Devil's Night
I remember as a little boy watching the late night news and thinking how amazing it would be to visit downtown during Devil's Night. Devil’s Night was literally porno for pyromaniacs. Between the hours of 11 and 12 you would be bombarded with scenes from the news helicopter showing wide sweeping shows of the city. You could see anywhere from 10 to 50 plus little fires dotting the landscape.
Devil’s Night became so popular at one point that it became a major tourist attraction for the city. People from everywhere, Japan, Europe, South America would all come to watch the city burn. After Coleman Young left the mayor’s office and was replaced by Dennis Archer, the fires started to die down. Archer had tagged the night as Angel’s Night and asked for volunteers to assist with patrols around the town. For the most part it was a huge success. Angel’s Night is still going strong in Detroit.
I still miss sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn while watching the city glow orange.
Devil's Night is a name associated with October 30, the night before Halloween, particularly in and around Detroit, Michigan.
Devil's Night is a longstanding Detroit tradition predating World War II, with anecdotal incidents occurring as early as the 1930s. Traditionally, youths in the Detroit area engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as egging the homes of neighbors) in retaliation for real or perceived wrongs, or simply for the sake of the crime itself. In the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to more severe acts such as setting vacant houses on fire. As these activities increased and the tradition gained notoriety, individuals including Detroit-area business owners, purportedly took advantage of Devil’s Night vandalism to collect on insurance policies by committing arson on their properties (i.e., setting fire to their own cars and/or businesses)[citation needed]. These incidents were blamed on Devil's Night hooligans and added to the notoriety of the night.
Beginning in the 1970s, the crimes became more destructive in Detroit's inner-city neighborhoods, and included hundreds of acts of arson and vandalism every year. The destruction reached a peak in the mid- to late-1980s, with more than 800 fires set in 1984, and 500 to 800 fires in the three days and nights before Halloween in a typical year.
In 1995, Detroit city officials organized and created Angel's Night on and around October 30. Each year as many as 40,000 volunteers gather to patrol neighborhoods. Additionally, youth curfews as early as 6 p.m. are instituted on the days before Halloween. Since then, there has been a decline to 20 fires per day in the days around Halloween.
Devil's Night was chronicled in sociologist Ze'ev Chafets' 1991 book "Devil's Night and Other True Tales of Detroit," and fictionalized in the 1994 movie The Crow. The burning of an abandoned house featured in the movie "8 Mile," which starred Eminem and was set in his hometown of Detroit, and his rap group D12 named their first album after the night. While the term is still well-known by Michigan residents, the news media in Detroit currently refer to the event as Angel's Night to promote the efforts of the volunteers.
Devil's Night is now becoming popular in Ireland (where it is more commonly called Mischief Night), where youths are out of school for the week around Halloween. Many of the nights running up to October 31 are used by youths to commit acts of vandalism.
The name Devil's Night or Mischief Night is used by criminals in the eastern U.S. and Canada, although the acts are generally less destructive and violent than those committed in Detroit. A survey done in the United States shows the comparative popularity of various names for this night around the country.
Source: Wikipedia
Here are a few other web sites about Devil's Night in Detorit.
Souce of the image in this post. Also a number of other photos from 1997.
Some haunting tales from Detroit's past
Link to the fantastic book Devil's Night: And Other True Tales of Detroit by Zev Chafets
Article from 2000 on youth crime on Devil's Night