A View of Impotent Outrage

My hometown has 2,770 police officers, a population somewhere in the neighborhood of 700,000 people, and a violent crime rate that's down about 10% from last year.

It also has, to date, lost 230 people to homicide, most of which are from shootings.



Our police chief and mayor tried their damndest to put a happy face on this statistic during a news conference this morning, pointing out that at the same time period in 2009, there had been 257 homicides.  They also noted that five people that had been arrested in connection to a series of unrelated, but nevertheless deadly, shootings over the weekend.

Not convicted, mind you.  Arrested.

And we still have about half of the year, complete with kids returning to school in a couple of weeks and the cold of winter, ahead of us.  If the current pace of homicides keeps up, according to an article in today's Detroit News, the city is on pace to hit at least 350 murders - the highest number in over 10 years.

The most shocking thing about this is not the fact that Detroit is working hard to reclaim the "Murder Capital" title that brought the city shame back in the 1980's.  It's not the fact that the Detroit Police Department, still under a Federal consent decree due to years of mismanagement, corruption, and claims of brutality, seems woefully unable to stop the violence because of budget constraints and staffing shortages.  It's not even, sadly enough, that so many people - especially young people under the age of 30 - are dying needlessly everyday in Detroit.

It's that no one seems to be in a rush to do anything to fix the problem - or seems to be woefully unaware of how to address it.

After a state law was passed over a decade ago lifting residency requirements for municipal workers, Detroit saw over 1,500 of its police officers leave the city.  Recently, Mayor Dave Bing launched Project 14,  a program designed to provide incentives including reduced mortgages, grants for renovations, and in some cases a new home free and clear to officers willing to return to Detroit.

To date, only about 200 officers have expressed interest in the program.  That's about 8% for the current DPD roster, or 14% of the officers officially lost after the residency requirements were struck down.  Only one officer, a mayoral bodyguard, has taken ownership of a home.  As of the beginning of the month, he still had not moved in because of ongoing renovations.  Charlie LeDuff, a reporter with the local Fox affiliate, interviewed other officers who expressed a reluctance to return.  Why?  They didn't feel safe in Detroit.  In another interview, Mr. LeDuff quoted city council member and former DPD Deputy Chief Gary Brown as saying he carries a loaded sidearm when he goes to his neighborhood pharmacy.  Mr. LeDeff also noted that retirements were occuring in DPD at such an increased pace, the department had run out of retirement badges for the officers.

What does it say about a city when police officers, who've sworn to protect and serve a community, are too afraid to live in it?

And does that message pale in comparison to the community's reaction to it?

Which has been more shootings.

During a 24-hour period, between 6:00 am on August 12th and 6:00 am August 13th, 15 people were shot, six of whom died.  The following weekend, another spate of deadly shootings began when a 16-year-old boy walked into a McDonald's restaurant, pulled a gun, jumped the counter and began stealing money.  A retired DPD officer intervened, and the boy fired on him.  A shootout ensued, ending with a hail of bullets, and the young robber shot to death.  In a period between 6:00 am on August 18th and 6:00 am August 19th, six more people were shot, most in seemingly random attacks.

DPD has responded with mandatory 12 hour shifts for its officers, and has moved desk officers from administrative tasks to foot patrols.  It comes at a cost, however, of about $250,000 a week in overtime to a police force and a city already deeply in debt.  Stephen Henderson, a Detroit Free Press editor, noted in a recent article that the cost could have been avoided, or even reduced, had the city chosen to actively pursue all the suggestions outlined in a report it commissioned from McKinsey & Co. (paid for by a grant from the Kresge Foundation) over a year ago.  Unfortunately, some of the suggestions and proposals are encountering pushback and delays because of union rules, legal obstacles, and a reluctance on the part of the city and its officials to embrace change.

Because of this, a drive has begun among some of Detroit's citizens to solve the problem individually.  Some community groups, including the Detroit 300, a local group of activists who've banded together to work in conjunction with the police citywide to fight crime, protect neighborhoods, and encourage people to report any criminal activity, are doing everything they can to improve the situation.  Others, like community activist Delores Bennett, are working within their neighborhoods to make the city a better, safer place by providing activities for children, cleaning up blight, and providing shelter for the homeless.  Facebook has groups like "It Takes a Village, Y'all," launched to give information on everything from local job opportunities and community events, to warnings about criminal activity - a virtual village designed to look out for and uplift one another.

Still, the shootings continue.  The fear continues to mount.  A lot of work has been done, but there's still a lot to do, and there doesn't seem to be a complete, cohesive plan to solve this massive problem.  Mayor Bing, Chief Godbee, and numerous reporters on all the local media outlets have asked repeatedly, "Where is the outrage?"

I wonder where's the teamwork?  Until we're all collectively outraged enough to get past our fear, our mistrust, our malaise, our desire to flee from the problem instead of teaming up to go to and work on the problem, the shootings will continue and Detroit will blow itself completely away.

And that's too big of a crime to allow to happen.

More later.  Until then, speak up, look out, and stay safe.