Southwest Detroit, a largely Latinx community, also known as ‘Mexicantown’, held its yearly Cinco de Mayo parade. This parade is one which all of Southwest looks forward to, with its low-riders, dancers, and many Latinx heritage organizations represented. Many were out at the parade, enjoying the food trucks, drinks, and activities that the Cinco de Mayo parade vendors have to offer.
However, this year’s parade ended in chaos — Detroit police swept the streets, shut down vendors and local businesses, and arrested many attendees with little warning; being told “you have ten seconds to put down your drink,” then arrested within five. Many were barred from their routes while just trying to get back home.
This violent police shut-down was unprecedented for the Cinco de Mayo parade in Southwest, and it is a clear racist targeting of Latinx and Black communities in comparison to the St. Patrick’s Day bar crawl and parade held months prior, which did not face any sort of police brutality — and neither did the NFL draft hosted in Detroit April 25th-27th.
Weeks later, Garage Cultural, a known and beloved cultural event space to many of us in Southwest, held auditions for this year’s upcoming Southwest Fest. Many artists, DJs, and performers came out to audition along with many others who were looking to spend a fun, summer evening together. Yet this, too, was shut down by cops. Their excuses for the shut-down were “noise complaints” and “illegal parking” on the surrounding empty lots (which have been used for parking for Garage Cultural events before without problem). No matter what excuse the Detroit Police Department gives, the racist undertones of their targeting of Latinx and Black Detroit communities are clear.
These main instances of police repression in Southwest follow a pattern of racist policing not unfamiliar to us in Detroit, and the police’s history of cleansing Black and brown communities. This year alone has seen a trend of popular taco trucks being shut down by cops for being open “past curfew;” Clark Park is being patrolled by cops who target those who cut through the park after a certain hour just to get home; block parties are being shut down for not having permits. There has been a significant increase of Detroit police cars and even ICE vehicles cruising along Vernor Highway and on neighborhood streets.
The Detroit Police Department are continuing their legacy of police brutality in maintaining white supremacy; surveilling and cleansing our community to make way for development projects, such as the building of the Michigan Central Station just on the outskirts of Southwest, and to allow more white affluent suburbanites to move to the area — who are looking to move into “safe,” or rather, “whiter” neighborhoods.
Here lies the age-old tactic of gentrification straight out of the Detroit policing handbook: cleanse the city of Black and brown “undesirables,” then congratulate themselves for helping in “bringing Detroit back.”
Southwest Detroit is refusing to let Detroit police clear out our community and our culture. A Community Hearing was hosted July 11th in Clark Park and a Press Conference was held July 24th at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, which featured speakers from the community who have dealt with the Detroit police violence firsthand. Our main demands: community control over cultural spaces and an end to police aggression and control in Southwest.
Together we continue the struggle for abolition of the police, and fight for an end to police violence and killings of Black and brown people.