General Discussion

FrodosPet

(5,169 posts) Sat Mar 2, 2013, 05:04 AM Mar 2013

Alexis Wiley: When will the nightmare of crime in Detroit stop?

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/21439544/alexis-wiley-when-will-the-nightmare-of-crime-stop

Opinion from Fox 2 reporter Alexis Wiley

DETROIT -- Reporters in Detroit see a lot. Typically, you develop a thick skin that allows you to go from one tragic story to the next, without losing sleep or skipping a beat.

I've got to admit. I've become pretty good at it. But, there's one thing that still gets under my skin. I guess that's why I found myself thinking about the 13 year old who was robbed while waiting for the school bus long after the story was done and the show was over.

~ snip ~

The 6th grader whose favorite subject is math told me that he was standing on the corner of 7 Mile and Eureka all alone, in the early morning darkness, waiting for his school bus which he says was late as usual.

~ snip ~

He told me the strange man pulled out a gun and pointed it at him, demanding he give up his jacket, phones (yes, phones) and his brand new shoes. "When I saw the gun, I thought I'd been shot," the 13 year old quietly said. He gave the man what he wanted and ran home; grateful the gunman chose not to pull the trigger.

~ snip ~

--------------------------------------------------------

Fortunately (knock on wood) the only time I have been a crime victim inside the city limits of Detroit is when some kid knocked the baseball cap off my head and ran away at the old Tiger Stadium back in the mid 1970s. Up in Pontiac, I was robbed three times in my life, and only saw one weapon back in 1986, a knife in the hands of a scared young teen, who ran away when my friend told him that while he was busy stabbing one of us, the other would be beating him to death.

After a while, you become thick skinned - ALMOST immune to reports of crime. It's just one of those things. Almost everyone you know has been a victim at least once of robbery, car theft, or breaking and entering. No one dead or injured? No big whoop, that's just life in "The D" (or Pontiac, or Southfield).

But then, you see a story like this, and it shocks you back to reality.

15 replies

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Highlight:

Alexis Wiley: When will the nightmare of crime in Detroit stop? (Original Post) FrodosPet Mar 2013 OP

When you allow all people to make an honest livable wage? nt Live and Learn Mar 2013 #1

And a livable safety net. Luminous Animal Mar 2013 #2

Agreed. nt Live and Learn Mar 2013 #3

Post removed Post removed Mar 2013 #4

Wow, what an "interesting" viewpoint. MadHound Mar 2013 #5

This ought to be good. n/t Egalitarian Thug Mar 2013 #6

How about starting with the creation of good jobs promised to us by the Top 1%..... OldDem2012 Mar 2013 #8

To be fair, President Obama has done a little job promising himself. Zax2me Mar 2013 #10

No, let's be honest, the GOP Tea-Nazis in the House have blocked any attempt to pull us out.... OldDem2012 Mar 2013 #12

+1 HiPointDem Mar 2013 #15

It won't. Peter cotton Mar 2013 #7

Are the people running the city from the left or right side of the aisle? Zax2me Mar 2013 #9

Democratic mayors since 1962 -- last 50 years. Coleman Young served 5 terms. FarCenter Mar 2013 #11

Who? Crepuscular Mar 2013 #13

that there's a market for kids' shoes & coats that make them worth stealing with a gun is more HiPointDem Mar 2013 #14

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)

1. When you allow all people to make an honest livable wage? nt

Reply to FrodosPet (Original post)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 06:12 AM

Mar 2013

Luminous Animal

(27,310 posts)

2. And a livable safety net.

Reply to Live and Learn (Reply #1)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 06:22 AM

Mar 2013

Live and Learn

(12,769 posts)

3. Agreed. nt

Reply to Luminous Animal (Reply #2)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 07:01 AM

Mar 2013

Response to Luminous Animal (Reply #2)

Post removed

MadHound

(34,179 posts)

5. Wow, what an "interesting" viewpoint.

Reply to Post removed (Reply #4)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 10:40 AM

Mar 2013

You do realize that the vast majority of welfare recipients don't spend their life on the dole. In fact the average length of time spent on welfare is between two and five years, and they are required during that time to get training or better their work skills in some manner.

What is breaking the social safety net isn't the people who are relying it, but rather the fact that it is being deliberately torn apart. Another fact for you, federal spending on welfare consists of less than one percent of the federal budget, yet the military in this country gets over fifty percent. Hmm, which do you think should be cut?

Egalitarian Thug

(12,448 posts)

6. This ought to be good. n/t

Reply to MadHound (Reply #5)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 10:52 AM

Mar 2013

OldDem2012

(3,526 posts)

8. How about starting with the creation of good jobs promised to us by the Top 1%.....

Reply to Post removed (Reply #4)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 11:06 AM

Mar 2013

....when W gave them their massively obscene tax cuts? Where are they?

How about we talk about how all of this got started back when W was elected president by the US Supreme Court and then proceeded to get us into two hugely expensive wars against countries who didn't provide any of the 9/11 hijackers?

Then, let's talk about how W did nothing until long after the the US financial empire collapsed. You do remember that, don't you?

You do understand that millions of middle-class to poor Americans lost their jobs, then lost their savings (if they had any), and then their homes, don't you? Do you begrudge them getting help from the US Government when they needed it, or would you have rather lectured them about getting back up "on the tightrope" they could no longer see?

You do understand that some of those folks are so destroyed financially as well as psychologically at this point in time that they will NEVER be able to get out of the "hammock" you mentioned in your post, don't you?

Zax2me

(2,515 posts)

10. To be fair, President Obama has done a little job promising himself.

Reply to OldDem2012 (Reply #8)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 11:38 AM

Mar 2013

And by little I mean constantly.
Little w is long gone.

OldDem2012

(3,526 posts)

12. No, let's be honest, the GOP Tea-Nazis in the House have blocked any attempt to pull us out....

Reply to Zax2me (Reply #10)

Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:21 PM

Mar 2013

....of the economic mess W left us in.

You can defend W all you want, but most of us know exactly who to blame for where we are today.

W may be long gone, but his negative impact on millions of Americans and their descendants will last for decades.