2. Limits of Police Reform

Commissioner Girardin with DPD officers at promotion ceremony

Working Outline

• Effects of wars on poverty/crime
  • “What every objective study of crime demonstrates is that crime is a product of those areas of the city where income is lowest, unemployment is highest, the housing population is the most dense, family life is the most vulnerable, quality education is the least available, etc. Realistically, these are, by and large, the areas of the city most heavily populated by Negroes.”
• Police viewed African-Americans, not the poverty that crippled their community, as the root cause of criminal activity
• Introduce middle-class civil rights organizations like the Detroit NAACP, MCRC, and Detroit Urban League + overview of their efforts to reform the DPD
• Issues with Samuel Olsen (Wayne County Prosecutor)
  • Against Civilian Rule Board
  • Unjust retaliation for corrupt officers