AK-47's in Flint

From the Flint Journal:

Assault rifles favored by Iraqi insurgents are finding their way onto Flint streets in alarming numbers.

A spate of shootings using such 7.62 mm assault rifles as AK-47s has police worried about high-powered weapons better suited for war zones.

Why so much worry?

A 7.62mm round can cut straight through a bullet-resistant vest.

"That powerful of a weapon is a concern for the safety of officers and the public," said Deputy Flint Police Chief Gary Hagler.

On Saturday, Kenneth M. Frohm, 28, of North Branch was killed when rounds from an assault rifle were fired into a pickup on Flint's southeast side.

A few days earlier, a Flint man was killed and another man wounded by a drive-by shooter wielding a 7.62 mm rifle on Kleinpell Street.

On June 10, a Flint man was killed when someone fired an assault rifle into a car at a S. Dort Highway parking lot.

Over the past few weeks, police also have investigated incidents in which drive-by shooters with assault weapons peppered homes with bullets but didn't hit anyone.

In Michael Moore's book Downsize This!, he displays two photos on one page. One shows the Federal Building in Oklahoma City after the 1995 bombing, while the other shows a General Motors factory in Flint being demolished. The two photos looked very similar, and Moore made the point that both demolitions were killers--the Oklahoma City bombing killed quickly, while the abandonment of Flint by GM killed over time. In the 1970's, GM employed more people just in Flint than it will in the entire US after the job cuts recently announced. Apparently the killing in Flint hasn't stopped, and probably won't for a while. I don't know the answer--auto companies have a bleak future which would have depressed Flint eventually anyway. But our corrupt system allows inhuman corporations to come and go as they please, frequently being bribed to move their operations, without regard for the human or environmental damage they leave in their wake.