6 | JUNE 11 • 2020
editor’
s note
Learning from History
Views
Why Metro Detroit’
s Jews should stand up for justice and equality.
I
n March, the Jewish News
ran a story about Oakland
County Sheriff Michael
Bouchard and his senior staff
paying their regular visit to
the Holocaust
Memorial
Center. Sheriff
Bouchard went
there, he told us,
so that he and
his staff “can bet-
ter prepare our-
selves to not let
history repeat itself.” Many of
our readers praised local law
enforcement for their efforts.
Now, it’
s time for us in the
Metro Detroit Jewish commu-
nity to reflect on the events
of the past few weeks, and,
with that same spirit, to take
a stand with those advocating
for racial justice and local
police reform and accountabil-
ity. Because history is indeed
repeating itself.
We have witnessed the
police killing of George Floyd
in Minneapolis, the umpteenth
such police killing of a black
civilian captured on video for
the world to see (alongside
many more with no video);
the arrests and charges of the
officers responsible (including
one for second-degree mur-
der); and the weeks of ongoing
civil unrest this tragedy kicked
off around the country. That
includes in Detroit, where, to
disperse crowds and enforce
an imposed curfew, police
have shot protesters with
rubber bullets and tear gas
and targeted members of the
media, while opportunists
(most from outside the city)
have seized on the protests
as an excuse for violence and
looting. One 21-year-old
man was shot and killed, not
attributed to police. Other
Michigan cities, including
Royal Oak and Ferndale, have
held mostly peaceful protests;
elsewhere, demonstrators
smashed windows at the gov-
ernor’
s office in Lansing and
engaged in looting and van-
dalism in Grand Rapids.
Detroit is a city that, on top
of being one of the hardest-hit
nationwide in the COVID-19
pandemic, knows all too well
the devastating consequences
of police brutality toward its
black residents — and the
ways in which the destruction
of local businesses, especially
black-owned ones, over a few
days of unrest can set a pop-
ulation back for generations.
We saw this scene play out a
half-century ago in the events
of 1967, precipitated by, yes,
police violence against black
residents. These events accel-
erated the departure of many
of our Jewish families from
our homes and businesses in
Detroit and into the suburbs.
This is what I want to
say. Because of our largely
white skin, most of us in the
Ashkenazic Jewish community
have never been on the receiv-
ing end of police violence and
America’
s systemic racism.
And yet these systems have
helped shape our community
today. Prior to and follow-
ing the ’
67 unrest, we largely
fled from Detroit to Oakland
County, where we could afford
to establish our own com-
munities, assuring local law
enforcement would protect
our interests.
From 1992 until his death
last year, Oakland County
Executive L. Brooks Patterson
helped facilitate that reality,
Andrew Lapin
GET ENGAGED
Local groups in our com-
munity are engaged in
peacebuilding work from
within the Jewish commu-
nity, including the Coalition
for Black and Jewish Unity,
the JCRC/AJC, Repair the
World Detroit and Detroit
Jews for Justice.
National groups working
toward reform include the
Marshall Project, a non-
profit investigative news-
room focused on criminal
justice, and the National
Police Accountability
Project, a nonprofit that
offers legal assistance and
educational programming
to advocate for individual
rights in police encounters.
Black-owned busi-
nesses in the Detroit area
could use our support
and patronage: Log on to
visitdetroit.com/detroits-
black-owned-businesses
and check your local
neighborhood Facebook
groups for more.
Protesters and police
clash in Detroit during
demonstrations following
the May 25 police killing
of Minneapolis man
George Floyd.
ALEXANDER CLEGG/JEWISH NEWS
continued on page 10