DETROIT: Burn it down?

As the financial panel appointed by Governor Snyder started presenting their findings in a public forum, about 100 “Detroiters” disrupted the meeting, screaming and yelling various insults at the panel for trying to take their city away from them.

I have already discussed the fiscal mess Detroit finds itself in and the work of the state governor and his aides in trying to save the city from bankruptcy.

I have also talked about the culture of corruption and incompetency that has brought the city and its residents to this dire predicament.

But the screaming, out of control crowd was protesting only one thing and that was the white takeover of their black city. The Reverend Malik Shabazz was so adamant and besides himself that he yelled “before we let you take our city, we will burn it down”.

Now we have to stop and remind ourselves that this small crowd of protesters did not necessarily represent many of the city residents although some may have the same thoughts and emotions as the protesters.

Since most of the panel members were black, the crowd called them “Toms” as in Uncle Toms; some panel members tried to explain that they were there only to help the city get back its financial health but the crowd was not there to listen and discuss, only to disrupt and prevent the panel from doing its assigned task and of course, to get on TV.

The next day, I was happy to see the newspapers filled with letters and commentary against the screaming twits at the public meeting. Many claimed that those at the meeting did NOT represent the residents of Detroit and were doing more harm than good for the city and its residents.

Governor Snyder held a town hall meeting taking questions from city residents where he again reiterated that he does not want to run the city but to save the city so it can grow and prosper and he rejected the injection of racism into this issue which he maintains is strictly financial.

One of the ways the city can grow and is actually growing is by the influx of new, younger people as in Midtown which is an area around Wayne State University and a number of medical centers. The people coming into the city at Midtown are educated and many are professionals and they form a diverse ethnic group and as far as I am concerned, these are the people that will occupy and build the NEW DETROIT.

As for the people that maintain that Detroit is and always will be a black city; they need to sober up and face the music…without the influx of young, educated, progressive and ethnically diverse peoples, Detroit may as well just burn down to the ground because it will not have a future…

Related articles

• Rick Snyder: We Have To Grow Detroit Out Of This Problem
• Detroit Council Ponders Budget Deal Draft
• Detroit Bankrupted?

• Michigan gov Rick Synder: Detroit '90 percent' close to consent deal (thegrio.com)
• Is Detroit Ripe For Civil Unrest? (detroit.cbslocal.com)
• Shikha Dalmia on Detroit's Refusal to Help Itself (reason.com)
• Detroit nears deal to avert bankruptcy, but is it a state takeover? (csmonitor.com)

HEALTHCARE: Michigan's mandates up premiums!

Since Obamacare is being debated at the Supreme Court and amongst ourselves, let me just show you why our present system is so screwed up.

The Michigan State Senate which is led by the GOP has just passed a health insurance mandate. A mandate is a command or a legal order if you will, to do something; the Supreme Court is debating whether our federal government can “mandate” that every US citizen MUST buy health insurance.

The Republicans, as we all know, are absolutely against our government mandating compulsory health insurance even though Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, invented the mandated plan…figure that one out.

Anyway, the Michigan GOP is now mandating that all insurance companies cover autism treatments. Forcing insurance companies to cover more and more conditions makes our premiums go up. Since Michigan mandates a list of conditions that MUST be covered by ALL policies, Michigan premiums are pretty high.

What this does is it takes away “choice” of insurance options from basic coverage to comprehensive coverage since ALL policies MUST cover everything the state mandates…get it?

So if I am a 19 year old in perfect health, my insurance policy MUST cover maternity expenses…now how stupid is that?

AUTISM coverage (our GOP Lt. Governor has an autistic daughter) is tricky in the fact that the condition is hard to diagnose and even harder to treat; there are many suggested but unproven treatments and there are many medical shysters peddling miracle cures that cost a lot but mostly do not work.

So telling insurance companies that they MUST cover autism treatments is very iffy even if you mandate “evidence based” treatments; what does that really mean.

Politicians should not involve themselves in medical matters; let the professionals handle that as in the “expert panel” suggested by Obamacare but as we know, Republicans decry the panel of experts idea yet they want to act as experts themselves…how moronic is that!

My point is this; let’s try to fix our crippled healthcare system through dialogue and not let politics spin the facts out of control just to benefit the politicians and their rich donor supporters. It is about time we as citizens have legislation passed that will benefit our health and not the financial health of interested parties!

TRAYVON MARTIN: Detroit Protests...

Well it appears that the Trayvon Martin saga will continue for some time and has taken on a life of its own and this is before all the facts are in…people actually don’t want any facts; they have the story just where they want it and that is that.

I will maintain that Zimmermann should never have had a gun while patrolling for the Neighborhood Watch program. His job was to REPORT anything suspicious and that is all…this tragedy should have never happened!

Zimmermann will use the self-defense argument and the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law because supposedly he was attacked by Trayvon after confronting him because it now appears that Trayvon did react violently at what he perceived was a danger to his person … but Zimmermann will probably get off which will not sit well with the nation.

The Feds will try to make this into a hate crime but that will be a big stretch according to existing evidence and may actually garner a serious backlash. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and do what the law dictates and not grandstand in front of TV cameras. President Obama probably should have kept quiet or just acknowledge the tragedy.

I did find it interesting that Detroit residents decided to get out of the house and protest the Treyvon killing. On TV today, I saw high school students actually getting together to make their feelings known and a large group of Detroiters was shown protesting in downtown Detroit.

What struck me is what I have been talking about for some time now; Detroiters come out to protest a killing in Florida but no one protests nearly daily killings in Detroit of children and young adults.

I talked about the Detroit gas station shooting where a black customer was shot and killed by a Middle Eastern clerk; there are protesters still at the gas station, weeks after the shooting!

Trayvon was killed by a white/Latino person; am I missing something here?

Tonight’s news reported the finding of the bodies of two young black women in a shallow grave. They were abducted and killed by two black men trying to keep them from testifying against them for some crime they committed…I don’t think you will here a peep from the community.

Related articles

• City Council Members to Wear Hoodies Wednesday, Call for Justice for Trayvon Martin
• Keller @ Large: Get Facts Straight In Trayvon Martin Murder First
• Black Panthers offer $10,000 bounty to catch Trayvon killer

• Detroiters Rally Against Violence In Memory Of Trayvon Martin (detroit.cbslocal.com)
• Why Such Media Slant in the Trayvon Martin Case? (blogtruth.wordpress.com)
• We Had a Huge March Yesterday for Trayvon Martin (slog.thestranger.com)
• Trayvon Marchers Hit Streets Nationwide (newser.com)
• 24 States Have 'Stand Your Ground' Laws (newser.com)

GOP RACE: Joke and Embarrassment...

Just a few comments about the GOP campaign for the office of the U.S. presidency…REALLY?

Yes the campaign is a joke to many of us but probably makes Obama happy. I feel somewhat embarrassed by the whole thing thinking what are people thinking of us around the world.

I realize that all the bullshit being thrown around by the candidates is necessary political language but really, is it really necessary to the level it has reached?

Gingrich should have left some time ago because his chances are nil even with a potentially brokered convention (other Republicans hate him). He has nothing to contribute to the national debate but I still think of him as highly intelligent and hope he can contribute something to the country down the road. He has a huge sugar daddy that makes staying in the race for him possible.

Santorum is an embarrassment. This nominally catholic ex-politician is just a nut case. He is so far right in his thinking on social issues that many consider him a deranged lunatic with a suit and tie that could be a real danger to our society. Santorum is not saying the idiotic things he is saying for purely political reasons, he really means them!

The embarrassment comes with the support he is getting which makes some Americans as sick as he is and that is scary but we knew all along that this country has some very scary people in it, people with brains that are locked into Dark Age thinking.

Romney is still as unlikable as ever but appears to be the eventual candidate. The embarrassment here is that the GOP could only spawn a candidate that many Republicans don’t like and probably will not vote for; they will just stay home. Santorum made another gaff yesterday when he said that if Romney is the candidate, it is better to leave Obama in office? He took that statement back the next day saying of course he would support the GOP candidate whoever it may be but these slips of the tongue actually carry some truth in them.

More important to the GOP race is the fact that specific issues they hung their hats on like the economy are becoming non-issues with the passing of every month as the economy recovers and unemployment drops.

They can inflame voters with religion and contraception issues but that just alienates moderate voters and especially women who are finishing college at a record pace and joining the labor force in higher and higher positions; they won’t put up with right wing nonsense.

