How Detroit's Police Chief Saved His City from Black Lives Matter

September 14, 2020 By T.R. Clancy

Detroit Will Breathe, the Motor City's BLM franchisee, won a hollow victory last week when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that bars Detroit police from using certain non-lethal tactics on "peaceful protesters."

Detroit police chief James Craig responded to the TRO with a shrug.  It changes nothing, he told reporters, because that's how his department always handles peaceful protesters.  "Every time we've had to use less-than-lethal force, it's been to address violence by protesters, resisting arrest, or when they've tried to take over an intersection in violation of the law."

Compared to the conflagrations BLM has incited in cities like Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and even Kenosha, Detroit Will Breathe has been an epic flop.  Drawing mostly small crowds and desperate for media attention, DWB's been stifled from the get-go by Chief Craig's zero-tolerance approach to thugs and looters posing as demonstrators.

The first three nights after George Floyd's death, when radicals — most from out of town and some armed with bricks and railroad spikes — ignored a curfew and tried to turn the city into another Minneapolis, Detroit police pushed back hard, using tear gas and making over 140 arrests.  That quieted things.  A few days later, Detroit Will Breathe somehow finagled a meeting with Mayor Mike Duggan and Chief Craig to lay out their list of demands, like "demilitarizing the police" and making Detroit a sanctuary city.  Group organizer and Keeper of the Bullhorn Tristan Taylor felt cocky enough to brag to reporters that the meeting "was on our terms" because "[t]he movement is strong."  But not strong enough to mau-mau Duggan and Craig, who nodded pleasantly and then lost their copies of the list........

A few weeks ago, bored with peacefully marching all over without a news crew in sight, DWB decided to try occupying a major downtown intersection.  After an hour of demonstrators defying orders to disperse, police moved in and arrested 44 DWB members, encountering the predictable violent resistance.  When the inevitable hue and cry was raised over how rough some of the arrests were ("I've never seen a use of force that looks good," Craig remarked), the chief stood his ground.  "I am not going to let any group set up a Seattle zone of lawlessness here in the city of Detroit," Craig said.  "That is non-negotiable."........."Detroit Will Breathe, you are not welcome. Go." ........To Read More...