy sweeping up foreclosed properties during the Depression, hundreds of acres of neighborhoods are being bought up by the rich, and torn down for some future gentrification project. After all, there has been talk of moving Wall Street here should oceans rise. We have all the fresh water.
“Detroit houses are crumbling of poverty.”
Cars made abroad for pennies on the dollar cost more than my parents paid for their house. We can no longer afford the cars we used to make and were able to buy easily. We are all working more than one job to get by.
We have always been a racially charged powderkeg since the 1967 riots. Now, whatever you want to say about Mayor Coleman Young, he made it mandatory to live in the neighborhoods you patrolled if you chose to be a policeman. The unions eased racial tensions by equalizing income and allowing workers to feel brotherhood with one another. That too, has all been rescinded.
Not ONE fire, no vandalism, no theft or looting has happened as a result of the peaceful BLM protests in Detroit. Yet, gun sales are way the f*ck up. By replacing "terrorism" with race war, Trump and his directors have fed the fears of Black people from Whites and the pigs, and White people from Blacks and the pigs. And the pressing narrative of "Private Property" having more value than people will not wash to those of us who have lost nearly everything.
So, what will happen if the Orange Hitler sends troops here because he hates cities that oppose him, and his ego doesn't allow that? Our options are few.
1 - All hide in our houses until the boogieman calls victory and brings the troops home. Uh, never gonna happen; he will keep them here until November.
2 – Governor Whitmer calls up the State Police to defend our cities against black-ops kidnappers. Unlikely.
3 - Shit gets real. Sorry to be crude, but this will escalate a completely peaceful movement to deadly. We aren't cappuccino lapping, vegan, pacifists. (Not that all of Portland is, but please. This is Detroit.) We have survived poverty, abuse, pandemic and are strapped. You are more likely to see an RPG here than a hockey stick aimed at the gas canisters. It could get really ugly.
“This will escalate a completely peaceful movement to deadly.”
In this scenario, reaction to federal violence (survival mode self-defense) will be painted as cause for more violence. It will reinforce Trump's delusional portrayal of us. I woke to bad dreams of all these kids raised on urban warfare in video games, now adults on both sides of the fight, sniping from shells of burnt out factories. Then the sound cannons and microwave cannons were brought out.
This is on the ego of one man, but could only happen with the Military Industrial Complex and the 1%'s blessings. I have seen few, if any Democrats in DC speak out about it. Think now, about real estate. Portland, Detroit, Chicago, all have been targeted for a federal response. Why?
The second most dangerous place in the US is Memphis, Tennessee, with a Democratic mayor in a soundly Repubican state. Birmingham, Alabama is third, -- the same. Yet no troops for their violence. Why?
The pattern to me is post-industrial water access. But I tend to look at the bigger picture.
All I know, is Detroit is no Portland, and this inciting of violence by Trump will not go down the way they think it will. I pray the kids in the military shooting at other families in our own cities will say "Fuck this shit, this is not what I signed up for, killing our own." Its gonna bring a whole new meaning to the word "triggered" when we all have actual triggers too.
It would be lunacy sending troops to Detroit, Michigan. One can only hope someone talks Trump down before his morning snort of Adderall.
Diane Gee is a lifelong resident of Detrot.
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