Tonight Louisiana votes; Santorum will win and Gingrich will have to leave since the South will not even stand with him.

Related articles

• Mutiny in the GOP, Santorum tells Republicans Obama's better choice than Romney (lameducks.wordpress.com)
• Santorum: 'Are you kidding me?' (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Santorum Prefers Obama Over Mitt? (foxnews.com)
• Santorum: GOP better off with Obama than 'Etch A Sketch' Republican (goodolewoody.wordpress.com)
• Can Romney's Rivals Force Him Into a Brokered Convention? (usnews.com)
• Gingrich camp to Republicans: Promise you won't vote for Obama (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)

TREYVON MARTIN: A Modern Day Tragedy...

Well the Treyvon Martin affair sure exploded onto the national scene in a matter of hours with seemingly the whole country reacting to the tragedy.

I am well aware of the NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH program since many neighborhoods in Detroit have them and I remember my father-in-law being a member in their Trenton / McGraw neighborhood in Detroit.

The rules were simple; no firearms and no confrontation ONLY reporting which they did on CB (citizen band) radios in those days. He took his duties seriously and I am sure that crooks took notice of signs in neighborhoods with neighborhood watch programs, and stayed clear of them…it is a good program.

Of course in Florida, the Neighborhood Watch program was seriously flawed at least by one individual; George Zimmerman. Number one, he had a gun which is against the rules and he confronted an individual which is also a big no-no; the man was asking for trouble and now we learn that he had a history with the police that indicated he was asking for trouble.

The huge controversy is that Zimmerman is a free man as we speak because he claimed self-defense based on a Florida law allowing a citizen to protect himself by firing a weapon if he feels in mortal danger (STAND YOUR GROUND LAW).

People all over have jumped on the law as allowing these types of crimes to occur and to me that needs a little more discussion with real statistics to see if that view can be supported.

The law clearly states that a person has the right to defend himself when attacked as in a home invasion. Nowhere does it state that a person out stalking another person with a gun can shoot that person when he feels threatened!

When a police officer shoots a criminal, even in a justified shooting, that police officer has to go through an intensive procedure proving the shooting was justified; hell police officers have to be investigated each and every time they discharge their weapon, even if accidentally, so why in the hell was Zimmermann just allowed to go home?

This has nothing to do with the law that protects innocent people from wrongful prosecution when they use deadly force to protect themselves from an attack; it has everything to do with the Florida police force not applying the law properly and correctly, which makes them look very stupid when any simpleton can see the difference between protecting oneself from an obvious attack and roaming around with a gun looking to shoot somebody.

The wearing of “hoodies” has also become an issue. I never really understood the fashion but I know many young people, white and black, wear hoodies even inside buildings? Many criminals also wear hoodies to protect themselves from being identified by security cameras; kind of like a bandit’s mask or ski mask so wearing a hoodies does carry with it a possible criminal connotation to some people.

So here we are back to “stereotyping”. The Florida neighborhood where all this took place has been victimized by numerous robberies committed, we are told, by young black men who may or may not have been wearing hoodies but does that mean that all young black males wearing hoodies are crooks or potential crooks…obviously not.

The basic point here is that a person like Zimmermann should not have been allowed to operate the way he did under a Neighborhood Watch program; police or other members of the Watch should have thrown him out when they learned he was breaking the rules of the program. Also the Florida police department should have investigated the shooting as a crime and detained Zimmermann for more questioning and maybe drug and alcohol tests and not make an instant, on the spot, determination that he shot the youth in self-defense especially since the youth was not armed.

This is an unfortunate tragedy that did not have to happen. I think the “Stand Your Ground” law will be attacked as contributing to the crime but I think, from what I have heard so far, that would be a mistake since it is the application of the law that is in question here and not the main purpose of the law.

Many of you will blame our handgun permissive society and will call for the ban on all handguns but how realistic is that notion; we had Prohibition on the law books and people drank even more.

As far as racism is concerned, besides the obvious stereotyping as to criminals, all anecdotal evidence points to racism not being an issue.

Let’s see what happens because I think this may be an issue that may cause a sea change in our society or at least our social consciences.

