With the current controversy over Ferguson and the Michael Brown shooting still raging over in Missouri, you might have forgotten hat this kind of stuff happens in the States all the time. Not only do we have this photo set from the country’s most violent city in Flint Michigan, but we also have these photographs from the famous riots in Detroit back in 1967.
In case you didn’t know – and as chances are you’re probably English so you’d isn’t – the Detroit riots also revolved around race. They began when police raided an unlicensed bar and detained 82 African Americans. People in the area who saw this responded by looting a nearby store and then the situation escalated dramatically into a five day riot where 43 people died, 2000 buildings were destroyed, 1189 people were injured and 7200 were arrested.
The Detroit police force of 2000 was dramatically overwhelmed by the riot and couldn’t really respond – they didn’t even have enough jail space to house those that they did manage to subdue. In the end President Johnson had to call in the National Guard – including a whole bunch of tanks – in order to shut down the rioting. It remains one of the deadliest riots in American history. Here are some pictures that illustrate what it was like back then.
