Detroit's Martin Luther King Apartments Full Of Crime And Violence

“We’re the forgotten people of Detroit,” Sharonda Hawkins of city’s Westside Martin Luther King Apartments, the Detroit News reports.

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Eight months ago, her husband, Brandon Johnson, was shot dead several doors away from her apartment inside the complex. Hawkins, who carries her 40. caliber pistol with her whenever she steps outside of her apartment, says that the violence her 481-unit complex endures is a reflection of what is going on in the city.

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She told the Detroit News that many outsiders, especially those from outside of the city limits, do not know the real Motor City:

“You hear people who come in from the suburbs to go to Comerica Park or the casinos talking about how much they love Detroit,” she said. “But they don’t see the real Detroit: Open drug dealing; rapes; murders. People shouldn’t have to live like this. It’s like we’re hostages in our own homes.”

That Hawkins, who has lived in the apartment complex since 1988, is strapped with a gun to her hip, in plain sight, whenever she leaves her apartment is a very telling reality. She says it is because the police are not a very reliable source of protection. Yet, this calls to question the issue of gun rights. Is it a necessary “evil” that Hawkins has to protect herself with a gun in a gang-infested area? What us know what you think.

Go to The Detroit News watch Hawkins talk about her experience living in the MLK apartments.

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