"And had she been Caucasian - she WOULD have been convicted!"
Unless the jury or the community decided to stand with her.
She assumed, correctly, that's what would happen in Detroit.
She assumed, correctly, that the City didn't CARE enough about an old building to be willing to take on Anita Baker under those peculiar circumstances.
There is a lesson in this.
Had a few officials or a body of citizens acted like Anita Baker did in the Terri Schiavo case, Terri would still be alive. Of course it would have been flouting the law. And sometimes, when things are important enough, you do just that. When you do it, you are gambling that the force of your convictions and the allies in your idea out there will be stronger than the desire or ability of the legal authorities to retaliate.
Anita Baker assumed, correctly, that the authorities in Detroit didn't have the stomach to take her on over this old building. She prevailed.
In the Congressional/Presidential battle over victory or defeat and retreat in the Middle East, we may see another example where the law comes down that the President MUST accept defeat and withdraw, but where the President, by virtue of his office, can decide that the fate of America is more important than this act of Congress and defy it, continuing the fight over there. Congress then will be forced with a straight up or down question of upholding their law and impeaching him, or backing down and let him override the law by fait accompli. If there are 34 Republican Senators willing to stand behind the President, then he is unremovable and can essentially do whatever he wants. They can impeach him 100 times, but without 67 Senators to convict, they can't remove him and stop him from breaking their laws.
Sometimes you have to decide that the issue at stake is more important than the rule of law. Bush may face this test over victory or defeat in Iraq. The Federal and Florida authorities faced it over the question of the life or death of Terri Schiavo (and decided that the rule of law was more important than her life). Detroit and Anita Baker faced it over an old building, and Anita Baker demonstrated that she was more interested in her purposes than in the rule of law. Detroit decided that the principle of the rule of law, in that case, was insufficient to justify a war with Anita Baker. So they caved.
It's all a question of how far one is willing to go in pursuit of one's principles.
Or she assumed, more correctly, that the black city administration of Detroit would help her destroy any vestige of what they consider "white" culture in the city.
I've lived in Detroit for too many years not to know this is the truth.