The War Comes Home
ROYAL OAK, Mich. - The war is all the way home now. The children of the suburbs have made their final break, unconsciously, have moved to fight in its very streets; as evidenced here in the last week of August. No blacks, no students, no commies . . . just long-haired dope-smoking high school students. White and middle class ... a revolution with a flavor and style all its own (if it is a revolution). In reality, it somehow seems like the latest fad, a pop festival of the streets.
On Monday evening, the 25th, the police moved into Royal Oak’s Memorial Park, the one place in south Oakland County where kids felt fairly free to gather, smoke dope and just generally hang-out. Most of the kids who were there left without too much trouble, but those that didn’t were dealt with in the usual manner of paranoid police who don’t have any idea of who, or what, they’re dealing.
Several people were arrested, most for possession and a few heads were busted but enough of a stir was created so that the mayor was moved to call a curfew for the next night. And the cops decided to close the park Tuesday, again, at eight p.m.
A number of circumstances need to be clarified to really grasp the import of the situation; first, Royal Oak and the position it occupies in the Detroit scene, second, who these kids are and why they are absolutely unique.