Detroit (Film)
Detroit is a Period Crime Drama film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. Based on Algiers Motel Incident during the Detroit's 1967 12th Street Riot, the film's release commemorated the 50th anniversary of the event.[1]
Plot
The film opens with an animation and text depicting the Great Migration during World War I. After World War II, African Americans had been moved to segregated communities, including Detroit, which contained a mostly white police force. Change was inevitable. It was only a matter of how, and when.
On July 23, 1967, the Detroit Police Department staged a raid on an unlicensed club during a celebration for returning black veterans from the Vietnam War. While suspects are being arrested, a mob forms and starts throwing rocks at the officers before looting nearby stores and starting fires, beginning the 12th Street Riot. With state authorities, elected representatives, and even emergency services unable to maintain any semblance of order, Governor George W. Romney authorizes the Michigan Army National Guard and President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizes Army paratroopers to enter Detroit in order to provide assistance. On the second day of rioting, two cops pursue a fleeing looter. One of them, Philip Krauss, kills the man with a shotgun against orders, but is allowed to remain on duty until his superiors can decide whether to file murder charges.
1967. The police and black inhabitants of Detroit seem perpetually in a state of conflict, largely due to the police's biased, heavy-handed attitude towards African-Americans. This comes to a head when the police raid an unlicensed black club, causing the local residents to riot. The State Police and National Guard are called in and Detroit starts to resemble a war zone. On a fateful night, the local police round up some suspects at the Algiers Motel in connection with (what they believe is) sniper fire. The police handling of the situation soon gets out of hand.[2]
Controversy
The controversy happens along the plot where police brutality to black people is overwhelming. One of it is when a little girl peeking on a window to see what happen outside during the riot, then an officer mistakes her for a sniper which is leading to another officer raiding the house of that little girl. Another one is when a three patrolmen found a black man named Leon stealing from a grocery store, he ran after saw the police and then one of the patrolmen Krauss shoot him with a shotgun on the side. Leon managed to run but the bleeding kills him not long after that.