Related articles

• 'Stand Your Ground Law' at center of unarmed Florida teen shooting - Fox News

• Trayvon Martin's shooting death by neighborhood watch captain in Florida ignites debates, marches (pennlive.com)
• My Kid's Name is Trayvon Martin (onefinalblog.wordpress.com)
• Trayvon Martin's parents speak at New York rally over Florida teen's shooting (theprovince.com)
• Retired F.B.I. Agent: Florida Police Mishandled Trayvon Martin Case (fox4kc.com)
• Geraldo Rivera Hoodie Theory: Blames Clothing for Trayvon Martin's Death (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
• 'Stand Your Ground Law' at center of Trayvon Martin shooting (thegrio.com)

OBAMACARE: Death Panels my ass!

Another MISINFORMATION issue about Obamacare going around the country is that the new law will have a so called DEATH PANEL that will have power to decide if a patient can have a certain procedure or not. Many are saying that you could die if the panel does not approve a life saving procedure that you need simply because it is too expensive; this is where they get the DEATH OF GRANNY slogan.

Well as most ridiculous things it is pure BULLSHIT put forth for political reasons by Republicans and/or whoever else stands to lose something if our healthcare is reformed as under Obamacare.

Those of us in the healthcare field are painfully aware that doctors are not gods and some are really stupid and other would do anything for a buck and some are really good physicians; the same goes for clinics and hospitals.

It is hard for the regular Joe on the street to think that their doctor may do something or recommend something that may be actually harmful to you or at least will do absolutely nothing for your problem; well that does happen more than you think.

The medical profession is dependent on studies and conclusions from studies that recommend or negate certain medical procedures or drugs based on those studies. If a doctor keeps up with his or her technical reading they LEARN what is recommended and what is not BUT those that do not take the time to keep up with their professional education, have no idea what is recommend and what is not.

Obamacare wants to create a panel of experts that will recommend the BEST medical procedures for specific ailments based on current studies. Let me repeat the word RECOMMEND. In some cases their findings will reveal that certain popular procedures do nothing to help the patient and should not be performed.

This type of panel is desperately needed to help bring down the astronomical costs of our healthcare. Believe me, certain doctors do procedures JUST for the money they bring. If a certain doctor keeps doing a procedure that is not recommended for a specific ailment, someone will check up on that doctor to see if he or she is not a SCAMMER and there are many of those in this country.

It is hard to explain to the layperson why doctors have to be able to access information as to the BEST possible recommended treatment for a condition from a panel specifically charged with providing that expert information. Again, doctors are not gods and do not know everything; they have to Google certain ailments to see what treatment is recommended (doctors actually use the MERCK MANUAL for that).

Please don’t believe the assholes that spread rumors like the “death panel” ones. Those rumors are based on fear mongering for a political or monetary purpose and do nothing to help our healthcare situation.

Don’t fall for the bullshit going around; GET INFORMED so you can make an INFORMED DECISION about what concerns your welfare and that of your family.

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• ObamaCare: More Government, Fewer Doctors

• Fox News Lies: and an Dlderly Woman Dies - by Karoli (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)
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• Obamacare: Are Doctors To Be Agents Of Their Patients Or Agents Of The Federal Government? (politicalvelcraft.org)
• Health care debate shifts to Medicare panel (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• ORIENT: Is the payment board a death panel? - Washington Times (gds44.wordpress.com)

OBAMACARE: Know the facts and not the spin!

I have been hearing a lot from the Republicans about the dangers of Obamacare and how the next Republican president will swiftly repeal Obamacare…please notice that the Republicans have no alternative plan of their own to offer.

I have also seen quite a few humorous if not down right insulting and stupid cartoons and jokes about Obamacare from among others, my friends.

It is obvious that there is a lot of MISINFORMATION about the new health law and I don’t really know why unless its all political; which it is hell with the health of the nation!

I think ALL sides have to agree that the healthcare system we have is NOT WORKING so we all MUST agree that something must be done; we cannot just oppose Obamacare, we have to back some kind of plan or we need to shut the fuck up.

Obamacare was put out into the public arena to start a dialogue going not to force one specific plan down anyone’s throat and I, for one, see a lot of changes that need to be made for the plan to work.

