COURTESY OF HERSCHEL FINK

Detroit Police Department, led by then-
Chief Police Commander (and later City 
Council President) Gary Brown, who 
told Dre’
s concert promoters backstage 
that power to the show would be cut if 
the explicit video was shown. The tour, 
not wanting to disappoint the thousands 
in the audience, agreed to pull the video. 
The exchanges were openly recorded by 
a tour film crew.
“The video didn’
t show anything you 
wouldn’
t see on a Sunday night on the 
Sopranos,
” said Fink, who was called in to 
defend Dr. Dre.
The next day, the tour was scheduled 
to go to the Palace of Auburn Hills. 
Fink went to federal court that day and 
obtained an injunction from U.S. District 
Court Judge Nancy Edmunds to prevent 
any interference with the show by police. 
The show at the Palace featured the 
explicit video introduction.
When the tour left Michigan, the pro-
moters sued Detroit and settled for their 
attorney fees. Former Mayor Dennis 
Archer issued a public statement that 
conceded the possibility of an unconsti-
tutional “prior restraint” on behalf of the 
Detroit Police officers.
 Six months later, Dre and his produc-
ers released a DVD of the tour with some 
bonus tracks that included a 10-minute 
segment titled “Detroit Controversy,
” 
depicting the heated exchanges between 
the police and promoters at the Joe Louis 
show. The officers in the video sued on 
eavesdropping and other tort theories. 
At first their case was tossed out, but on 
appeal the court said dismissal of the 
claim was premature. 
“The wheels of justice turn slowly,
” 
Fink said. The case bounced between 
courts for nearly a decade before finally 

reaching the Michigan Supreme Court, 
which ruled in Dre’
s favor.

RESPECT OF JOURNALISTS 
At the Hensel Award event, former 
reporter David Ashenfelter said in a 
video tribute, “I’
m one of many reporters 
Herschel has bailed out of trouble over 
the years.
” 
During the 1990s, Ashenfelter wrote a 
series of stories about a Wayne County 
judge accused of using racial and ethnic 
slurs in phone conversations with her 
ex-husband. She was trying to use her 
position to convince police he was at 
fault in their child custody dispute. 
Ashenfelter got the tapes from the 
estranged husband. “We ran a story in 
the Free Press that was hugely controver-
sial. She sued us both for $100 million in 
federal court. Here’
s what happened: She 
got booted off the bench. With Herschel’
s 
help, I got removed from the lawsuit.
”
Fox 2 News reporter Ron Wolcheck, 
well-known for his “Hall of Shame” seg-
ments, called Fink a “real bulldog” in a 
video tribute. “Herschel Fink really likes 
me because, quite frankly, I get sued a 
lot and he gets to defend me and make 
a lot of money. But because of my great 
reporting and Herschel’
s great lawyering, 
we always win.
” In his trademark gravelly 
voice, he added, “Herschel Fink, you’
re in 
the Hall of Fame!”
According to Detroit Free Press Editor 
Peter Bhatia, “(Fink) has a way of telling 
lawyers and city officials that the law is 
on our side, and he does it with humor 
and incredible effectiveness. I think every 
news organization needs someone like 
Herschel … If we don’
t have people like 
Herschel fighting for us, ultimately our 
freedoms are at risk.
” 

FINK ON 
HATE SPEECH

“My problem with shutting down hate 
speech is how do you define it? Do you 
define it as anything? Any speech that 
disturbs your sensibilities?” he asked. 
“If so, then you are throwing out the First 
Amendment.”
According to the Supreme Court, he said, 
unless speech is going to inspire imminent 
violence, it has to be allowed.
“A recent Pew Research Center survey 
found 49 percent of college students do not 
support free speech if it’
s designated as 
‘
hate speech.’
 That basically translates to 
a desire to censor speech they don’
t agree 
with or that disturbs their sensibilities or 
their wrongheaded idea that universities 
must be ‘
safe places’
 free from disturbing 
ideas. 
“Of course, the opposite should be the rule 
at colleges and universities,” he continued. 
“In other words, they have no understanding 
of nor tolerance for the very concept of free-
dom of speech, the concept that underlies 
the First Amendment.
“Once you start censoring speech, where 
do you stop? That’
s a difficult national 
debate, but I think it comes back to the core, 
a free marketplace of ideas and that dissent-
ing voices should be allowed to be heard.
“These are issues that are going to have 
to be hashed out over a period of time and 
we’
ll see how that turns out. But I’
m very 
bothered by the lack of tolerance for dissent-
ing opinion, principally conservative opinion, 
which is being taken as hate speech.”

32 | JANUARY 9 • 2020 

“Once you start censoring speech, where do 

you stop? That’s a diffi
 cult national debate, 

but I think it comes back to the core, a free 

marketplace of ideas and that dissenting voices 

should be allowed to be heard.”

— HERSCHEL FINK

TOP: Herschel Fink and his family pose with one of 
his early press passes at the Hensel Award event.

Jews in the D

continued from page 31

