Last week, Detroit Police Chief James Craig was supposed to meet gas station owners in the city to listen to their grievances. More than 65 gas station entrepreneurs gathered at the DoubleTree Hotel to tell the chief about the shortcomings of his force— from repeated ticketing for the same offense to neglect and delayed response. However, Craig did not show up because it was raining. 

The utter disrespect of Craig’s cancelation of his appearance at the meeting was an illustration of the police’s behavior with gas station owners in Detroit. Officers have been issuing multiple tickets to gas stations for not having a Detroit business license, while the businesses are in the process of acquiring it. One gas station owner received 14 tickets that are too exhausting to challenge in the local bureaucracies.

It is not clear whether the police are trying to intimidate business owners to drive them out of Detroit, make money for the bankrupted municipality out the pockets of entrepreneurs or intimidate the people to assert their authority. No matter what the motivation is, dealing unfairly with citizens is not acceptable. 

America gave up manufacturing at the turn of the century. Free trade agreements severely injured the “made in the USA” tag. Detroit, America’s biggest industrial city, became the nation’s biggest post-industrial city. Crime rates increased to levels that turned the city, which Franklin D. Roosevelt once called the Arsenal of Democracy, into the murder capital of the Unites States. Businesses left Detroit and Detroiters fled the despair of the city to the safety of the suburbs. Corporate chains avoided Detroit for business and security risks. Only the mostly Arab-owned gas station opted to remain in the struggling city. 

Arab Americans’ decision to invest in Detroit when it was not a ripe business environment was not altruistic. It was a business choice. Nevertheless, gas stations and corner stores provided vital services and products for the residents who remained in the neighborhoods. Gas station owners and employees suffered and continue to suffer long hours in a small prison behind bullet-proof glass to make an honorable living in Detroit. 

Many of them have been terrorized by armed robberies or murdered by rampant criminals, due to the shortcomings of the police and the criminal justice system.

When the state took over Detroit’s finances and policing, there was hope of improved living standards and increased security in the city. 

Shortly after his appointment, Craig came to Dearborn last October and promised to work on forming a partnership between the police and the business community. 

But he was not true to his promise. He did not even bother to show up to the last meeting.

Bottom line, police, small businesses and the local community should work together if Detroit is to return to its former glory. But the excessive ticketing of gas station owners is driving business out of Detroit and dealing a huge blow to its recovery.