Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Want to get rich in Detroit? Get shot.

Its 12:29 pm

    Wow....what a beautiful day once in SE Michigan. Just a picture perfect day to do whatever you feel free to do. The temperature is supposed to hit 71 degrees both today and tomorrow and after I finish this entry,I'm outta here for a walk.
   Note to Rush Limbaugh: A slut and/or a whore isn't someone like Sandra Fluke. It belongs to any man or woman who appears on a show like the The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. Just wanted to clear that up.

  Just wanted to touch on a couple of topics I blogged about before....

First,the man who thought it okay to write a sexually graphic paper about his college professor and was suspended by the school for it,had his appeal denied by the school's president. Joe Corlett 56,now plans on suing the school saying HIS rights were abused. One would hope theschool and the teacher does the same thing to Mr. Corelett for sexual harassment. The pendulum swings both ways,Corelett has a right to speak but so does the teacher,she voiced her concerns about feeling comfortable teaching without some 56 year old married man undressing her and or making  crude remarks in the classroom among his classmates.
Never once has this man admitted that maybe he went far and say that he is sorry,that he crossed a boundary that should have never been even in his thoughts. Maybe if he done that instead of bitching and moaning about  "wronged" he was, this could have been settled like adults. But since Corelett doesn't seem to be mature enough to recognize what he did was tasteless and tacky,off to court they'll be going....

   The second this I'm going to talk about is the gas station shooting we had here in the Detroit area last weekend. I blogged how dangerous it is to simply get a tankful of gas in the D. You can shot,carjacked,beaten all while just trying to get some gas. Its one of the things Lori and I do before we head to the Eastern Market or DIA...we fill our gas tank BEFORE we head to Detroit.
Regular readers know about the World War 2 vet who was carjacked and had his leg broke while attempting to get gas and had to literally crawl on his hands to get help while other customers just walked past him.
  I commented how one city council member,Kwame Kenyatta went on talk show host Steve Hood's program "Detroit Wants 2 Know" and argued for armed guards at these same gas stations. The owners,primarily Arab-Americans,said they needed more police to help them and why should they have to pay for private security when their business and personal taxes should enable them to get police services just as any other citizen or business.
   Kenyatta said that if they didn't get guards and make the stations safe,then maybe people should avoid going to these stations. It was a very thin veiled threat and if I'm a station owner,I'm going to be very upset at a public servant that is discouraging the public from coming to my business. It was wrong and Kenyatta had no business saying that. If he is that concerned with the crime at the gas stations,he should talk to Chief Ralph Godbee about what can be done to patrol the 5-10 worst hit stations a little more.
  After all,a attendent was shot and killed just a few weeks ago in cold blood..we didn't see the gas station owner go on the news or Detroit Wants 2 Know and tell people to stop coming to Detroit did we?
 This past weekend,saw a 24 year old man come into a BP station with a bunch of his friends. He wanted to a single condom that was listed for 1.50. The man,Michael Haynes,started a fight in the store and started knocking over displays. The clerk came out brandishing a gun and shot Haynes in the shoulder. His friends scooped him up and ran to the nearest ER which was Sinai-Grace Hospital. And that is where the shit gets really crazy...
  Sadly,very sadly...I can tell you when a loved one gets shot,its a terrible thing. You react three ways,you panic and lose control or you try and see how bad it is and attempt first aid and call 9-1-1 or you just go into shock because you know the person is gone. My family reacted to the last one when Peter was murdered.
My mom told me when she saw all the cop cars and fire trucks,that something terrible had happened. No one in my family raised their voices or went loopy.
  But not everyone is that way....Hayne's friends (who most likely had been partying) panicked and instead of one person going into the ER,all barged into the ER area screaming and scared for their friend. They were loud and overpowering in their desire to help Haynes. I'm sure profanity was being hurled about as well...and the security team was backed into a corner. Instead of helping their friend,they may aided in his death because of their actions. The guards felt threatened enough to have allegedly had to pepper spray ad handcuff these guys until they could get a straight story. By the time that Haynes was seen,it was too late and he was dead.
  Now the family is calling for a boycott of the gas station and wants to profit off the dead man by suing the hospital. The local media showed a crowd of black Detroiters fighting,pushing and waving signs asking to end the killing of young black men....by other races because God knows,genocide doesn't happen in the D.
When you see and hear this kind of reaction from a man who brought his own death upon himself and a councilman who said that every gas station should have a armed guard,its hard to have any compassion.
Now the clerk has been charged with 1st degree murder which is also wrong....2nd degree murder,yes...DA Kym Worthy should charge the clerk with 2nd degree murder because while the man was surrounded by a group of men,all he had to do was call 9-1-1 and stay behind the bulletproof counter. He wasn't in mortal danger and while seeing his store being trashed was nasty,his life wasn't in danger.
  But to not acknowledge what her son did was wrong,Haynes mother crying for "justice for my baby" rings hollow. Haynes was not a 12 year old girl shot dead because of a cell phone dispute,he wasn't a 8 month baby shot dead by 2 men shooting AK-47s into a house. He was a 24 year old man who argued over 50 fucking cents and acted out in violence.
  And to sue the hospital? Profit off your dead son? Don't be shocked,it happens all the time here..little 7 year old Aiyana Jones was still on the medical examiner's table when attorney Geoffrey Fieger was announcing he was filing suit against the Detroit Police Department after little Aiyana was killed in a police raid. Aiyana's father had supposedly supplied a gun and a ride to Chauncey Owens when then killed 17 old Jerean  Blake.
The police raided the house looking for Owens whom the Jones family was hiding upstairs when Aiyana was killed. But that still hasn't stopped the Jones family from trying to cash in on her death.
  The wall of silence around the black of black crime is astounding....even as I type this I am reading about a 12 year old boy that was shot in his arm after two cars of young black men crashed into other and both parties came out shooting....and of course,no one knows nothing.
  Not unless there is money to be made by it of course.....
I commented to Steve Hood about my feelings on Kwame Kenyatta and his wanting armed guards at the gas stations and how wrong it was. I asked if he was planning to follow up on this in light of this shooting. He couldn't give me details but said to watch this weekend. Steve,if you read this.....I can't wait. We need a lot more folks like Steve around,that is for sure.
To follow Detroit Wants 2 Know just click on the link.

