Detroit Bankruptcy Trial: All Sides Are Telling It to the Judge
Department of Justice Still Thinks Police Killings Are A ‘Civil-Rights’ Issue
More than a year after the City of Detroit, under state-imposed emergency management, filed for municipal bankruptcy to discharge $18 billion in debts, a high-stakes federal trial, the final phase of the bankruptcy process, is set to determine whether the city’s plan is fair to all interested parties seeking to protect their financial interests.
The trial started Tuesday (Sept.2) with a bang. Lawyers for the city said its bankruptcy-exit plan is workable and has broad approval. But yesterday, lawyers for New York-based bond insurer Syncora Guarantee Inc., one of the largest creditors with $400 million owed, told Judge Steven Rhodes they will not accept 10 cents on the dollar, as the city has proposed.
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, who has been Leid Stories’ correspondent on Detroit’s bankruptcy and related matters, gives us a comprehensive overview of what’s at stake in the trial for Detroiters, who the major players are, and what they want from the court.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announces today that he will launch a comprehensive civil-rights investigation into the Ferguson Police Department in Missouri. It’s where Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown on Aug. 9 works, and the department that brought to national attention the increasingly militarized police response to civil protest.
In a commentary, Leid Stories contends that while Holder’s action may satisfy political considerations, it continues the sorry legacy of the Justice Department regarding the killing of African Americans a “civil-rights” matter, and not a mandate for vigorous criminal prosecutions.
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