About Us
Background Information On The Campaign’s Five Focus Issues
- One-two dozen small but dedicated community groups have been working for years on these five focus issues with some successes. They will continue to do so. This campaign is not an attempt to replace any of them. It is an attempt to unify and refocus them, give them all a stronger position, and help them achieve victory for all Detroiters.
- The Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD) shut-off an average of 20 thousand residential water accounts each year from 2013-18 for a total of 120 thousand residential water shut-offs effecting an estimated 360 thousand residents according to articles published by the “Detroit News,” and the “Atlantic.” Yet when Michigan’s Governor Witmer ordered all cities to pause water shut-offs and restore water service to all occupied homes in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, DWSD Director Gary Brown testified to Detroit City Council that he had conducted a one-year review and was only going to be able to restore water service to a maximum of 1200 homes. He said that the community would have to be responsible for reaching out to and getting any additional customers turned back on, and Detroit city officials refused to pressure him to do more.
- The Detroit News published in 2020 their study that showed Detroit homeowners were over-assessed and over-taxed by an estimate of $600 million from 2010-17. Tax bills in the study were inflated by an average of $3,800 per home. The Wayne County Treasurer’s Office foreclosed on well over 100 thousand homes during this time. An untold number of Detroit homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure due to inflated property taxes alone. Despite hundreds of citizens packing city council meetings in protest and multiple block clubs threatening lawsuits, up to this point, Detroit’s Mayor Mike Duggan and the Detroit City Council have failed to agree upon a fair reimbursement plan for the people of Detroit.
- In response to the video-taped brutal police murder of George Floyd, 2020 became the year of continuous marches, demands, and proposals from community groups for real police reform both nationwide and in Detroit. “Black Lives Matter” was the slogan that inspired sweeping police reform policy changes in states and cities across America. Detroit’s Mayor Mike Duggan, Detroit City Council, and Detroit’s Board of Police Commissioners have since made just a few minor tweaks to police policy in Detroit. Thus far, they have chosen to ignore the people’s resounding outcries for comprehensive police reform.
- From the minute it became public, Detroiters have overwhelmingly despised and fought against the installation of facial recognition technology (FRT), a network of high-resolution cameras and related computer software connected to the police department, into stop signs, onto public buildings, and inside businesses all across the city. Activists warned city officials that this giant computer spy network would be used by the police for increased racial profiling and illegal surveillance, and has already been proven in tests and real life to frequently misidentify Black people. Bills have been sponsored in the U.S. Congress and in state congress’s across the country to ban FRT systems outright until it can be improved and utilized more reliably. Yet in Detroit, The Duggan Administration has moved full-speed ahead with installation and usage of FRT. While at times proclaiming ignorance about the inception, funding, and usage of FRT in Detroit, Detroit’s city council has repeatedly voted to approve contracts to fund its continued usage.
Who Is Involved/How Does One Participate
The Drive for 5 People’s Campaign Chairperson is Richard Clay. Richard is an author, educational consultant, life coach, and longtime Detroit community activist. As this new campaign is being launched for the critical 2021 election year, a wide array of community activists, community leaders, and average citizens are joining it. The various community groups that have already invested months to years of their time diligently working to achieve progress on some of the campaign’s five focus issues can and are now encouraged to coalesce to promote all five issues through this campaign. Any individual or group can participate in the campaign by using our described action strategy to contact and lobby the Detroit city officials listed here. The more active participants we recruit, the more pressure city officials will feel to act on the people’s behalf. Let us all show our commitment to work and fight for our own best interests knowing that when we fight together, we win.
Take the Campaign Pledge
“I strive for implementation of the Drive for 5 and pledge to commit mental, physical, and financial resources towards bringing a permanent full-scale water affordability plan, a ban on facial recognition technology, comprehensive police reform, reimbursement of homeowners for over-taxation, and the reduction of racial health disparities into reality in Detroit.”