Off the soap box......

   I have a job interview on Friday. I don't want to jinx myself but I'm really praying that I can get this job because I feel like I'm breathing on fumes these days. Just trying to maintain what we have here but each week I see where we need some help in the house,repairs that need to be done but finding the money to get what we need is a real chore. It would be so nice to actually get back to a schedule and feel like a real partner /husband again in bringing home a check...so I'm asking for some prayers here!
   Okay,I gotta brag about this one before I go....I have a dear friend named Kylie who works in the movies.She is working as a set designer for several different small productions. What does a set designer do,you may be asking,well,they are the ones who are responsible who making a warehouse look like a police station,a house appear haunted,to convert a modern home into a 17th century den of fun. They have to design the set,acquire the materials needed and then spend long hours building the director's vision. As many of you who have worked in the movies know,the smaller the budget,the more creative you have to get with that budget. Kylie is a talented set designer...while working on a superhero movie,she mentioned she went to IKEA to get some materials. Think about that for a second.....IKEA,the home goods store! I consider myself doing well if I can get freezer bags and a throw blankie there but to make and create a set off those items?
Just fucking brilliant...I read in Robert Englund's "Hollywood Monster" that Roger Corman had the most creative set design team....that they once used egg cartons as a element when they filmed the B classic movie "Galaxy of Terror". Come to think of it,Englund wrote that the effects/set designers often did much better when a small budget then with a larger one because it forced them to think outside the box....and in this case,into IKEA! How cool is that? Just wanted to brag about you a little bit K,hope you don't mind.
Okay,that is all I got for now....but I'll have something else to say tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment