Decline of Detroit, did it have to be this bad?

[Zacha341]

Line the 'criminals' up before the Joe Lewis fist downtown and knock them into the river! ROTFL! ------

*eyeroll*

Ok, so you say Detroit needs to address its crime "with an iron fist" - what, exactly, constitutes an "iron fist" in your view?

[Forwardlook]

Line the 'criminals' up before the Joe Lewis fist downtown and knock them into the river! ROTFL! ------

LOL, why not all the way to Canada, eh? I mean a zero tolerance on crime. I mean stuff like looting the Packard Plant and the Michigan Central Station might not be the top priorities for law enforcement but allowing these things to happen sends a clear signal to the criminal elements. It is a slippery slope. It isn't exactly low key either when you look at how things are done, historical buildings are being torn down with heavy equipment and nobody cares. This is just an example but one that is highly visible.

[lilpup]

And do what with them once they're apprehended? The court system and jails are already over capacity.

[antongast]

LOL, why not all the way to Canada, eh? I mean a zero tolerance on crime. I mean stuff like looting the Packard Plant and the Michigan Central Station might not be the top priorities for law enforcement but allowing these things to happen sends a clear signal to the criminal elements. It is a slippery slope. It isn't exactly low key either when you look at how things are done, historical buildings are being torn down with heavy equipment and nobody cares. This is just an example but one that is highly visible.

All right then, I guess Detroit is fixed now. Guess we should've asked you sooner. Champagne, anyone?

[Thames]

And do what with them once they're apprehended? The court system and jails are already over capacity.

That statement says more about us, then it does about Forwardlook's opinion.

[lilpup]

That's why I asked about what things are like in Finland. I doubt the average Finn has any realization of all the factors that play into Detroit's situation. An "iron fist" in Finland could be equivalent to a finger flick in Detroit.

I did find this: http://www.poliisi.fi/english/index.htm - it seems like there are local police agencies but they seem regionalized [[like our state police districts) that work along with the national authorities [[like our Federal agencies). According to articles I found online Finland has the lowest prison population in Europe. We, on the other hand, have one of the highest in the world sucking up millions [[billions?) of dollars. Yet we have the crime and they supposedly have a lot less [[or is it just going unreported?).

To try to point to just a handful of things instead of the entire US social structure isn't going to present any real solutions, IMHO.

[night-timer]

To the OP, Detroit was a boomtown, and boomtowns are never booming forever. The sign of the D's glory days are there in the form of ruin porn, so it's a constant visual reminder of what the city once was.

Also, crucially, Detroit's boom was in the Industrial Age, now long gone, so the city may never be what it once was.