Quote Originally Posted by Hypestyles View Post
ha! I see what you did there.

The board seemingly is still powerless when it comes to enforcing disciplinary actions against DPD personnel. Between the arguably mayoral-friendly appointees of Mr. Duggan and elected folks who tend to be police-culture adjacent [retired from DPD or Wayne Co. Deputies] or just more inclined to be culturally conservative, in particular senior-citizen-aged members [[e.g. Rev. Jim Holley), those of the generation for whom it was, ostensibly, enough to advocate for more robust black membership in DPD, but in the modern "guns everywhere, super-predators everywhere" era, they are loathe to critique problematic policies such as ShotStopper or the facial-recognition tech surveillance program.
That the board is volunteer-based is also something that leads to it being off the radar of many local residents. And the money it takes to mount a substantive campaign is significant.
Detroit's Board of Police Commissioners is dysfunctional | Editorial [[freep.com)



Regarding legalization or even "simply" decriminalization of in-person sex work, I don't predict this anytime soon. At the state level, I feel safe to speculate that Whitmer won't touch it lest the GOP politicos start jumping on her to suggest that she's encouraging sex trafficking [especially in light of the recent amendment of Michigan's marriage age to 18, it would be a firestorm of bad-faith criticisms], and then using that notion to smear Democrats writ large. Look for the moralists among Detroit's black electorate, especially clergy, to campaign against it [all the city's megachurch leaders, most certainly], ironically suggesting the same things as the [mostly] Caucasian Republicans who hate everything Detroit related on principle. With the black women and girls who go missing on a recurring basis, part of the standard narrative of community reactions is that they've been kidnapped to be exploited sexually. Regional Detroit candidates for office mostly want the support of black Christian culture and most candidates rarely make moves that really push the envelope of progressive measures. They, too, don't want to be seen as "soft on crime".
It would take a hell of a lot of effort to get progressive legislation passed on sex work in Detroit.
Same clergy folks didn't have any problem with legalizing marijuana. Is that supposed to do everybody a world of good?