Over the last few weeks, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Detroit Police Department routinely uses deadly violence and excessive force as a normal part of their operations.  This week Detroit Will Breathe filed a federal lawsuit against the city. The lawsuit documents the use of tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, chokeholds and beatings, all without cause as people demonstrated to protest these very tactics and the white supremist culture that produces them.

The desire to “return to normalcy” is palpable. It swirled through the Democratic Convention. While much of the programming was deeply moving and surprisingly fresh, the theme of returning to predictable, certain times was woven throughout the events. The New York Times summed up the desire, noting, “The party has offered Mr. Biden, 77, less as a traditional partisan standard-bearer than as a comforting national healer, capable of restoring normalcy and calm to the United States and returning its federal government to working order.”

The 75th anniversary of the dropping atomic bombs by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki passed with little notice. The bombs killed 210,000 people and tens of thousands more were to die of radiation poisoning, minutes, days, weeks and months later. For many others, death came more slowly, after lifetimes of illness and pain. Many of the few remaining survivors continue to advocate for a nuclear free world.

Last week the Detroit News published the results of the autopsy report on the killing of Hakim Littleton. The News asserted in its headline “Autopsy backs Detroit police in shooting.” This is simply not true. But the article demonstrates how much the corporate media is dedicated to supporting the police perspective at the expense of the lives of people.

This week a strong community-based coalition brought together by Detroit City Council President Pro Tempore, Mary Sheffield and Council member Raquel Castaneda-Lopez introduced a Detroiters’ Bill of Rights that they want to see included in the revisions to the City Charter.

A group of community organizations banded together to demand an independent investigation of the Detroit Police Department and the killing of Hakim Littleton. The group recognizes a pattern of excessive force against the community by the Detroit police. In calling for an independent investigation the organizations dispute the characterization of the killing as justified. They produced a counter-video explaining, “members of the community are left with many questions, not the least of which is whether the death could have been avoided altogether if officers had used the law enforcement profession's best practices and employed de-escalation techniques.”

As people across the country struggle with the question of whether or when to open schools, a new study from South Korea was released, raising serious concerns. The study documents the likelihood that reopening schools will trigger an increase in Covid-19 cases. Many people have been counting on the fact that children under 10 appear to transmit the disease much less often than adults. This latest study, however, points out that, while this is likely true, the risk is not zero. Moreover, children between 11 and 19 can spread it at about the same rate as adults.

The police killing of Hakim Littleton is reverberating in our community. Within hours of Mr. Littleton’s death, Police Chief James Craig released body camera images of the shooting, saying it was essential to provide facts to counter mis-information being spread on social media. The slow motion video appears to show Mr. Littleton raising his arm and shooting at a police officer. It then shows Mr. Littleton falling to the ground and officers moving toward him, shooting. In the space of about 5 seconds, Hakim Littleton was dead.

This week many people around the country watched members of the Detroit Police Department drive their car into a crowd of peaceful protestors, causing serious injuries. This has prompted renewed criticism of the Detroit Police, Chief Craig and Mayor Duggan, especially after their heavy-handed responses in the first days of action after the killing of George Floyd.

This week the debate against surveillance technology in the hands of police took a deeply human turn. The ACLU of Michigan filed a complaint against the Detroit Police Department on behalf of Robert Williams, who was wrongfully identified, arrested at his home in front of his wife and daughters, and held in police custody for 30 hours. He was accused of stealing five watches from Shinola. He was released on bail, and ultimately the County Prosecutor, Kym Worthy, offered an apology saying, " This case should not have been issued based on the DPD investigation, and for that we apologize. Thankfully, it was dismissed on our office’s own motion. This does not in any way make up for the hours that Mr. Williams spent in jail.”

Mayor Duggan and some members of the City Council are out of step with the majority of the people of Detroit. Increasingly, the Mayor and some on the Council are sounding like Donald Trump in the face of growing protests against racism and police brutality. They are accusing protestors of “terrorism” and refusing to look seriously at the issues being raised by people on the streets.

As protests mount in streets, people across the country are engaging in unprecedented efforts to rethink what it means to create safe communities. At the same time, the ordinary machines of governing continue to function, moving from the mundane to outright evil.

As protests continue globally to express outrage over the police killing of George Floyd, the conversation is shifting from reform to abolition. This is a critical shift, raising the possibility of creating real community safety, provided by community members who care for one another.

One week ago, we tried to grasp what it means to have lost more than 100,000 people in a little more than 100 days. How do we comprehend the depth of this horror? The sheer enormity of the pain and suffering of people makes it difficult to absorb.  How do we grasp the stark racism carried daily in numbers reflecting the death toll in African American communities far outstripping those in white, wealthier areas? Many of us felt our hearts could hold no more anguish.

In the last six months Michigan has experienced two potential nuclear disasters. Both were due to rising flood waters. In late November the Revere Dock collapsed, spilling unknown amounts of limestone and aggregate materials. In the course of the investigation of his spill, it was discovered that the site also stored nuclear waste material, forgotten by the most recent owners. The Environmental Protection Agency has since found uranium, lead, toxic chemicals and heavy metals in water samples at the site.

The failure of the federal government in the face of this global pandemic has created a space for protective, positive actions at the state and local levels. Across the country governors, mayors, and city councils have been stepping forward to respond in thoughtful and innovate ways. The orders to slow the spread of the virus came from governors, with Gavin Newsom of California, Jay Inslee of Washington and Andrew Cuomo of NY offering early, forceful actions with stay at home orders, closing businesses, and providing real, concrete information to people. Michigan joined the effort with aggressive shelter in place strategies as we suffered tremendous losses of life.

For many of us, the new-found effort to base decisions on data is a welcome change from ideologically driven pre-pandemic politics. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun insist they will continue to work with experts and provide fact based, data driven approaches to decisions, especially about reopening the economy.

For many Detroiters, Senator Mitch McConnell’s comments that states should consider declaring bankruptcy was as frightening as that of the President’s pushing bleach to cure Covid-19. Certainly, it is as ill-informed.

This week our attention has been on the question of how the State of Michigan will begin to “open up”  as the number of deaths and instances of the disease decrease. Governor Whitmer extended her stay-at-home order through May 15 as the total deaths in the state reached over 3,300 and the number of cases approached 40,000. Meanwhile, Georgia, Alaska, and Oklahoma are reopening. Almost everyone is watching these moves with caution as the country marks the loss of more than 50,000 lives. No one thinks life will return to what we remember any time soon.

A group of civil rights attorneys have asked Governor Whitmer to establish a community-based task force to oversee Detroit water restorations.  In an April 7th letter to her, they noted, “With both the rates of infection and deaths from Coronavirus increasing daily in Detroit, the urgency to promptly identify all occupied homes where water service remains terminated is critical.”