Detroit Stories, Episode 1: "The Killing of Daniel Thomas."

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It's December, 1968.  Michael Polchlopek has been remanded to the Wayne County Jail since his arraignment in June 1967 for the "Killing of Daniel Thomas,"  a black twenty-four Vietnam Vet who was shot and killed in Detroit's Rouge Park while protecting his wife from an alleged sexual assault.  Detroit Police Homicide detectives worked this case exceptionally well.  They arrested the suspect within hours of the crime.  They rounded up numerous witnesses/participants who may have been involved in the melee leading to Daniel Thomas's death, but now they only wished to save their own asses.  The police recovered the alleged murder weapon.  The prime suspect gave a signed confession to detectives.  It would outwardly appear to be a slam dunk for the prosecution...

But this was Detroit, immediately after the most destructive riot in the nation's history.  There were raw feelings across southeast Michigan, as Detroit was in the midst of dynamic demographic change that white people resisted with openly hostile Neighborhood Associations  and other targeted means that only heightened racial tensions . 

Things certainly weren't the same as they were before the riot.  What appeared to be a court room slam dunk was anything but.  Suddenly, there were myriad, centuries old cultural factors playing out in a Detroit Court Room.  This leads to the question: Would the person the police say shot and killed Daniel Thomas be bought to justice?    Or would he, too, as so often happened in the America of the 1960's, escape justice "just because..." 

These are true stories from the Detroit I knew growing up in the Motor City.  Aint none of this shit made up....

In the aftermath of the "Killing of Daniel Thomas", it is December 1968.  The defendant in Daniel Thomas's homicide has been in the Wayne County Jail since his arrest in June, 1967.  The Wayne County DA would appear to have a slam dunk in the case.  After all, the defendant has provided a written confession; the murder weapon has been recovered and linked to the defendant.  Witness statements from others present that night in Rouge Park provided direct evidence that the defendant is the one of who fired the fatal shot that ended Daniel Thomas's life.  To everyone paying attention, it seemed pretty cut and dried.  The defendant did it.  Case closed.  No room for argument.  But this was Detroit in the late 1960's, where everything wasn't as "cut and dried" as everyone hoped.   And things don't always turn out the way everyone hopes.

Episode 2 of "The Killing of Daniel Thomas:  Aftermath,"  takes a very deep dive into the radical social change Detroit was under going at this time exposed some very raw nerves and feelings, placing Detroit in the forefront of how others saw Detroit, and how Detroiters  saw themselves.  Episode 2 explores  why this horrific event--"The Killing of Daniel Thomas-- turned out the way it did, and why The American Judicial System was more about the grip of maintaining traditional WASP culture then about justice for Daniel Thomas.   

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On June 24, 1967, Daniel Thomas, a twenty-four year old African American Vietnam veteran was shot and killed in Detroit's Rouge Park by one of a group of young white men who were also in the park that night.  Detroit was already a simmering racial geyser waiting to erupt when the murder occurred, and the alleged circumstances surrounding the murder didn't help things.  

     The police made an arrest of an identified suspect.  There was a written confession; the alleged shooter was picked out of line up, the murder weapon was recovered from a nearby sewer.  Police and Black Civil Rights Leaders prayed the arrest and arraignment of the suspect would calm things down.

But then, three and a half weeks after Daniel Thomas's murder, the Detroit Rebellion/Riot erupted with devastating social, economic and political consequences for the city, its residents and the Detroit Police Department.  And how would the Rebellion/Riot affect the outcome of the trial of Daniel Thomas's alleged killer?  

Detroit Stories:  Episode 1 "The Killing of Daniel Thomas" revisits the "Summer of Love" in 1967, and ask these questions that have had long standing consequences for Detroit in subsequent years...

These are true stories from the Detroit I knew growing up in the Motor City.  Aint none of this shit made up....

Detroit Stories,  Episode One:  The Killing of Daniel Thomas.
 
Detroit, Michigan, June 24, 1967.  Racial tension cast shadows over everything in Detroit in 1967. 

This podcast examines the killing of a young black man shot to death in Detroit's Rouge Park while defending his pregnant wife from sexual assault by one of a group of white youths and the aftermath that exposed  an all white justice system in a city that  defined itself  as a "City too Busy To Hate."  For once, Detroit Police did they job and did it very well.  It was the all-white jury system in Detroit's Recorders Court that failed to deliver justice for Daniel Thomas and his wife...