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