Immigration is Opportunity Blog
A Police Department with a CityIsrael has been called “not a country with an army, but an army with a country.” The proliferation of military equipment, tactics, and culture in the Detroit Police Department suggests that we could soon define our city in similar terms: as a police department with a city, not a city with a police department.
Whose afraid of Proposal P? |
Waawiyatanong ResistsThis place that we now call Detroit has may names. By the Wendat it is known as Karontaen (coast of the straits), Iroquoian speakers refer to it as Teuchash Grondie (place of many beavers) and in Algonquin it has two names, Yondonga (the great village) and Waawiyatanong (the crooked way).
Whose Budget? Their BudgetIf anyone is still under the impression that we, Detroiters, have a say in how our elected officials spend our tax dollars, a look at the recent budget process should shatter that illusion.
|
Smile! You are under surveillanceCounter-mapping is mapping against dominant power structures. In this case that power structure is Detroit capitalists. The financial cost of the downtown revitalization to the City’s residents, through subsidies “adding up to billions of dollars in tax incentives, grants, low-interest loans, and cheap land provided by various government entities” to billionaire developers, is widely known. There is another cost, one that is not so well documented, to Detroiters freedom and right to privacy.
Whose Budget? Our BudgetHousing and Police were by far the most commented on in each [Detroit District Budget] Forum, and in the Forums collectively, with the comments overwhelmingly in favor of increasing funding for housing…And decreasing funding for the police…
|
|
In 2018, Detroiters approved the creation of a Commission to update our city’s charter. Over the past three years the Commission has met, and listened to, thousands of residents as it gathered information to create a Charter that reflects our priorities. The result, Proposal P, or The People’s Charter, is a value statement for our city that places the People first. It asserts that poverty is not inevitable and Detroiters have rights that our city government must meet. So why are the Mayor and the City Council so afraid of it?
|