LeDuff and Homeowner waiting for Police after break-in

[Detwa]

I hope it's clear to everyone that LeDuff is injecting humor into these otherwise horrible situations. While humor is certainly subjective, and pretty much always unprofessional to some degree, it can entertain and resonate with certain people. You can hear the same story told 5 different ways before you grasp it.

Personally, I haven't been offended by his brand of entertainment.

Oh, I get it. I love LeDuff, I've said many times that I really like him. I even find him a little sexy, lol. Back when he did that web show on the other channel, where he wore the hat and interviewed people at the coney island? I became a fan then.

I'm just saying - I wouldn't want him in my bathtub! But I doubt that the bathtub scene made people miss the topic of the story.

[poobert]

I have mixed feelings about LeDuff but look: it got us all talking. It brought attention to the matter. If this story were simply "police show up 4 hours after call for B&E in Detroit" it wouldn't have been reported, or would have zero responses on here.

Further, it portrays an utterly absurd situation with the absurdity it deserves. Victim of a crime in Detroit? Call 911 - have lunch, take a bath, have the kids over, maybe before the day is out the cops will show up.

I know the police work hard but one thing that gives me pause is this: my work takes me to Belle Isle on the weekdays during the day quite often. There will be hardly anyone on the island except for some retired folks walking but there will be sometimes dozens of cops at random locations not doing anything [[presumably enjoying the park). I doubt they're alone and I don't doubt there are other locales to lay low when cops don't feel like showing up.

[Bham1982]

Further, it portrays an utterly absurd situation with the absurdity it deserves. Victim of a crime in Detroit? Call 911 - have lunch, take a bath, have the kids over, maybe before the day is out the cops will show up.

I don't see why it's an absurd situation. The cops have no manpower, so non-emergencies will have to wait.

Everyone already knew this, so I don't see the point of the LeDuff mock outrage/stage theatrics.

[cla1945]

I know the police work hard but one thing that gives me pause is this: my work takes me to Belle Isle on the weekdays during the day quite often. There will be hardly anyone on the island except for some retired folks walking but there will be sometimes dozens of cops at random locations not doing anything [[presumably enjoying the park). I doubt they're alone and I don't doubt there are other locales to lay low when cops don't feel like showing up.

The DPD uses Belle Isle for training purposes many times. In-service training goes on all the time with all officers. When the training academy is training new recruits [[which, of course, isn't going on right now), they use Belle Isle for driving instructions.
Dispatch knows where the officers are, they are in radio contact, and take my word for it, DPD are not over at Belle Isle enjoying the day while Detroiters are doing without protection.

[SWMAP]

Thanks, cla1945. Reasonable and believable.

[cla1945]

Thanks, cla1945. Reasonable and believable.

You are very welcome.

[poobert]

The DPD uses Belle Isle for training purposes many times. In-service training goes on all the time with all officers. When the training academy is training new recruits [[which, of course, isn't going on right now), they use Belle Isle for driving instructions.
Dispatch knows where the officers are, they are in radio contact, and take my word for it, DPD are not over at Belle Isle enjoying the day while Detroiters are doing without protection.

Yes, thanks for the information. I wish they had the resources to let the community know what they're up to like this situation.

[jbd441]

This situation has been going on for years. Helped a friend open a restaurant 2 Sundays a month on Woodward. Saw a brand new Lincoln on the side of the street disabled from an accident waiting to be towed. Called 911 while I watched the car being stripped. 911 had a busy signal. After an hour of repeated calls and busy signals I gave up. Next Sunday what was left of the car was still on the side of the street stripped down to the frame. And that was in 1983 when City of Detroit was supposedly in better shape financially.

[Strohs Brewery]

I don't see why it's an absurd situation. The cops have no manpower, so non-emergencies will have to wait.

Everyone already knew this, so I don't see the point of the LeDuff mock outrage/stage theatrics.

While I agree this problem is decades-old, it is still in need of a solution. It is frustrating to watch Charlie LeDuff's stories though because they are usually just problems without any hint of a solution. His stories often just come across as a big bitch-fest that doesn't move this crippled city forward. Makes for funny TV, but not much else.

[SWMAP]

LeDuff is a reporter. He does sometimes advance a thought about solutions - but his work is to uncover the problems, to shine a light on them. He makes no bones that he's shocked by how shallow the outrage is here- how little the populace is willing to dobro fix the problems. But he probably doesn't know the answers. He's not a law enforcement professional, an educator, a sociologist.
I will say to all that think he's a clown- did you read the Free Press this week about it's downsizing and the buy-outs offered? We know it's a shadow of it's former self now. What does the future hold? If there is no one watching the foxes in the henhouse we ate going to be in a lot of trouble. I personally had no clue about KK depravity toward the City, the contracts, that he was always traveling on high-class resort trips. I didn't know that virtually every Ficano appointee was on the take. Did you?
What will we do if we don't have passionate exporters like LeDuff?

[Strohs Brewery]

Passion is nice. I don't think anyone's saying he lacks passion. But he's not uncovering new problems for the most part here. He's getting to them after they've been pointed out. 911, EMS, Firefighters, Kwame, Ficano, etc...all stories that were broken or vastly covered by others, that Charlie then argues over.

I'm not arguing that more attention paid to these problems isn't good. It is. I'm just wondering why Charlie thinks he's saving the world.

[Gistok]

Did anyone see LeDuff the other day where he sat down and put his feet up in the air as though he was having a baby with his feet up in imaginary stirrups.... that was something one would expect of Jim Carrey... not a news reporter...

