21st Century Battlefield - Detroit,Part 2

Its 11:12 pm

   

   Its a cool night outside and I have just finished finished watching "Let It Rip" on my local Fox news station here in Detroit. Last night the mayor of Detroit,Dave Bing,gave his State of the City address. He spoke for 30 minutes where as most folks in Detroit could have spoken for 60 seconds and called it a State of a Shitty City address.

   Simply put,Bing is a fool. He has done very little to fix the city after the crap that Kwame Kilpatrick and his thuggish posse put it through. He doesn't work with the city council,he has laid waste to the public transportation system and in my opinion is the main reason why Detroit's crime rate is skyrocketing. He speaks well but then again,so did Kwame and look where it has gotten Detroit.

  The blight here is unreal,the poverty is crushing and the crime is unrelenting. Even now we have 3 high profile cases that on the 5 o'clock news..a 14 year old killed his sleeping mother after being told he had to stay inside and away from a unsavory element,two young women were kidnapped by the ex-boyfriend who earlier had taken a shot at his ex-girlfriend and was due to stand trail for that crime. And two 15 year old niggas strapped with AK-47s went on a carjacking and robbing spree that end up with a 6 year old boy shot in the back of his car.

  The sudden spike of violence isn't random...an ATF source has said that these shootings are tied to a series of gang initiations sweeping the metro area. Many gangs make potential members kill and rob as to prove their loyalty to whatever set they will be claiming. Not the first time this has happened,young brothers often go on shooting rampages,be it schools,bus stops,barber shops or on a city street. The sad thing is Bing had a ace up his sleeve and his ego and vanity caused him to force out Warren Evans as chief of the Detroit Police Department.

   Bing did say one term that I have been using for years now...he said the city is under attack by domestic terrorists. Domestic Terrorism....right here in the good ol USA. I find it ironic watching everyone plus their goldfish jumping on Joseph Krony and raising such a outcry about him NOW. Its more of a instant fad then any real desire to see justice done. The man has been carrying on these tactics since 1986 and you're just NOW thinking its "cool" to denounce him? 

Now apply the same mindset to Detroit,its been waging a war since 1968...between the race riots,white flight,corrupt city leadership and unions,massive drug usage and sales,the flood of guns on the streets,the slow decay of what once was a great public school system and of course the violent crimes...how is Detroit any different from Uganda? What? Because we don't make kids kill their parents and friends?But is that not what is happening here? We are killing these kids by not providing a stable home,a school system that designed to pass not teach. The hundreds of gangs here are no different then Kony is making these young people destroy their own people via the shootings,drug pushing,peer pressure to fail in school. Can you image that? Being bullied as a young black person because you actually have the nerve and courage to want to better yourself!!

Once in a while we'll get a outpouring of community support,like the new fresh push by the Detroit 300 to organize citizen patrols to help out....but trying to sustain that when the media turns off it cameras is its biggest challenge,fighting apathy and your own inept leaders like Mayor Bing. He has made so many mistakes since taking over that its hard to imagine anyone being able to come in after him and having any chance to clean up this mess. Letting Warren Evans go was just the tip of the iceberg....that was Strike One....Strike Two was appointing Ralph Godbee as the new Chief,the Keystone Cops can do a better job the Godbee has done. But combining Godbee along with dismantling the Gang Squad was the deal breaker.

Gone was an 70 member elite crew whose contacts and hard work into developing a network of known gang members was reduced to a mere 12 men reduced to pushing paper and driving a desk.

  Slowly and steady the crime rate and murder rate has gone up,you can't believe the stats that minor crimes have gone down. The only reason crimes like burglary,robberies,simple assaults,purse snatching has gone "down" is the fact that people here simply have quit reporting it. Time and again we hear about a crime that either the cops don't respond to or they will show up sometimes DAYS later to take a report.

  The media and the cops all clamoring that the community needs to help out,to speak up,support the police department. But slow response times and Detroit cops abusing their authority has undermined much of the goodwill that had been hoped for. Harassing people as they drive through a certain neighborhood and trying to issue tickets with hefty fines does little to foster goodwill.

