Living in Detroit, this story about a police raid at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit was not surprising, but one more in a long list of problems with the metro area I live in. Detroit was recently been named one of Forbes America’s Most Miserable Cities for at least the third year in a row (though we’re no longer No. 1) and it’s for reasons such as this:

Jason Leverette-Saunders said he thought he was being robbed when masked gunmen crashed a party at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit at about 2 a.m. May 31, 2008.

But the intruders were Detroit cops who stormed the gallery and ticketed more than 100 mostly young and suburban college students for loitering, seizing their vehicles, because they were attending a private, after-hours party where alcoholic beverages were served. Attendees each had to pay $900, plus towing and storage fees, to get their cars back, even though their loitering tickets later were dismissed.

I’m not familiar with the details of the evening, but at first glance, punishing a bunch of college-aged contemporary art gallery-goers seems like an outlandish activity for Detroit police, compared to other legitimate crimes that were likely being committed in Detroit that night.

Tags: Contemporary Art, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Detroit, Politics

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 5:50 am and is filed under Art, Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.