Suburban Riots

[mtburb]

The reason for this-there's quite a few photos on VMC with the keyword "riots" that don't even include "Detroit" in the keywords. For example, there are quite a few photos of police squabbles that took place in the 1960's or 1970's in River Rouge. There's even a photo of a burned-out apartment complex in Mount Clemens with the "riots" keyword-that exact same keyword also appears in a 1970's photo of a police officer about to disperse a crowd holding a "WOODWARD" street sign, placing that event in one of the communities along Woodward.

Do any of you remember any riots taking place within the suburbs, including the ones I mentioned? And did any of these ever extend into Wyandotte at all?

Here's some of the photos I'm talking about.

[Detroitnerd]

I think we just get so used to "the riots" being the 1967 disturbance that we don't forget that a civil disturbance of a smaller size is a "riot" too. Think about the instances when a sports team won, or when teens battled police, or when hippies were attacked by cops. Maybe it's something peculiar to our local blind spots. Nobody really talks about the 1943 riot, even though it was almost as bloody as 1967, and was an actual "race riot."

[Hermod]

I think we just get so used to "the riots" being the 1967 disturbance that we don't forget that a civil disturbance of a smaller size is a "riot" too. Think about the instances when a sports team won, or when teens battled police, or when hippies were attacked by cops. Maybe it's something peculiar to our local blind spots. Nobody really talks about the 1943 riot, even though it was almost as bloody as 1967, and was an actual "race riot."

1. Confined to a smaller area of the city.

2. Before TV news cameras.

3. Not too much property damage, mostly beatings and counter beatings.

[Detroitnerd]

I take it you're talking about the 1943 race riot?

1. Confined to a smaller area of the city.

2. Before TV news cameras.

3. Not too much property damage, mostly beatings and counter beatings.

4. Interferes with key myths about how wonderful the Greatest Generation was and how blacks have predilections for violence.

5. Provides counter-narrative to "and then 1967 happened and all the innocent whites fled the city."

[Detroitnerd]

Generally speaking, though, it seems to me that "riot" is a loaded or misused word. The "riot" at the 1968 Chicago convention was, for instance, a police riot.

[IrishSpartan]

The reason for this-there's quite a few photos on VMC with the keyword "riots" that don't even include "Detroit" in the keywords. For example, there are quite a few photos of police squabbles that took place in the 1960's or 1970's in River Rouge. There's even a photo of a burned-out apartment complex in Mount Clemens with the "riots" keyword-that exact same keyword also appears in a 1970's photo of a police officer about to disperse a crowd holding a "WOODWARD" street sign, placing that event in one of the communities along Woodward.

Do any of you remember any riots taking place within the suburbs, including the ones I mentioned? And did any of these ever extend into Wyandotte at all?

Here's some of the photos I'm talking about.

The second photo was of Mount Clemens and the location is across the street from the old Clinton Gables.

[Jimaz]

The second photo was of Mount Clemens and the location is across the street from the old Clinton Gables.

How do you know? Not to dispute you, but at the end of this page it's labeled "1967 Detroit riots." Did they make a mistake?

[mtburb]

How do you know? Not to dispute you, but at the end of this page it's labeled "1967 Detroit riots." Did they make a mistake?

Unless someone actually tells us there was really riot activity in the suburbs in July 1967, it's likely.

[IrishSpartan]

How do you know? Not to dispute you, but at the end of this page it's labeled "1967 Detroit riots." Did they make a mistake?

I've noticed VMC is full of caption mistakes all over the place. They have pictures of Al Kaline taken in the late 1950's indicated as 1974, and that is just off the top of my head. No doubt that is the Clinton Gables in the background, and those apartment buildings are still there on North River Road across the street from where the Gables stood. I believe Mount Clemens is one of the other cities with minor disturbances that week of July back in 1967.

[Jimaz]

... No doubt that is the Clinton Gables in the background, and those apartment buildings are still there on North River Road across the street from where the Gables stood....

That's good enough for me.

I guess I'm confused about how the search engine works at Virtual Motor City. I'm getting different results with the same keywords. No biggie though.

[Detroitnerd]

The Kerner Report lists all the cities that had civic unrest that summer.

[Pickford-Bentler]

Generally speaking, though, it seems to me that "riot" is a loaded or misused word. The "riot" at the 1968 Chicago convention was, for instance, a police riot.

A riot often breaks out when police are seen as acting as an agent for one group oppressing another.

I that light, one could argue that the 1968 Chicago convention and Detroit 1967 meet this interpretation.

Or it could be race.

An example are the many riots that broke out when Jack Johnson defeated Jeffries.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...ace-riots.html

Or religion.

The Orange Riots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_riots


Or just stupid drunks:

The 1984 World Series celebration.

[Honky Tonk]

A riot often breaks out when police are seen as acting as an agent for one group oppressing another.

I that light, one could argue that the 1968 Chicago convention and Detroit 1967 meet this interpretation.

Or it could be race.

An example are the many riots that broke out when Jack Johnson defeated Jeffries.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...ace-riots.html

Or religion.

The Orange Riots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_riots


Or just stupid drunks:

The 1984 World Series celebration.

Or the day after/during Thanksgiving sale.

[65memories]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Memorial_Park_riot

[EastsideAl]

At least the top photo there is of disturbances that took place in River Rouge in 1970, mostly along Visger.

[EastsideAl]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Memorial_Park_riot

There were several of these sort of 'police vs. hippies' "riots" that took place around the country in the late '60s and early '70s. The most famous, of course, was the Sunset Strip riots in L.A. that inspired Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". Other similar disturbances in the Detroit area that I can remember took place in Balduck Park and Hines Park.

[catch22]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Memorial_Park_riot

I was home from college visiting a friend who lived near 13 Mile and Lahser. We decided to go cruise Woodward, having no idea this was going on. On our trip down 13 Mile, we got stopped at Greenfield and almost arrested since the police didn't believe we weren't intending to add to the mayhem. We finally convinced them we didn't know anything about the riot and they let us u-turn and go back home. I didn't learn the details about it until I read the paper the next day.

[aoife]

A note on the naming scheme in the VMC: The term "Riot" is used, even for smaller outbreaks of discontent, because that is the original terminology the reporters assigned to the image. The News reporters used "Riot" as the term of choice for any sort of civil disturbance. For instance, the 1932 Hunger March is labeled "Communists; Riots." The description of the images in the VMC comes mostly from the notations on the negative sleeves.

[Pickford-Bentler]

Or the day after/during Thanksgiving sale.

That's what happens when Zoot Suits are half off.