To me, this is one of the most horrific, poignant articles that I've ever read on everyday crime in Detroit. Much has been written but few articles capture the sheer oppressiveness of it, the banality, the sheer insanity.

Makes me think of so many women who wear every good ring that they own at one time, rather than risk the dresser or jewelry box.

Gallagher is such a good writer that he in no way implies that all Detroiters live like this, but also makes clear the pervasiveness of the spectre of crime.

Makes me very, very thankful to live in the Mies community in Lafayette Park, where, as far as I know, I can count on my hand the number of break-ins in it's 60 year history [[one, in the last six years that I've been there).

Also, this piece also reveals of one of the fall-outs of the foreclosure crisis - nice neighborhoods getting new neighbors of "lower" economic strata, some of whom raise community decimating havoc. Reminds me of racial blockbusting.

Thanks for posting this, I've read it twice.