Even though violent crime has been falling fast in Detroit over the last decade, the city still has a crime rate that’s one of the highest in the nation.  

Every year, police recover about 6,000 illegal guns in Detroit. Yet legal gun ownership is also common in the city, a reflection of how deeply concerns about safety and self-protection run through daily life.

To try to prevent crime before it happens, Detroit police stop people for nonviolent offenses. A Detroit Free Press investigation found that 20 percent of DPD shootings over the past decade started with those kinds of stops. 

Those findings stress the question: what is the police’s obligation to stop crime before it happens in a place where many don’t feel safe and guns are plentiful?

To explore this, Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Violet Ikonomova spoke with Robyn Vincent about her recent reporting on police shootings that began with stops for nonviolent offenses.

Correction: A former version of this web post stated that 20 percent of police stops for small infractions ended in police shootings. 

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“Black Power” is widely known as a political slogan — a rallying cry to mobilize Black Americans to attain social, political and economic power and fuel a sense of self-determination. 

A lot of progress has been made since the Civil Rights Movement in the ’60s and ’70s, but Black Americans today still face major systemic obstacles. Black people are more likely to live in poverty and they have one-tenth the wealth of white Americans.

Those factors are important indicators. But could directing attention to the gains Black people have made and replicating those circumstances offer better outcomes than comparing overall wealth?

Andre Perry is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute and the author of the new book, “Black Power Scorecard: Measuring the Racial Gap and What We Can Do to Close it.” In the book, he suggests that a reframing of this problem might help us rethink how we assess its solutions.

Perry joined The Metro on Wednesday for a deep dive into the mentality behind this book.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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Since Oct. 7, 2023, the world has felt different for a lot of American Jews.  Antisemitism has risen. More recently, two people were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. And a man with a flamethrower in Colorado attacked Israeli hostage advocates. 

At the same time, Israel has expanded its militarism, recently attacking Iran to destroy its nuclear capacity and potentially overturn its regime. Israel has gotten the support of President Donald Trump, as America has now also attacked Iran’s nuclear sites. 

All the while, Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has continued. There are now at least 57,000 Palestinians who’ve been killed by Israel’s attacks since October 7th, 2023. In conjunction with that, Israel’s months-long food aid blockade has put one-in-five Palestinians on the brink of starvation. 

To find out where this leaves American Jews, and what they’re meant to make of the political moment, Producer Sam Corey spoke with Rabbi Shalom Kantor from Congregation B’nai Moshe, a zionist temple in West Bloomfield. The two spoke prior to Israel’s attacks on Iran, Iran’s retaliations and America’s involvement in the war.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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