User:Xoxojillzian/sandbox

Editing: Citation needed

Some gave false names, making the process of identifying those arrested difficult because of the need to take and check fingerprints.

Michigan Governor George Romney and President Lyndon B. Johnson initially disagreed about the legality of sending in federal troops. Johnson said he could not send federal troops in without Romney's declaring a "state of insurrection", to meet compliance with the Insurrection Act.

Firefighters of the Detroit Fire Department who were attempting to fight the fires were shot at by rioters. During the riots, 2,498 rifles and 38 handguns were stolen from local stores. It was obvious that the Detroit, County, and Michigan forces were unable to restore order.

Reportedly, Conyers stood on the hood of the car and shouted through a bullhorn, "We're with you! But, please! This is not the way to do things! Please go back to your homes!" But the crowd refused to listen. Conyers' car was pelted with rocks and bottles.

Although only 26 of the over 7,000 arrests involved snipers, and not one person accused of sniping was successfully prosecuted, the fear of snipers precipitated many police searches. The "searching for weapons" caused many homes and vehicles to be scrutinized. Curfew violations were also common sparks to police brutality. The Detroit Police's 10th Precinct routinely abused prisoners; as mug shots later proved, many injuries came after booking. Women were stripped and fondled while officers took pictures. White landlords from New York visiting their building were arrested after a sniper call and beaten so horribly that "their testicles were still black and blue two weeks after the incident."

By Thursday, July 27, sufficient order had returned to the city that officers withdrew ammunition from the National Guardsmen stationed in the riot area and ordered them to sheath their bayonets. Troop withdrawal began on Friday, July 28, the day of the last major fire in the riot. The Army troops were completely withdrawn by Saturday, July 29.

July 26-27

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission intervened in the riot to try to protect the rights of arrestees. The arrival of the CRC was “not well received” by the police saying the observers were interfering with police work. The Detroit Police Officers Association protested to Romney, “We resent the Civil Rights Commission looking over our shoulders, just waiting for some officer to stub his toe.” At one precinct, a white officers “bitterly abused” a black CRC observer, saying that “all people of his kind should be killed.” Fine, Model City, 245.

Deaths

43 people died: 33 were African American and 10 were white. 24 of the African American victims were shot by police officers and National Guardsmen; 6 were shot by store owners or security guards; 1 was killed after stepping on a downed power line; and 2 were killed by asphyxiation from a building fire.[31]

Change to: 43 people died: 33 were African American and 10 were white. 24 of the African American victims were shot by police officers and National Guardsmen; 6 were shot by store owners or security guards; 1 was killed after stepping on a downed power line; and 2 were killed by asphyxiation from a building fire.[31] The National Guardmen and Detroit Police had engaged in “uncontrolled and unnecessary firing” that endangered civilians and increased police chaos. Many times, the police were convinced of a snipers presence when police and Guardmen were the ones actually shooting. Fine, Model City, 232 One young African American man, Albert Robinson was killed by a National Guardsmen responding with Detroit Police to an apartment building on the city’s west side. The Guardsmen brought Robinson, who was unarmed, out of the building then bayoneted and shot him. While Robinson yelled for help, a Guardsman reportly said, “That feel good? You dead yet?” Fine, Model City, 230 Julius Lust, a unarmed white man, was shot by Detroit Police inside an auto parts yard. Lust claimed that we was securing the yard for his employer. Fine, Model City, 230 Ernest Roquemore, an unarmed African Americcan teenager and final death of the civil unrest, was killed by police on July 29 when caught in their crossfire directed towards someone else. The police shot three other individuals during the same firefight, with one victim needing his leg amputated. Fine, Model City, 230

AFTERMATH

Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets (STRESS) Two years after the end of the 1967 riots, Wayne Count Sheriff Roman A. Gribbs won on a law-and-order cmapaign platform, a code word among many white Detroiters for controlling black unrest in the city Darden, Joe T. And Richard W. Thomas, Detroit: Race Riots, Racial Conflicts, and Efforts to Bridge the Racial Divide, Michigan State University Press: East Lansing, MI, 2013; 95-96 Gribbs, a white moderate who supported integration, was seems by many white Detroiters as their last “white hope” in a city with a growing black population. After beating Detroit’s first black mayoral candidate, Richard Austin, in 1969, Gribbs created the Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets (STRESS), a secret and elite police unit.

STRESS used a tactic called “decoy operation,” where a police officer tried to entrap potential criminals in an undercover sting. From it’s inception, STRESS all but ignored white criminals, instead focusing their operations on black communities. STRESS increased confrontations between the black community and police. For example, during its first year of operation the Detroit Police Department had the “highest number of civilian killings per capital of any American police department.” The unit was accused of conducting 500 raids without the use of search warrants and killing 20 people within 30 months.

Community groups did not take long to start to responding to STRESS’s activities. On September 23, 1971, the State of Emergency Committee was formed to protest the killings, and thousands of people marched to demand the abolition of STRESS.