The issue that is at the Supreme Court as we speak is the “individual mandate” issue. Basically that means we ALL MUST HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE.

Now you may say that forcing health insurance on American citizens is somehow unconstitutional, well too bad, you can’t drive without car insurance so treat this as the same, you can’t get free medical care anymore, you need healthcare insurance.

Why? Because it is the assholes that drink beer all day and have no money left over for health insurance but run to the ER for free care when their tummy hurts from drinking too much beer that are making this insurance mandate necessary…no more freeloading at the expense of those who buy health insurance.

Now obviously Obamacare has many issues to discuss but this is the big one. It has been tried in Massachusetts under Governor Romney…yes the same dude running for president and it has worked to a certain extent.

The problem of making sure that the individual mandate works is to punish the people that do not buy insurance and here many don’t want to do what is necessary; tell the freeloaders to die in the street.

Obviously the poor will be under Medicaid and the working poor will have their premiums subsidized so it is not an “evil” plan BUT mandated coverage is a MUST if the plan is to succeed.

So please don’t be crying about your constitutional rights being ignored…I AM NOT PAYING FOR YOUR FUCKIN’ HEALTHCARE…GET IT?

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DETROIT: Give us money and leave us in charge!

What is going on in Detroit is not only pissing me off to no end, others I have noticed are also besides themselves as to the Detroit response to the governor’s offer of help with his consent decree.

All columnists and editorial writers in both our papers have stated that Detroit should take the governor’s offer and sign the consent decree as the best possible thing Detroit could do at this particular point in the city’s slow implosion.

And yet, the mayor and the city council are saying that the only way they can accept the consent decree is IF THEY REMAIN IN CHARGE.

This defies all logic as they are the ones that FAILED to get the city out of its dilemma and their failure has resulted in the dire straights the city finds itself in; why would the governor place them in charge and give them money to do what they have obviously been unable to do all this time; they are INCOMPETENT.

More, they are ARROGANT and do not have the city’s best interest at heart; only their own power!

I have talked for years about the Detroit “culture” of incompetence and corruption and their determination to keep that gravy train going by playing the race card over and over and over again.

Governor Snyder touched on the same theme I have been touching on for years when he said:  “If you have a problem, is the answer to say ‘Go Away’ or is it to hold up your hand and say ‘We Need Help’? That’s a cultural problem they have there.”

They want and demand money but they do not want accountability with that money. They want to keep doing the same nonsense they have been doing all along.

Detroiters immediately jumped on Governor Snyder accusing him of being a racist by saying his use of the word “culture” really means a “black culture” which is derogatory and stereotyping. He politely replied that his statement was in no way racist but indicated the way Detroit leaders seem to act in the face of trouble, over and over again until it becomes part of their makeup; their culture.

Michiganders that cheered Detroit’s attempts at revival with the election of Mayor Bing and a new city council are now LIVID and want the governor to quit playing games with those idiots. If they don’t sign the consent decree as it is written with them NOT in charge, invoke the emergency manager law.

Some are saying that the mayor and the council are actually playing a smart political game by showing the voters that they fought with all their might a state takeover but were overpowered by the racist governor so they should be re-elected when the governor finally fixes the city so they can get started on trashing it again as they have over and over and over again.

Related articles

• Detroit Consent Agreement Draft Gets Harsh Words From Mayor Dave Bing
• Mayor Dave Bing: 'I will not support an Emergency Manager for Detroit'

• Bankers' dictatorship for Detroit workers (jdeanicite.typepad.com)
• Michigan delivers ultimatum on Detroit finances (csmonitor.com)
• State plan for Detroit finances would shift power (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

DETROIT: Gas station shooting...why different?

I have been talking about crime in Detroit for some time and what can be done to prevent some of it but this latest example gives one pause…

I am talking about a fatal shooting at a gas station where the clerk came out of the bulletproof glass protected cage that all gas station clerks have to be behind in Detroit, and shot a “customer” who argued with him about the price of condoms and then proceeded to trash the store when he did not get his way. The clerk shot the customer in the back with a shotgun as the customer left and came back to trash the store some more; obviously the clerk did not need to do that or should have done that because he was not in any physical danger but both were in their early 20s and you know how tempers fly at that age.

