Detroit is quickly becoming a libertarian experiment as governance collapses. Can’t get the police to respond because of a backlog and budget cuts? Do it the old-fashioned way.
Community members in one Detroit neighborhood took matters into their own hands and beat an accused rapist of a 15-year-old girl with Down Syndrome after they say Detroit Police failed to respond.
Friday marks the 23rd day without an arrest after the 15-year-old victim said a man grabbed her while she was walking to work, took her to his apartment and raped her in early July.
The suspect lives in the same neighborhood as the victim. Members of the Hubbard Farms community say the man has mental health issues. They posted his face on flyers around the neighborhood to warn others.
Family friend of the victim, Megan Herres says the teen waited for seven hours at the hospital for Detroit Police to administer a rape kit. She reportedly waited five days before police interviewed her about the sexual assault and 21 days until Detroit Police sent the rape kit to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab.
Other community members were equally outraged at what they believed was a lack of response by Detroit Police and on Monday took matters into their own hands. The community beat the accused rapist with a baseball bat so badly he needed to go to the hospital.
Herres said vigilante justice is not the answer, but frustrations grew and boiled over.
In Detroit it does seem like the answer assuming the question was how to keep a child rapist from raping again. Is it justice? That’s a complex question. But when cities begin to implode and those services that used to work slowly and badly, all but cease responding, it’s survival.
Maybe the people of Detroit can make some kind of working society once the union members have given up and headed on to feed off other cities.
I wouldn’t bet too hard on it, but you never know.
