Press enter after choosing selection

The Inside Dope

The Inside Dope image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
September
Year
1976
OCR Text

It seems like anybody tryin' to do anything new an' different always has a hard time of it before they get over, what with all their so-called friends tryin' to keep 'em down to their own level, and their enemies doin' everything in their power to keep 'em from gettin' any higher.

That sure is the way it's been around this newspaper lately, so far 's I can tell, an' it does this old heart good to see these young folks at The Sun pull theirselves together and take it over the top. They got a good little paper here, they're tryin' pretty hard an' they really got a chance now that they're printin' every week.

The only thing I wonder is if it ain't all just a matter of "too little, too goddamned late"- because the way the competition keeps hammerin' away at this poor crippled city, spewin' hate an' fear all over the front pages day after livelong day, who knows how long there'll be a city to sell newspapers to, or the freedom to publish views different from those of the rulin' class?

It's been a long time since folks've seen an' heard such a commotion about law 'n order, an' it makes an old man sick to the stomach to watch the daily papers whip up race hatred and hysteria like they're doin' now. Plus the way they worship the cops, you'd think the editors take two or three police home to bed with 'em at night, like teddy bears, to keep 'em warm an' safe while mommy's turned off the light and all the darkies are lurkin' outside in the pecan trees.

The white press- and the white power structure in general- has worshipped the police in this town since 1943, when black folks erupted in mass protest against the racist policies and practices of official society. As I recall, the police had somethin' to do with it too, just like in 1967 when the riot was touched off by a bunch o' police messin' with people comin' out o' a blind pig at 12th & Clairmount at 5 o'clock in the mornin'.

The Mayor's been tryin' to put the police in their proper perspective since 1974, an' nobody who knows the DPD "from the other end of the nightstick," as Hizzoner used to say, can deny that the Mayor has made a world of progress.

The fact is, he's made so much progress that the coppers have got their backs to the wall, an' they're now pullin' out all the stops in a desperate attempt to re-establish their old prerogatives, like bein' able to round up citizens at night, terrorize the streets, an' generally act like they owned the world.

'Course the papers'd like to see a State of Emergency declared an' the police an' other troops turned loose on the unruly blacks- just to keep 'em in their place, o' course. Then the downtown could be developed so Mr. Ford an' everybody could make a little money out o' it, an' the denizens of "the jungle" could be kept safely penned up in their neighborhoods, where safe passage is guaranteed by the State Police-patrolled freeways.

Ah, South Africa! Where the whites are purely right an' the niggers stay in their place! What's left of White Detroit bleeds for you, an' the bleedin' hearts of the press wail in the dark suburban night of the soul. May the gods have mercy on them!

 

The old Iffster welcomes a real youngster, political cartoonist David Dwyer, to The Sun's Editorial Page.