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Learning From An Unlikely Place: How Detroit's Police Chief Saved His City from Black Lives Matter
American Thinker ^ | 09/14/2020 | T.R. Clancy

Posted on 09/14/2020 7:11:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: blm; civilunrest; detroit; jamescraig; michigan; police

1 posted on 09/14/2020 7:11:23 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
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."

2 posted on 09/14/2020 7:11:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind; All

HOORAY Detroit Chief, James Craig. He told Detroiters to arm up several years ago...that the police could not protect them in all situations. When $oro$ sends his army into Detroit, it will get slaughtered. Detroit vs Everybody...where the weak are killed and eaten. I grew up on the southwest border of Detroit in Lincoln Park. I lived in Detroit 5 different times...the last on Military St. with my dear (RIP) grandmother.

Lots of terrific Americans in Detroit. I know many...from police to pastors to citizens.


3 posted on 09/14/2020 7:20:11 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Weeks ago Fox did a spot show-casing this Police Chief, and his words offered a breath of FRESH (as opposed to HOT) air.
He really is AWESOME!


4 posted on 09/14/2020 7:20:38 AM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Good for him!


5 posted on 09/14/2020 7:24:00 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s really good that Mayor Duggan supports his COP and a Civil Society.


6 posted on 09/14/2020 7:24:02 AM PDT by Paladin2 (need)
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To: PGalt
He told Detroiters to arm up several years ago...that the police could not protect them in all situations. P> Was going to say the same thing.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/detroit-police-chief-james-craig-says-more-citizens-should-be-armed

7 posted on 09/14/2020 7:24:07 AM PDT by Yo-Yo ( is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: PGalt

Plainview, Chalmers, Rutherford, Military & sheesh I forget the last one. Getting old will do that. Right JoeJoe? C’mon man.


8 posted on 09/14/2020 7:25:41 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: SeekAndFind

“...bars Detroit police from using certain non-lethal tactics on “peaceful protesters.”


That cracks me up. It basically restates their policy. The challengs is when a particular protester is NOT peaceful. And when that happens, the judge’s decision does not apply.

“Be nice. Until it’s time to not be nice.” - Dalton (Roadhouse)


9 posted on 09/14/2020 7:27:27 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The political war playing out in every country now: Globalists vs Nationalists)
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To: SeekAndFind

Police Chief Craig has been one of the most successful big city police chiefs during the last ten years.


10 posted on 09/14/2020 7:27:39 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: SeekAndFind; kristinn
Tristan Taylor

Kristinn, has your alterego gone over to the dark side? :)

11 posted on 09/14/2020 7:31:53 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Sorry, your race card has been declined. Can you present any other form of argument?")
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To: SeekAndFind

what most people do not realize is..... detroit learned its lesson decades ago.... time for a new city to be abandoned and left to rot... seattle, portland, new york????

detroit was the 7th largest city when the riots broke out... no city is too big to fail...


12 posted on 09/14/2020 7:32:16 AM PDT by joe fonebone (Communists Need To Be Eliminated)
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To: SeekAndFind

Sounds like a good copper.

Detroit has learned from history.

Well done.


13 posted on 09/14/2020 7:37:45 AM PDT by karnage
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To: SeekAndFind

This is how this whole shebang could end with men like this in charge but, unfortunately, some mayors, city councils and governors want it to continue ‘cause Orange Man Bad or sumpthin’.


14 posted on 09/14/2020 7:54:04 AM PDT by Eagles6
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To: SeekAndFind

Pretty soon we won’t be able to use Detroit as a historic bad example, it will have to be Portland


15 posted on 09/14/2020 7:57:26 AM PDT by Cold Heart (Legalize Hydroxychloroquine)
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To: SeekAndFind

https://youtu.be/xH-x7uGSDZM

This is an excellent documentary on July 1967 riots in Detroit. Contrast the media’s reporting and the black citizen and black National Guard comments.


16 posted on 09/14/2020 7:58:06 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3 ( I'm Proud To Be An Okie From Muskogee)
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To: SeekAndFind

In the old days, the Democrats owned the major cities but they would not let anyone mess with them. (Example, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago). Nowadays, the Democrats own the cities and just quiver and watch them burn. I am pleased to see there is at least one exception.


17 posted on 09/14/2020 7:58:08 AM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: SeekAndFind

Chief Craig is bad ass. He knows he’s right and he keeps coming. He is exactly the kind of police chief every big US city needs.


18 posted on 09/14/2020 8:41:06 AM PDT by 43north (Its hard to stop a man when he knows he's right and he keeps coming.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I remember delivering to Detroit many years ago. Kwame Kilpatrick was the mayor. The delivery instructions stated in bold lettering that parking overnight in Detroit and close by areas was extremely dangerous. Do not do it.

Nice to see they now have a mayor and police chief who are actually concerned about the city and it’s residents.


19 posted on 09/14/2020 11:16:26 AM PDT by oldvirginian (Take your mask and shove it! I am a proud WhuFlu Heretic and Trump Deplorable.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I've heard this Police Chief speak a number of times on Fox & Friends, and when his officers deal with REASONABLE protests, they go well, but from his descriptions, then someone places their hands on one of his officers, they're automatically arrested, because he has political support, something that most dem-led cities do NOT have.

Mark

20 posted on 09/14/2020 12:34:23 PM PDT by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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