The next day, the gas station was inundated by family, friends and neighbors of the deceased protesting his shooting, shooing away customers, demanding the station be closed permanently and demanding that the clerk that did the shooting be locked up for life.

The amount of outrage by the community in this case was puzzling since this amount of outrage has never been shown in response to countless shootings and killings of innocent children in the city that has been going on nearly daily among other senseless and shocking criminal acts against innocent residents of the city including the very elderly.

The county prosecutor was quickly if not immediately on TV saying the shooter will be charged with first degree premeditated murder when it was clear this was done in the heat of the moment and not premeditated, and spend the rest of his life in jail; all this from a usually sensible and methodical county prosecutor.

What makes this crime different from the usual black on black crime; it was a shooting of a black man by a man of Middle Eastern decent. In Detroit, most if not all gas stations are owned and manned by either Chaldeans or other Middle Eastern men; I do not call them Arabs because they do not call themselves that.

Operating gas stations with tiny shops attached in Detroit is very dangerous with many of the owners and clerks killed during frequent robberies. The few (expensive) goods that these stations provide are sometimes the only close source for those goods for the entire neighborhood so they provide a vital service but they are despised... why?

This is not the first time this type of incident has occurred. The usual complaint you here is that the gas station owners do not “respect” the customers they serve. What this means I don’t know but I do know that this type of incident brings out an outrage that seems somehow disproportionate when compared to other crimes in the city especially involving innocent victims; the customer that was shot by the clerk should not have been shot but he was far from being an innocent shopper.

Related articles

• Sex Is A Weapon: Detroit Man Shot Dead By Gas Station Clerk After Beefing Over The Price Of Condoms!

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DETROIT: The bitter end is here, swallow the pill!

Watching the local news about Detroit just drives me insane. After cheering the election of Mayor Bing as a first step in bringing the city back from disaster, I am now including the mayor in the group that is keeping the city in a state of near death with no chance of fiscal survival.

The mayor and the rest of the city leaders desperately wanted to avoid an emergency manager who would have all the power of a dictator to fix the city by hook or by crook so they opted for a “consent decree” which means they will sign a document outlining exactly what the city must do to get itself into financial health.

The difference between an emergency manager and a consent decree is that an emergency manager would be all powerful even to the point of firing elected but incompetent officials and negating any and all union contracts.

What the mayor and the city council thought was that a consent decree would allow them to continue to do what they have been doing all along which is driving the city deeper into financial bedlam and this is why the mayor and the council are labeled as INCOMPETENT TWITS; why would anyone allow the idiots that caused or at least did not fix the problems the city faces, with continuing to keep doing the worthless job they have been doing…how in the hell does that fix anything?

The mayor had the balls to also ask for money in the form of a bridge loan from Michigan taxpayers to dump into the same shithole that they have been dumping money for decades.

Governor Snyder said how can you ask for more money without a fucking plan to get the city out of the fiscal shithole; just because that has worked in the past does not mean the same morons are in power today and will fall for that crap…Michigan taxpayers have had enough!

Governor Snyder has presented a plan and put it on the table as a starting point in the discussion; the mayor or the council have no plans to propose, just objections.

The plan appoints a 9 member financial board that will carry out the consent agreement but the council will have no say so in this plan except to approve it and of course they don’t like to be told to go sit in the corner and shut up but on the other hand why would anyone with a brain listen to anything they had to say; they had their chance.

The mayor does have the power, under the decree, to nullify union contracts and privatize city services and that in itself does not sit well with the unions who will fight this plan to the bitter end…

BUT here is the point, this is the BITTER END. The city had a lot of time to straighten itself out and it could not because it is incapable due to plain incompetence, corruption and of course, city politics.

So the bitter end is agree to a consent decree and at least have 9 responsible people carrying out the plan or have one emergency manager takeover OR go into bankruptcy where a judge will be the emergency manager…take your choice.

I am really hoping and I do have faith in Governor Snyder because he is a businessman first and a politician second, that he will do the right thing and that he also is cognizant of the Michigan taxpayers and voters that do not live in Detroit but want a strong Detroit but will not put up with the total mismanagement by Detroit leaders anymore…

The bitter end is here…the road ahead is clear…

Related articles

• Detroit Consent Agreement Reviewed By City Council (huffingtonpost.com)
• Mayor Dave Bing: 'I will not support an Emergency Manager for Detroit' (thegrio.com)

DETROIT CRIME: Try "Broken Windows" Theory...

