As Charles Wilson (GM president) once said "what's good for GM is good for America and vice versa", I now believe that what is good for Detroit is good for America. Detroit I now believe is a window into the soul of America. Why do I say that?

I am closing in on my research on why Detroit once the richest city in America is now the crime capital of America and the next few posts will reveal why I have come to believe this.

I have learned that to understand Detroit one has to understand the city at the block level. The city dynamic changes from block to block. I have access to good data at the zip code level. I have previously focused on two neighboring zip codes-48205 (the deadliest zip) and 48230 (Grosse Pointe Woods) which are five miles apart. 48205 is almost 100% black and 48230 is lily-white.

48205 is the deadliest zip in Detroit. It is known as the Red Zone. Zooming in on 48205 we see that its most notorious gang SMB (Seven Mile Bloods) members were teenagers when they formed the gang in 2003, and within a few years, they were one of the biggest and the most ruthless gangs in Detroit. They were rappers and had a YouTube presence. They made drugs and even murders "hip" among black teens in Detroit. They were young boys who created a reign of terror in Detroit.

SMB gang was worse than I could imagine. I had to understand how young boys could fall so low.

https://www.detroitnews.com/.../detroit-gang.../432776002/

SMB leaders' ages ranged from 13 to 21 in 2003, which means, that they were born between 1982 and 1990. They are the ages of my children. Their parents must have been born in the late sixties and they came of age in the 80s. 25% of Detroit's adults are felons. Yes, 25%! It is quite likely that their parents were felons too. Which means that many (perhaps all) of SMB are second-generation felons. 1970 to 1994 were the years that crime peaked in Detroit. The formative years in the lives of the SMB gang.

Now imagine if you (or I) were born into a criminal family, your neighbors and friends were children of criminals, you grew up knowing nothing but crime. That was your life. You had no or little education, your parent(s) were in and out of jail, you had no supervision, no prospects of a job, and no way out of poverty other than through crime. You saw drug lords driving fancy cars, living the good life in the midst of abject poverty and you wanted to be like them. So, you and your friends formed SMB. You did not respect your life or anyone else's because in your neighborhood life was not worth much. Everyone you knew was stuck, with no way out of poverty other than through drugs and crime. Incarceration was normal, you saw your elders go in and out of jail. Once a felon your prospects for a job were nil. So, back to crime or live a life in poverty were your choices. Either way, it was not much of a life. The only power you had over your life and circumstances came from gang activities. The better you were at it the more power you had. SMB became good at it.

The good news for Detroit is that SMB are all in jail and facing life sentences, but the bad news is that other gangs have emerged.

https://www.detroitnews.com/.../seven-mile.../2494680001/

In the next few posts, I will examine the social fabric of zip code 48205, that is, family structure, the types of households, birth rates, teen pregnancy, incarceration rates, education levels, poverty rate and unemployment rate.

Just a note, no one is BORN A CRIMINAL, lest we start judging. Understanding is what is needed. That is what the next few posts will attempt to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Gwvq6zdSw&fbclid=IwAR0H7-aGnp7IDpvz66C1BGHNcjRcgW2mDLBMwPtTbvjF2bkfA3E5yrFJI