[daddeeo]

They're all a bunch of clowns. I have to laugh when cops say the city is putting it's citizens at risk. They've been slow on the draw for 30-35 years at least.
Charlie is the class clown of local TV. Some of his subject matter might be serious but his over riding ambition seems to exaggerate and have some sarcastic yuks.

[professorscott]

Passion is nice. I don't think anyone's saying he lacks passion. But he's not uncovering new problems for the most part here. He's getting to them after they've been pointed out. 911, EMS, Firefighters, Kwame, Ficano, etc...all stories that were broken or vastly covered by others, that Charlie then argues over.

I'm not arguing that more attention paid to these problems isn't good. It is. I'm just wondering why Charlie thinks he's saving the world.

Since this exact same situation happened to my wife and I twice when we lived in Detroit, I believe I am completely qualified to write the following sentence:

So the relevant subject matter here is about Charlie LeDuff, and not the fact that the Detroit Police Department routinely does not dispatch police to respond to victims of felonies?!

Amazing the [bad word] we tolerate.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Well, they showed up at my burglerized apt. in corktown in less than 40 min. on a busy Saturday night. So I guess if you compare that to this womans plight and her neck of the woods, the time ratio sounds about right...

[superduperman]

So shoot the messenger because you don't like his delivery?

[Bham1982]

So shoot the messenger because you don't like his delivery?

He isn't the messenger. He takes commonly-held truisms and then trumps them up for dramatic effect. He's an entertainer, not a journalist.

DPD hasn't been able to rapidly respond to non-emergencies for many decades now. This has been true across administrations, police leadership cycles, and economic cycles. It's apparently a structural issue, with too few officers for too many crimes.

[SWMAP]

And yet, and yet LeDuff's peers locally and nationally speak admiringly of his work. Recently Deadline Detroit devoted three stories to LeDuff, his work and leadership. Last month in the online edition Amy Sullivan of The New Republic saluted his work and the journalism professional's site, Poynter Online, was impressed with his golfing across Detroit story and cited it.

[Zacha341]

^^^ Just goes to show some people 'Fall UP', not down - Usually politicians. I do like some of his news coverage.

[superduperman]

He isn't the messenger. He takes commonly-held truisms and then trumps them up for dramatic effect. He's an entertainer, not a journalist.

DPD hasn't been able to rapidly respond to non-emergencies for many decades now. This has been true across administrations, police leadership cycles, and economic cycles. It's apparently a structural issue, with too few officers for too many crimes.

Actually he is, just because you are aware of what ills the city has doesn't mean everybody else does. He puts a spin on problems that make people who normally wouldn't pay attention.......pay attention.

[313WX]

just because you are aware of what ills the city has doesn't mean everybody else does.

Everyone's aware of the city's ills.

Now, whether everyone chooses to acknowledge those ills, or allow those ills to dictate their lives, is a different story.

[SWMAP]

Here again I disagree- that "everyone is aware of the City's ills."
If you have never been anywhere else to speak of, if you don't read too much, if your media consumption is pretty much B-movies and music videos, if you have been raised in typical neighborhoods on the east and west side, if your classroom was the sort the Detroitteacher so eloquently descibes as devoid of books, magazines, literature and opportunity - then you probably can't see the city's ills. Like the people in Lake Woebegone, you have an illusory sense if superiority - or at least of "averageness." That's why so many people in this City now think that double and even triple murders are routine, that Belle Isle is a "jewel," that neighborhoods are supposed to be blighted and strewn, that everyone's neighborhood is dominated by party stores and 24 hour gas stations.

[ThosWolfe]

Well, they showed up at my burglerized apt. in corktown in less than 40 min. on a busy Saturday night. So I guess if you compare that to this womans plight and her neck of the woods, the time ratio sounds about right...

You must "know someone"?
My parents' house was burglarized last week- thief broke in knowing they were home 2am, quietly ransacked house. Lucky my parents were not awakened, could have been confronted, I'm sure.
They called police when break in was discovered, within an hour. Police did not come. Ever. Offered to take police report over the phone "if you need one for insurance". Most other cities, police would come, check for prints&evidence, perhaps put the perp behind bars. Dangerous? perhaps, knowing home was occupied, intruder may have been armed and ready.

[313WX]

Here again I disagree- that "everyone is aware of the City's ills."
If you have never been anywhere else to speak of, if you don't read too much, if your media consumption is pretty much B-movies and music videos, if you have been raised in typical neighborhoods on the east and west side, if your classroom was the sort the Detroitteacher so eloquently descibes as devoid of books, magazines, literature and opportunity - then you probably can't see the city's ills. Like the people in Lake Woebegone, you have an illusory sense if superiority - or at least of "averageness." That's why so many people in this City now think that double and even triple murders are routine, that Belle Isle is a "jewel," that neighborhoods are supposed to be blighted and strewn, that everyone's neighborhood is dominated by party stores and 24 hour gas stations.

Being conditioned to a situation doesn't mean you're not aware that the situation is ill.

[Shollin]

You must "know someone"?
My parents' house was burglarized last week- thief broke in knowing they were home 2am, quietly ransacked house. Lucky my parents were not awakened, could have been confronted, I'm sure.
They called police when break in was discovered, within an hour. Police did not come. Ever. Offered to take police report over the phone "if you need one for insurance". Most other cities, police would come, check for prints&evidence, perhaps put the perp behind bars. Dangerous? perhaps, knowing home was occupied, intruder may have been armed and ready.

I highly doubt in large cities like New York or Chicago they'll send CSI out to fingerprint a home after a burglary. When my garage was broken into in Harper Woods, no one came out to finger print. They asked me what was stolen and handed me a report.