Ortonville-It’s been 40 years this week that police vice squads raided an after hours drinking club or ‘blind pig? in a mostly black Detroit neighborhood at 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue. According to newspaper reports, the squad found 82 people inside the club, holding a party for two returning Vietnam veterans. The mostly white officers tried to arrest everyone at the club and transport the arrested patrons to jail.
When the police left the club area, a few men who were ‘confused and upset because they were kicked out of the only place they had to go,? lifted up the bars of a nearby clothing store and broke the windows. Following the break-ins, looting and fires spread through the northwest side of Detroit, then crossed over to the east side.
The violence escalated as both police and military battled to regain order in the city, and within 48 hours the National Guard was called to duty’included in that group was 25-year-old Norm Nowicki.
A Royal Oak resident and member of the Michigan Air National Guard 191st Tactical Reconnaissance group when the riots started on July 23, 1967, Nowicki was surprised by his call to duty.
‘I was in my car when the news came over the radio to report to our base in Romulus,? said Nowicki, a Detroit native who moved to Brandon Township in 1972.
‘I reported to the base that night’perhaps 600-700 were in our group. I worked in food services; basically, I was just a cook on the weekends and I reported to the base once a month, so I had never even fired a gun. They issued me and others a rifle, but told us not to load it. Many of us did load the weapons anyway. I thought to myself’I’m not going to be target practice down there.?
Nowicki, who also carried a 9 mm Luger as a side arm, boarded a military bus and served a series of 16-hour stints near Monroe Street and I-75 in downtown Detroit during the riots.
‘It was like a jungle down there,? he said. ‘We heard gun shots all the time and smoke from fires in the distance. Our job was to pull anyone suspicious over and search their car. It was just a bad situation. Still other people were just glad to see us. Sometimes we would get sandwiches or drinks and thanks from residents.?
Nowicki also guarded some detained rioters that were housed in buses due to over crowding at the city jails.
‘The conditions were not the best for those people,? he said. ‘Just consider the weather was very hot and the only bathrooms were Port-a-potties, which required armed guards to walk the prisoners over to. Many just urinated right on the bus. The stench was unreal’it was so bad that police would just shove fire hoses in the bus and hand in bars of soap’it just made you sick.?
‘Race was always a big issue. Once I was confronted by a man who claimed we killed his daughter and came after me. I lowered my bayonet and was ready to shoot, but some of the other prisoners restrained him.?
‘A cop was nearby and ignored the whole situation. He said I should have shot him. That same (prisoner) later stuck his head through the glass of a bus window and tried to kill himself.?
Nowicki said the national guard received riot control training after the events in Detroit were over.
‘It was pretty obvious we were not trained to handle this situation.?
Local photographer Bob Flath was a 31-year-old Drayton Plains resident who worked for Ransier-Anderson Photography, near Cass and Forest avenues in downtown Detroit, when the riots started.
‘I’m an excitement junkie,? said Flath, who moved to Ortonville in 1977.
‘So I called United Press International with offices downtown, and asked if they needed any help with photos of the riot. It just happened that the Pan American games were going on and they needed help. So I went in.?
Flath jumped a ride with the Detroit Fire Department ladder crew and responded to a fire at Virginia Park and Linwood Avenue in the downtown area.
‘It was a very small fire when we arrived and almost under control,? said Flath. ‘People came out to the fire- trucks and offered us sandwiches. A few minutes later, a convoy of State Police stopped by and asked if we needed help. The firefighters said ‘no? and just as the last police car pulled away, a sniper opened up on the last car.?
‘I crawled under the fire truck, but then wandered out to get a picture of the trooper shooting back at the sniper, when the cop caught my movement behind him. He whirled around with his shotgun and told me to get under cover. I ran to a store, but it was all locked up, so I went back under the fire truck and the sniper pinned us down there.?
A few minutes later, a National Guard armored vehicle arrived and machine-gunned the windows where the snipers were shooting, added Flath.
‘I got the photo back to the UPI building and it just happened to be the first picture of firefighters getting shot at’the photo was wired to newspapers all over the country.?
‘The rumor at the time was if the Detroit Police Chief and the mayor had acted faster, it could have been avoided.?
According to news sources, at the conclusion of five days of rioting, 43 had died, 1,189 were injured and more than 7,000 had been arrested.