Illusion of control
Our institutions are afraid of us. This fear is driving authoritarian and controlling behaviors, eroding the fragile fabric of our civic life. The decision by the Mayor and the Detroit Police Department to close down 11 public parks during the annual fireworks display has sparked renewed outrage. Once again, we are told “public safety” is the most important thing. And this “safety” can only be achieved by a heavy police presence, scrutinizing people, restricting what they can carry, and where they can go. Getting much less attention than the park closures are reports of check points set up around the downtown area. People were stopped and forced to produce identification, often before being allowed to go to their own homes.
The restrictive atmosphere surrounding the fireworks comes on the heels of the aggressive shut down by the police of Cinco de Mayo. In Southwest Detroit, groups of young people, mostly black and brown, were hustled off by police. Those attempting to document the police aggression found themselves arrested and threatened with having their cameras confiscated. The Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability is also getting reports of similar repressive behavior at smaller gatherings in local parks in both Southwest and on the East Side.
It is obvious that the DPD fears any gathering of young people, especially if they are black and brown. The DPD is sending a message that they will disrupt, intimidate, and arrest people who have the audacity to enjoy a day in the park.
This restriction of public space was echoed by the Wayne State Board of Governors who shifted from its in person public meeting to an online event as a way of avoiding protests. This decision is part of more than a decade of efforts by universities to limit the scope of the Michigan Open Meetings Act which was designed to ensure that public bodies operate with transparency and with opportunities for public input.
The Board of Governors meeting was the first meeting after the decision to remove the encampment of students who were demanding divestment from corporations providing weapons and aid to the Israeli government. The removal revealed a level of hostility toward students that has prompted community concern about university practices. A sign of how shocked the community was by the level of force employed against peaceful students is the letter from 60 clergy. The letter had to be submitted virtually. It explained it was motivated by “our deep disappointment in the decisions that you made as leaders.”
Faith leaders called upon the board to “take meaningful steps” to reconcile with students and community members “you have harmed,” starting with a formal apology. The letter also urges the board to commit to meeting with members of Students for Justice in Palestine to “truly listen to their concerns and hopes for a more just and equitable world.”
Detroiters have experienced a persistent effort by the Duggan administration to restrict opportunities for open debate, dialogue, and discussion of important issues. We have seen massive investment into technologies designed to restrict and record our movements about the city and a license to police to use force against peaceful public gatherings. We have seen public comments restricted to one or two minutes, endured by officials who seem to ignore them as they make decisions.
In such an atmosphere, anger and frustration are bound to increase. Bad decisions by institutions are bound to be made, and civil life becomes increasingly difficult and divisive. In the name of safety, the institutions in our city are abandoning any pretext of respect for democratic practices or for the free movement of people.
Democracy not only dies in darkness. It dies when people are isolated from each other, when the cultural practices that bind us are disrupted, and when our best thinking and sensibilities are ignored.
The diminishment and manipulation of public space gives the power structure an illusion of control that is bound to break. The desire for freedom, to engage openly and joyfully with one another, and to participate in the decisions that shape our lives are impulses that grow deep in the spirit of our city. They will not be controlled.