Where we stand
Mayor Mike Duggan is demonstrating the kind of moral bankruptcy that contributes to the authoritarian takeover of our lives. He has disgraced the legacy of our city and placed himself on the side of those who pursue personal gain over principle. He has shown a complete lack of understanding of the dangers we are all facing at this moment.
In a recent CNN interview, Duggan credited the Trump administration for helping Detroit’s violent crime reduction. While the comment would be outrageous at any time, it has to be judged in the larger context to which Duggan has now contributed.
First, there is the question of distorting facts. At a time when the federal government is firing people for reporting basic labor statistics and threatening to investigate the mayor and police of Washington D.C. for manufacturing crime statistics, Duggan chose to join the side of distorting truths established by statistical evidence.
It is well understood that crime in Detroit has been on the downward slope for more than three decades. To attribute any impact on crime to an administration that is itself engaging in countless illegal acts demonstrates the breadth of Duggan’s ambition, but not his capacity to reason, or to understand the dangers of this political moment.
Second, this comment “disappears” the struggles of people for a safer community life. Just as tyrants rewrite history to exclude all that holds the possibility of projecting deeper meaning and understanding of human creativity, Duggan ignored the work of countless community groups, churches, block clubs, and organizations over decades to foster care and concern in our communities.
Third, this comment links Duggan to those who curry favor with tyrants in the hope of personal gain. Duggan has joined the universities, legislators, news media, and filmmakers who are jumping up and down to show their support for policies and practices they know are inhuman, destructive, and deadly.
By placing his own ambitions first, Duggan has demonstrated a breathtaking lack of understanding of what is actually happening in this country.
Fortunately, some leaders in Michigan are responding with a broader sense of the dangers we face. In the same week that Duggan was cozying up to Trump and federal troops marched into D.C. under the guise of a fake emergency, Michigan legislators introduced a bill to “reaffirm state sovereignty.”
“The federalization and deployment of National Guard troops into L.A. and Washington D.C. represents an unprecedented abuse of executive power,” Michigan House Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, said on Thursday, Aug. 21.
“As elected leaders, we cannot allow these actions to go unchecked.”
State Rep. Tyrone Carter, D-Detroit, and Kyle Zawacki, the Legislative Director for the ACLU of Michigan, said this bill sets out to “reaffirm state sovereignty” by requiring permission from Michigan’s governor before the military can be deployed in the state.
Rep. Carter, a former lieutenant with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, warned, “Good policing is about protecting the civilians we serve, not treating them like enemies on the battlefield.”
Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of the group Free D.C., speaking on Democracy Now, framed the dangers of this moment. She said, “What we’re seeing here is something that would be considered an act of civil war if D.C. were a state, if we had equal representation under the law.”
She concluded, “This is a moment for people who believe in equal rights to stand with D.C., because right now you’re either with D.C. or you are with tyranny. And whether it’s a corporation or anyone else in this — any other entity in this country, this is a moment where people have to decide: Are you on the side of the people, or are you on the side of this dictator and this tyranny?
Mayor Duggan is making it clear where he stands. So must the rest of us.