Two weeks ago, several of the stories being featured in my forthcoming documentary, Street Fighting Man, crossed paths in a profound way at Jefferson & Chalmers in response to violence in the area, and its not over yet. Tonight, the Detroit 300, Minister Malik Shabazz, Jack Rabbit, and others, will be marching on at least two drug houses in the neighborhood in an effort to close them down once and for all. With a growing number of drug houses and drug-related crimes in the area, people are fed up and temperatures have reached a boiling point. I’ll be there, documenting the story as events unfold and doing my best to be safe. After a year of shooting, could this be the climax of the film? More details to come!

Tomorrow night, four seemingly disparate stories will cross paths as the Detroit 300 and the residents of the Jefferson/Chalmers area unite for a peace rally in response to the murder and attempted murder of two young men from the neighborhood. Jack Rabbit, Malik, Myrtle, and Lucas will be in attendance to march down Chalmers and make a statement to the community that enough is enough. We’ve been following these people for over a year and their stories have taken us from burned out neighborhoods to community meetings and beyond. We we there when Lucas lost his home to a fire. We we there when Jack Rabbit responded to reports of dead bodies and late night intruders. We were there when Myrtle organized community workshops in her garden and started progress on a green, sustainable home. We were there when Malik and the Detroit 300 searched through empty apartment buildings and burned out neighborhoods for a serial rapist. And now, these people and their collective stories are crossing paths at Jefferson & Chalmers, the very place where this documentary began.

This past weekend was a brutal one. Sixteen people were shot, including the home of one our subjects. Had he been in his apartment at the time, he could have been number 17. Something is definitely in the air in Detroit. Violent crime is up. Young men are killing each other every day. Drug activity is on the rise. In fact, five young men who grew up down the street from Jack Rabbit have been charged with murder in a drug-related case that broke during the past week. Sadly, these young men were once a symbol of hope to the neighborhood. They came from strong families. They were members of the youth block club. Their picture even graced the front of a neighborhood newsletter about ten years ago. Now, they face murder charges and significant jail time; a sober reminder of how strong neighborhoods tend to disappear in the D.

But amidst all the news of violence and despair, there is a growing movement of community activism that demands to be heard. And their collective voice is the heart and soul of Street Fighting Man. This is not a film about brutality and violence. This is not a film about Detroit’s problems. This is a film about five amazing people who are doing their damnedest to make a difference. And I am awestruck by their courage, strength, and power.

Stand up, Detroit. Stand up!

The guy was coming to shoot up Jack Rabbit’s house in the middle of the night.

He’d already fired on other homes in the old east side neighborhood to scare residents he’d suspected of calling the cops on him.

It turned out the gunman was a drug dealer, and when neighbors had called the cops on him, or had gotten in his way, he retaliated by shooting up their houses.

Earlier that day, James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson — a retired Detroit cop — parked his car in front of the dealer’s house and pointed a video camera at him in a blatant effort to disrupt his business. It drove the guy away for the day.

Now he was coming back for Jackson. And Jackson was waiting for him.

A car turned from Jefferson onto Chalmers. It drew closer, then slowed when it reached Jackson’s house. The headlights panned the front of the home until they revealed the ex-cop sitting there on the otherwise dark porch, staring back.

He had a shotgun in his lap. 

Jackson knows that, in Michigan, the law says that if your life’s is in danger, you have a right to use deadly force to defend yourself. That’s why he keeps a baseball bat stashed on his porch. That’s why he sat there late one night, waiting with that shotgun.

He had seen the old Chevy before, and knew the drug-dealing gunman was inside it. The car belonged to a guy in the dealer’s posse. But it didn’t stay long. Between the armed ex-cop and the video camera mounted above the porch, the dealer had few options. The Chevy backed out of the driveway and left the same way it came.

Jackson is the de facto leader of the neighborhood, like an unofficial sheriff. He’s 63, burly and slower-moving in his retirement. Everyone here knows him, and everyone here calls him Jack Rabbit, a nickname he has had for years. He’s president of the Jefferson-Chalmers Homeowners Association, president of the Jefferson-Chalmers Citizens District Council, and he’s on the Jefferson East Business Association’s board of directors. He plows snow from the wintertime streets and sidewalks with his truck. He’s the neighborhood lookout, and, through his homeowners association, he offers a monthly reward for local crime tips. He’s the one who urges everyone in his neighborhood to stay vigilant, the one who confronts criminals on the street and videotapes them.

“These guys are cowards,” Jackson says. “They’re not going to fight anyone that’s going to go toe-to-toe with them.”

The people who live here, like residents in dozens of similar Detroit neighborhoods with block clubs and associations, are battling to keep theirs from falling like so many others in the city. And guys like Jack Rabbit lead the charge.

(Source: metrotimes.com)