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http://www.origin360.com/travel/detroit_04.html
Pow!!! Another view of the Joe Louis Fist!
The Joe Louis fist on Jefferson Avenue... across from the RenCen.
The Renaissance Center was built by the Fords... but is now owned by General Motors.
Nearby Hart Plaza hosts festivals along the river in Summer... including the massive Detroit Electronic Music Festival masterminded by the brilliant Carl Craig (one of techno's early DJs & music maker).
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Joe Louis is still kickin' ass in the motor city... or at least punching the traffic along Jefferson Avenue
Like many industrial and manufacturing towns, sports and fitness are important... Detroit is no exception.
This "fist" hanging from a pryamid hang on Jefferson Avenue near the river... in the middle of a traffic intersection... is a monument to Detroit's legendary African-American boxer Joe Louis.
They also named an arena after him... where the Detroit Red Wings (Hockey) play... and where quite a few mega-concerts ar held.
I can't help but think that given the violent past of the city - with the civil rights movement riots and being the murder capital of America for a few years running back in the late 80s... they probably could have found a better way to memorialize a sporting legend like Louis.
Either way, it's a memorial, and it's one of Detroits largest... and I guess it kinda says a lot about the spirit of the city... without spelling it out. Ohh and Joe Louis too...
The building behind it may look familar - as it was designed by the same architect who designed the World Trade Center.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/8274972.htm
DETROIT - Two men who threw white paint on the Joe Louis fist, a landmark sculpture commemorating the black boxing great, pleaded guilty Thursday to malicious destruction of property.
Brett Cashman, 45, and John T. Price, 27, face up to five years in prison at sentencing May 14. But prosecutors recommended that the pair pay $1,000, serve 30 days in jail and the rest of the time on probation.
The men, who are white, were arrested Feb. 23 for throwing paint on the 8,000-pound sculpture of Louis' arm and fist. They have said they targeted the sculpture because of its violent imagery, not as a racist act.
Louis, who died in 1981, is a hero in Detroit, where his family moved when he was 12. The Detroit Red Wings hockey team plays in a downtown arena named for him, and the 24-foot fist sculpture has a prominent location along Jefferson Avenue.
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http://www.freep.com/news/locway/fist19_20040319.htm
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Joe Louis fist painters are free to roam after three weeks of house arrest.
Judge Mark Randon of 36th District Court determined Thursday that Brett Cashman, 45, and John Price, 27, do not pose a danger to society and had their tether devices removed.
Cashman and Price of Washtenaw County's Superior Township waived their preliminary hearing, and their case is now headed to Wayne County Circuit Court for trial. The pair are accused of using mops to cover the downtown Detroit Joe Louis fist sculpture with white paint on Feb. 23.
Both men are charged with one felony count of malicious destruction of property, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.
Cashman's attorney, Marc Beginin, said he is hoping to work out a plea deal with prosecutors.
The men were pulled over in Romulus at 4:51 a.m. after an airport limousine driver spotted them running away from the corner of Jefferson and Woodward, where the monument was dripping white paint. The driver, Tommie Ruffin, called 911 and followed them onto I-94 until a Romulus police officer stopped them in their pickup.
Cashman and Price admitted to the Free Press that they painted the fist but said they did not have racist intentions. They said they intended only to make a statement about Detroit's recent surge of shooting deaths.
At the base of the monument, police found photocopies of pictures of Detroit Police Officers Jennifer Fettig and Matthew Bowens, who were slain Feb. 16. The two officers were white. The man charged with killing them is black.
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Note: In the 1980s, I visited Renaissance Center. The streets were almost completely empty. Commercial establishments were vacant. Only inside the Renaissance Center could one feel reassured of a safe enviornment. And, even it was sparsely used. One must question the value of such a place, such a community. such conditions speak to us of social desperation. .H.
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