Border City Crime: Ferndale Phramacy Robbed Twice - Closing

[Baselinepunk]

Here is a link to crime data:

http://www.ferndalepolice.org/crime_maps/index.html

[Zacha341]

Oh I hear you. I work in education and career training so it I personally feel it is very important, but there are is a segment at least indifferent and at worst disruptive to the process of those interested in the educational process...

Though it can be said/ argued that those individuals could benefit from being 'educated' that education IS important and an advantage.

Very few people have no interest in education, at least when they're provided with a good school and teachers. How few? Nobody knows. Why? Because for those most at risk of growing up illiterate and going to prison, it simply hasn't been tried. I say it's worth a try. Or we could just say that some people don't want education, so, based on them, we're going to deny it to whole classes of kids. Whatever makes us feel better, right?

[Zacha341]

That's a good point. The cynicism towards learning is hard to witness and deal with.

I think it depends what age you are talking about. I know of few six-year-olds who aren't interested in learning. I know of many sixteen-year-olds who have no interest whatsoever. Preventing the former from changing into the latter is one of the many challenges facing people trying to improve education among the hard-to-educate.

[Bham1982]

Here is a link to crime data:

http://www.ferndalepolice.org/crime_maps/index.html

These are definitely interesting. Hard to really say anything with year-over-year data.

That said, I'm not shocked to see the mapped crime patterns. Notice that most [[sometimes all) vehicle thefts are south of 9 Mile. Most burglary-larcenries are south of 9 Mile. Most drug offenses, too.

Now it could be too small a sample size. It could be that Ferndale residents south of 9 are more prone to crime than north of 9. But I think that a significant portion of that south of 9 crime originates in Detroit, and I bet you Ferndale police would agree.

At the very least, there appears to be a correlation between proximity to 8 Mile and prevalence of crime.

[UpTown]

I've lived in Ferndale for close to 20 years now, and I would support closing off the north-south streets that terminate to 8 mile. Or at least alternate the opening/closing of them similar to Palmer Woods/Sherwood Forest. The issue isn't with closing off Ferndale to Detroiters, or anyone else, but of funneling any potential criminals off the side streets and onto the main drags. This is especially helpful around the Taft Education Center on 8 mile/Allen, where due to the fact that the school brings in high school drop-outs from the cities around the area, there has been an increase in home invasions and even a shooting [[over a pair of $1000 sunglasses http://ferndale.patch.com/articles/f...udent-with-gun). A friend of mine had their house broken into around the corner from that school, and the theifs were from that school. They would walk the neighborhoods while at lunch, looking for easy marks. And obviously they didn't learn a damn thing while going to school, because they took the stuff they stole from him up to the corner liquor store at the end of the street he lived on and tried to hock it to the guy behind the counter [[who promptly called the cops).
When criminals are planning a way out of the Ferndale area, let's face it, they look to head towards the no-man's land of Detroit, even if they aren't from there. The DPD is spread thin, and they aren't waiting on the 8 mile border. It's pretty obvious why people would not flee into Royal Oak, Birmingham, Huntington Woods, etc. There are more police force for less square miles. Far too often you read the stories of where they flee, and they are heading south to 8 Mile. They can head down into the neighborhoods south of 8 Mile & east of Woodward, or get quick access to I-75.
My main complaint is with the Ferndale police themselves. Far too often I've seen them on the main drag on 8 Mile and on Woodward, getting easy pickings with speeding tickets. But they aren't patrolling the proper hot spots, like that area of 9 Mile/Pinecrest, Taft Education Center, Ferndale High/Middle School, or the neighborhoods west of that [[http://www.dailytribune.com/articles...4602393893.txt).
I've seen too many Ferndale cops sitting in church parking lots reading newspapers or talking to another fellow officer parked right next to them instead of patrolling. And a new millage was passed to provide more funds to keep the cops on the streets and firefighters at the ready. Then something as crazy as Ferndale Pharmacy getting robbed twice in 2 days happens. That shouldn't happen at all, especially with the size of Ferndale's police force.

[Zacha341]

The 7-11 on 9 mile was violently robbed today...

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...ws-for-Detroit....

[mwilbert]

Or at least alternate the opening/closing of them similar to Palmer Woods/Sherwood Forest.

Could you explain what you mean? As far as I know there aren't any streets closed off into Palmer Woods or Sherwood Forest [[except Chesterfield, but that was probably 45 years ago). They did close off entrances into Palmer Woods a few years ago, but as far as I can see all the barriers have since been removed. I guess they also made Chippewa one-way, but that's Green Acres anyway.

That shouldn't happen at all, especially with the size of Ferndale's police force.

I don't understand this either. Assuming the police aren't hanging out at the pharmacy, how could they possibly stop the robberies? They can deter them, but deterrence fails pretty often. They can catch them, but that's after the fact.

Nor do I understand how people think the police could stop random people from driving up Woodward and turning down 9 during business hours. At three in the morning the police might think that was suspicious and keep an eye on them, but otherwise I don't see how. And after someone robs a store on 9 Mile, they are on 9 Mile. They can go to Livernois or Pinecrest or Woodward in no time. Closing off side streets might make it marginally harder for people to rob houses on side streets, but it is hard to see how it would affect the ability of criminals to get to and from businesses on main streets.

[Diehard]

Am I missing something? Usually, when a pharmacy is targeted, it's not random, it's to get prescription drugs. Prescription drug abuse has been happening everywhere, and if the perps are from Oak Park, what is all this talk about building a wall between Ferndale and Detroit?
That said, I really feel for the owner of the store. Running a pharmacy these days must feel like having a big bullseye painted on you.

[mwilbert]

Of course from the robbers' point of view it isn't random, but from the police's point of view, there are just some small number, maybe zero, of cars passing Woodward and 9 Mile each day that contain bad guys out of the thousands of cars that go through that intersection. They have no way to tell [[other than perhaps a bit of subconscious profiling) which car has the robbers. Hence from their point of view, the occurrence is random. It isn't feasible for them to keep an eye on all the suspicious [[or not suspicious but nonetheless bad) people who pass through Ferndale. If it weren't random [[say all the bad guys had fluorescent orange cars that said "Criminal" on them) then they probably could take a preventative approach. Just as you would do better at poker if all the face cards had orange backs [[and no one else noticed).