Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh sat for an interview to discuss the causes of the Detroit riots after the violence was under control.
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GALLERY: AP photos from the Detroit riots
Cavanagh stated that this type of riot could have happened to any major city in the country due to a national sickness afflicting Americans.
“The public resources in this country are either in the state government or principally the federal government,” Cavanagh said. “The state governments traditionally have ignored the needs of the urban areas, not just in this state but practically every state in the union, and the federal government has only dealt with these things in a very half-hearted manner.”
The mayor was asked about how much of the sniper activity was organized and he said there would be investigations into the shootings, but that it did not appear to be organized.
“Our priorities in this country are all out of balance,” Cavanagh said. “We had made really no national commitment on the part of the public or the congress, or the private sector for that matter, to really start to rebuild our cities, not just physically but socially as well.”
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