Detroit retirees and residents protest phony bankruptcy declaration outside federal courthouse in 2013.
The ballot or — ???
Low Detroit voter turn-out expected Nov. 2 not the fault of voters
No city election in the past 50 years has turned back the devastation of Detroit by banks, corporations, police state, prison nation
November 2, 2021 updated Nov. 3, 2021
VOD Editor Diane Bukowski
VOD Editor Diane Bukowski posted the following comment on a Detroit Free Press article by Darren A. Nichols decrying the low voter turn-out for city elections that is expected Nov. 2, 2021. Detroiters marched for George Floyd. Now it’s time to to vote (freep.com)
Nichols, a Black journalist, called on Detroiters to follow up their participation in world-wide protests against the horrific execution of George Floyd by Minnesota police on May 25, 2020 by voting in the city’s Nov. 2 elections. Readers responded with a variety of racist slurs against Detroiters. Bukowski responded to Nichols, the Freep, and its readers:
Larry Young of Highland Park cleans out sewer during floods of Aug. 2014, caused by DWSD lay-offs and takeover. Floods continue to the present day under the Great Lakes Water Authority.
“Quit blaming voters in Detroit for the low turn-out in the elections. Detroit and its residents have been devastated for decades by plant closings, the privatization of City of Detroit services and elimination of City jobs, and the closures of most Detroit Public Schools under repeated state takeovers.
Then came the state takeover of the City of Detroit under Kevyn Orr, with the crowning blow: the phony Detroit city bankruptcy in 2014 engineered by the corporations and the banks. Nearly all of the city’s assets including its world-class Detroit Water and Sewerage Department have been sold off, privatized, and otherwise liquidated. Detroiters no longer own any public assets to speak of.
Meanwhile, police who have the same negative attitudes expressed in the comments below, have been allowed to run rampant, killing and brutalizing Detroiters, while courts including prosecutors and judges send tens of thousands more to prison as part of the
country’s mass incarceration schemes, which impact people of color far beyond their representation in the population.
NO CITY ELECTION HAS EVER TURNED ANY OF THIS AROUND….
even that of Coleman Young, whose administration for decades sanctioned rampant police brutality, frame-ups and other misconduct despite getting rid of S.T.R.E.S.S. Is it any wonder that Detroiters don’t view voting as the solution to the horrendous conditions here?
Below: article on 1971 Rochester St. Massacre (NYT) and Detroit Channel 4 coverage of drug sting in 1992. Sgt. James Harris, Mayor Young’s bodyguard, was key player in both.
Sgt. James Harris was among 3 Detroit S.T.R.E.S.S. cops charged in shooting of five Wayne Co. Deputy Sheriffs one fatal, during Rochester St. Massacre, 1971. — New York Times article March 25, 1972.
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