Fire, smoke, gunshots, shouting, screaming, looting, rocks, bottles, Molotov cocktails, blood spilling and some people dying, and hundreds of injured. Citizens mostly. Spiraling confrontations all over the city proper.
Wow!
Detroit’s finest, and the Michigan National Guard had a hell of a job that week. Was this the beginning of the second American Revolution? It sure seemed like it. This indeed is what a modern day mini Armageddon looks like people.
Scary tension. Hundreds of arrests were made and jail time for many. And an M1A1 Abrams tank parked right across the street from the Artist’s Workshop, which doubled as the MC5 band house on the second floor.
Couple of members of the MC5 were arrested for assault, I believe. Broke down our doors and crashed in ala Swat at it’s best Whew!
There were fires everywhere. John Lee Hooker wrote “The Motor City’s Burning” and we began to play that song in our set as an homage to all the strife and pain suffered by all the victims on both sides.
“It started on 12th and Claremont ya’all…”
I got out on the first day and holed up at my parent’s house in Lincoln Park. After all, it was safer to watch on TV then to get killed. At least not yet. Work to be done. After this maelstrom of hate and fear there wasn’t a doubt in my soul as to where I stood as a human being.
End the ugly Vietnam war, the riots, the racism and bigotry. Go out as minstrels spreading the word that we all desperately need to ban together and hopefully, or forcibly, change this damn stupidity.
“Kick Out The Jams Motherfuckers!”
2 comments:
Our family store on Fort St in Lincoln Park, English TV/Radio, almost got it when a convertible full of guys pulled up and my grandfather stood in the window with his shotgun.. Over the next few years people would break in especially through the roof and steal everything, he died in '72 of a stroke at age 43. I keep fighting for medical marijuana rights
If you look closely you will see my father's store on the right side of the street 2/3rds of the way down the block: Astor Furniture.
Here is a picture of Pops' store on the Black Day in July, autographed by Gordon Lightfoot:
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