In late October, a few days after local news cameras swarmed Detroit's courthouse to hear closing arguments in the city's historic bankruptcy trial, "Commander" Dale Brown cruised through the stately Detroit neighborhood of Palmer Woods in a Hummer emblazoned with the silver, interlocking-crescent-moon logo of his private security company. Brown rolled down the window to ask a middle-aged woman walking her dog whether everything was okay , and whether she had seen anything out of the ordinary .