Historian Paul A. Rahe writes for Ricochet about the Detroit experience and the way recent events have echoed that experience in cities across the land. Warning: his article and the excerpts which follow are not an upbeat prognosis.
By the time that I moved to Michigan in 2007, it (Detroit) was a wasteland resembling a bombed-out city or a town rendered virtually uninhabitable long before by the plague.There were other things involved in the implosion of Detroit, things named Toyota, Nissan, and VW. Still, Rahe's basic point is correct, if perhaps a bit overstated. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.
In Detroit, you weren’t safe, and your property wasn’t either. Law and order are the key to prosperity. Law and order are necessary to civilized life, and civilized life is not what one had come to associate with Detroit.
A few years ago, a similar riot took place in Baltimore, and the mayor acted as (Detroit mayor) Jerome Kavanaugh had, restraining the police and allowing the rioters free rein. In the aftermath, the police force was cut, and much of Baltimore descended into anarchy. No one in his right mind would go to live there now.
In the last three weeks, cities all across the country have experienced similar riots – replete with property damage, looting, arson, and murder. In virtually all of our cities – including Minneapolis, Washington, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Denver, and Atlanta – mayors have followed the Kavanaugh playbook and governors have stood aside.
What has been done by the authorities in the last three weeks is going to lead to a withdrawal from our cities. No one is going to want to live in an urban area where person and property are unsafe, and what I am saying applies to our fellow citizens of color at least as emphatically, if not more so.
