Review of “Detroit: An American Autopsy” by Charlie LeDuff
7th July 2013
Foseti brings the heat.
The only difference between Detroit and the Third World in terms of corruption is Detroit don’t have no goats in the street.
‘Hey, they speak English….’ No, they don’t. Listen to Eminem for a bit.
Charlie LeDuff grew up as a white kid in Detroit. He leaves Detroit to write at various major news outlets. Eventually he moves his young family back to Detroit to be closer to his extended family. He ends up depressed, violent, and just beaten down by the city. He also discovers he’s black. Along the way, he finds a lot of things that are incredibly interesting and criminally underreported. He’s an interesting guy.
He is indeed.
The catalog of problems is terrible. Alarms don’t work at the fire stations. Fire men have to fix up the station to keep it from crumbling. LeDuff discovers that city officials have been embezzling money slated to maintain the fire stations. He writes a story on it. In perhaps the most revealing episode of the book, no one even pretends to care. City officials are stealing millions, firefighters are (literally) dying, the city is plagued by arson, and no one cares.
Well, that’s Michigan for you. Blue State all the way.