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/more-metro-detroiters-come-forward-with-flimsy-tickets-linking-them-to-hookers-and-drug-dealer

Not only has this poisoned the citizens against the cops,it now has led to a class action lawsuit against the city which will cost tens of thousands of dollars to resolve. This has happened under Godbee's watch. In January of 2011,a man invades a police station with a shotgun,the firefight leaves many cops wounded and his attacker dead. The metal detector was broken and the shooter was able to breach security.

 Now you would think that the chief of police would make sure every metal detector at every station after such an attack...and you would be wrong.

  Godbee new idea of policing is to shut the doors on all the police stations at 5 pm and leave only 3 cops on duty to take reports,the rest of the cops are supposed to on the street protecting the casinos and tourists downtown,err,the taxpaying citizens in high crime areas. So if you are a victim of a crime and its after 5 pm,don't drive to a police station in the city because you'll be told to call a number and file a police report via the phone.

When a local journalist went to cover this story about 6 weeks ago,he went to the same station that had suffered the 4 cops being shot...and what did he find? The metal detector was STILL broken over a year later!!

Nice going Ralph,old boy...

  The foolishness doesn't stop at the mayor or the police chief,it rolls downhill to some members of the city council.

Like Kwame Kenyatta...you're going to love this one.

  Going to fill your car up with gas is a mundane but an important task. You pull in,swipe your debit/credit card,pump a few gallons of gas in and maybe grab a snack or smokes,right?

 Here in Detroit,its different....here you take your life in your hands when you fill up your car. Or in some cases,you may arrive IN your car but you may up WALKING home without it after its been jacked by some blood looking to get some wheels.

  And if you are a gas station owner/worker? You can see exactly why Detroit is such a fucked up city....one minute you may be sweeping the floor,the next you may be saying hello to Tyrone or Leroy as they back a truck up through your window and trying to snatch up your ATM machine. When you hear someone say they need to use a ATM machine,better start looking for the speeding car that will soon come looking for that machine.

  Or sadder yet,you can be a victim of a cold blooded murder like the one two dudes pulled on a clerk about 3 weeks ago. One guy is buzzed into the store,he arranges to "drop" a bottle of juice on the floor. He says "sorry" and maybe he pays for the drink but he leaves. As he does,his partner jams the door leaving it unlocked.

The clerk comes out from his bulletproof station to clean up the mess when the first guy comes back in with a gun and shoots the 59 year old father of 4 kids because he can't open the safe.

  So what does wise city councilman Kenyatta suggest? ARMED GUARDS at the gas stations!! Yeah,that is the answer! Firefight at the BP Station! I mean,I can't think of a better place to have a shootout then at a gas station full of fuel. I mean,the pumps can provide good cover,right? Instead of having a quick police response and trying to develop a good action plan with the gas station owners like maybe providing free hot coffee for on duty cops thus having a much more police presence,Kenyatta wants to make the gas station owners pay to have armed security and says if they don't that maybe people should stay away from their stations because they are too dangerous!

He said that on a local show called "Detroit Wants 2 Know". I shit you not....

  This is what we experience here everyday here in the metro area.....forget Kony,I'm more concerned with the folks who live HERE.

   But I do have some good news (I hope). I blogged recently about the Bloody Mile,which is a stretch of road we used to live by. I blogged about all the animals I used to take off the road and had tried to get signs up before someone was killed. Well 3 people have been killed since we moved away...

I recently have been talking about a local county commissioner named Kevin McNamara who really seems to have his heart in the right place as far trying to make a difference. I wrote to him asking him if he would try and help me make 7 Mile a safer place. Now I have called/written many times and they have fallen on deaf ears but I got a note on my wall from Kevin asking for more details. I did that and now am really hoping that 2 or 3 signs and some crosswalks will be put down so that people will slow down and keep an eye out for both animals and people.

If this gets done,I'll personally buy Kevin a tuna fish Subway sandwich and post pictures here.

    Well,that is all I have for now.....thanks for reading!

Comments and feedback welcomed.