I think we all have been talking about the dramatic escalation of crime in Detroit and especially the deadly shooting increase that has many people just shaking their heads at the utter tragedy of the shootings especially those involving innocent infants and children.

We all agree that the problem resides in the culture; the lack of stable two-parent families, the continuing escalation of out of wedlock births, the economy, the lack of hope and the lack of any regard for human life among a myriad of other factors. We are aware of the causative factors but I am not aware of any ideas or plans to somehow address those negative factors and in so doing, bring the abysmal crime statistics down…until today.

I have been reading about the death of brilliant social scientist James Q. Wilson in the New York Times and Time Magazine and his groundbreaking body of work about our political and social behavior and especially his “Broken Window Theory”.

Also in today’s Free Press I encountered a letter by Thomas E. Page, a retired LA cop and former Detroit cop, in which he mentioned the “broken window theory” along with the fact that crime in metro areas even larger than Detroit (LA for one) is lower and more in control than it is in Detroit.

The “Broken Windows Theory” put forth by Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982 is based on the simple fact that if you have a building with broken windows that are not repaired quickly, vandals will break a few more, etc.  eventually making the building a criminal haven. The premise is if you fix the problems when they are small, you prevent major problems from developing.

You could also use the analogy of a sidewalk. If you let the sidewalk fall into disrepair, litter will accumulate and eventually become a dumping ground.

The retired police officer from LA is saying that what the Detroit Police Department is doing is just not working. He suggests a “broken windows” type of approach by what he calls “aggressive traffic enforcement”.

He says that criminals nearly always drive to and from their crimes, usually in stolen, unregistered or uninsured vehicles. If police would seriously enforce even the simplest traffic infractions, it would result in increased police visibility thus promoting a real fear of getting caught and also stopping crimes before they happen.

The theory goes, enforce the laws on minor crimes and reduce bigger crimes.

This theory has been tested in major cities with great results even though each city has to adopt a plan tailor made to handle its specific problems.

I am pretty sure that suburban police departments already use the theory and get results even if some may call it harassment or racial discrimination (while driving) but we cannot sneeze at the results.

If Detroit wants to stop the slaughter on its streets and in its neighborhoods, it needs to get smart about its police force operates and using the “broken windows” theory is something they cannot ignore.

Related articles

• Co-author of 'broken windows' policing theory dies (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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• James Q. Wilson, Broken Windows, and Your Business (laureltielis.com)
• Wall Street's Broken Windows (alternet.org)
• We Need A New 'Broken Windows' Policy To Clean Up Wall Street (businessinsider.com)
• James Q. Wilson Remembered (inquisitr.com)
• Originated 'Broken Windows' Policing Strategy - New York Times (nytimes.com)

DETROIT: Enough...State must take over...

The mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing, delivered his State of the City speech a few days ago where he was suppose to outline his plan to save the city from bankruptcy but what he delivered was the usual bullshit that has been coming out of Detroit’s corrupt and incompetent administrations for decades.

I had high hopes for Bing and I still believe that he has the best interest of the city at heart and is not corrupt BUT he has proven himself inept.

Originally he ran for office to clean the city up and get it into solvency but when he decided that he liked being mayor and needed votes to stay in office, he could no longer push through much needed reforms because that would lose him votes and this is the dilemma that has plagued the city for so long.

He stands before us and asks for a Michigan taxpayer bailout so the same corruption and incompetence can continue until he asks for another handout…this has been going on for too long now.

Governor Snyder is trying to work with the mayor and that is a big mistake because the mayor has no plans for doing what needs to be done yet he opposes an emergency manager that could save the city from bankruptcy. The point here is as it always has been; the black corrupt and incompetent so called leaders of Detroit do not want to lose control over their gravy train.

Governor Snyder cannot be sucked into this race card bullshit; the city needs an honest and competent administrator and that would be the EMERGENCY MANAGER and no one else will do.

Bing is playing the race card because he wants to be re-elected and that makes him incapable of doing what needs to be done so the governor has only one option left: appoint an emergency manager and to hell with what Detroiter’s want; give them what they need!!!

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