Gas station clerk beaten after calling out shoplifters

[Zacha341]

From article:

Aali Williams tells 7 Action News a group of young men came to the station at Greenfield and Schoolcraft last night and attacked him after he called them out for shoplifting.

The incident took place around 12:30 Monday morning. Then, approximately four hours later, someone came back and fired a shot into the bulletproof glass that shields the clerk’s area.

Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/...#ixzz1yE3yBBXf

[ejames01]

If the clerk shot one of those thugs, there would be all kinds of public outrage and news coverage.

[tetsua]

It's too bad there are so many people who were never raised at all.

[SWMAP]

It's too bad there are so many people who were never raised at all.

Sometimes I look at the City girls pushing strollers on the hot sidewalks. You see this in Brightmoor, for instance. I think that the girls, ten-agers mostly, had a baby to make the boy-friend happy and masculine - but with no thought at all to what useful thing that child might do when he is grown. No cares about the jobs that are gone here and never coming back. No care about the future for that child. Is this the way people should be having children in Detroit in this day?

[Shollin]

It's too bad there are so many people who were never raised at all.

Sometimes I look at the City girls pushing strollers on the hot sidewalks. You see this in Brightmoor, for instance. I think that the girls, ten-agers mostly, had a baby to make the boy-friend happy and masculine - but with no thought at all to what useful thing that child might do when he is grown. No cares about the jobs that are gone here and never coming back. No care about the future for that child. Is this the way people should be having children in Detroit in this day?

Just blame the Detroit Public School district when they eventually drop out.

[socks_mahoney]

jesus christ. I was in a gas station in this same area last week and a clerk and a youth got into a fight over one of the 33 cent bags of cheetos. The clerk said he stole, the youth said that he had already gotten it somewhere else and was just eating it in the store.

I dunno who was telling the truth. The clerk began slamming his hands on the counter and the youth yelled at him and then left. They both seemed frustrated by their inability to communicate through 3 inch thick glass.

I know this might be unpopular but IMO the bullet proof glass doesn't do much for store owners. They might get more respect and be able to keep a better eye on their store without it. In other cities and even in this city there are stores in bad parts of town where the clerks do not hide behind glass. Its clearly a result of overt racism, and the customers feel it and respond accordingly. I've seen stores here without glass, owned by Chaldeans, who received great respect from the relatively tough community without the bullet proof glass. I lived there for years and never witnessed a serious problem, everyone called each other by name and respected one another for the most part.

[TKshreve]

jesus christ. I was in a gas station in this same area last week and a clerk and a youth got into a fight over one of the 33 cent bags of cheetos. The clerk said he stole, the youth said that he had already gotten it somewhere else and was just eating it in the store.

I dunno who was telling the truth. The clerk began slamming his hands on the counter and the youth yelled at him and then left. They both seemed frustrated by their inability to communicate through 3 inch thick glass.

I know this might be unpopular but IMO the bullet proof glass doesn't do much for store owners. They might get more respect and be able to keep a better eye on their store without it. In other cities and even in this city there are stores in bad parts of town where the clerks do not hide behind glass. Its clearly a result of overt racism, and the customers feel it and respond accordingly. I've seen stores here without glass, owned by Chaldeans, who received great respect from the relatively tough community without the bullet proof glass. I lived there for years and never witnessed a serious problem, everyone called each other by name and respected one another for the most part.

But in this case, the glass probably saved his life. Hmmmm....... potential for respect vs. potential to stay alive.

Tough one.

[socks_mahoney]

But if there is respect then the bullet proof glass becomes obsolete. It could also be argued the the youth shot at the glass knowing it would stop the bullet. Its kind of a chicken and egg problem but I would argue that the glass causes more problems than it solves, granted the main problem it intends to solve is pretty consequential.

That being said, we have seen in recent months that the glass doesn't even always prevent the homicide of clerks. Take the case in HP on Hamilton where the clerk was drawn out with a broken juice bottle and then shot to his death...

[Zacha341]

I too have seen a few stores without bullet proof. I have not doubt they have handy weapons in quick reach should things take a bad turn!

....I've seen stores here without glass, owned by Chaldeans, who received great respect from the relatively tough community without the bullet proof glass. I lived there for years and never witnessed a serious problem, everyone called each other by name and respected one another for the most part.

[socks_mahoney]

Indeed. Actually these store owners I was talking about showed me their sawed off shotgun one day. Just for kicks and giggles.

[401don]

Most of these guys should be arrested based on the surveillance. Now you gotta worry about what happens to the clerk as a consequence of those arrests.

[jpbollma]

Most of these guys should be arrested based on the surveillance. Now you gotta worry about what happens to the clerk as a consequence of those arrests.

We have these issues in Saginaw as well. If people want to act like wild animals then treat them like wild animals. I am so sick of reading stories like this of human wastes of skin running around as if there is complete anarchy.

[Shollin]

I hate going to gas stations after dark. I was in a gas station in Warren at about 10 pm and a guy asked me for a ride to 6 Mile and Van Dyke. I politely declined because I didn't want to drive to 6 Mile and Van Dyke and I wasn't heading in that direction. He proceed to keep harassing me and followed me out of the store still asking for a ride. Thankfully a Warren cop pulled in and the guy peeled off and proceeded to stand at the bus stop. I guess I disrespected him by not giving him a ride.

[Danny]

Snitches get stitches! That is the law of the ghetto.

[SWMAP]

At Duly's on West Vernor I have seen a baseball bat taken out and wielded at gangsters coming in the door. The door is old and narrow and pretty much only one invader allowed in at a time. Maybe there are more high-powered weapons under the grill - but that b-bat was pretty menacing.

Detroitnerd will like this excerpt from an article in the Metro Times:

On weekend nights, at a hallowed little coney island restaurant on Vernor Highway called Duly's, you'll likely find a real Detroit character holding forth up front. He calls himself "Mayo," and as the bar crowd wanders in for post-beer coneys, Mayo treats the front counter as his personal vaudeville stage, wisecracking with the customers up front by the cash register. A sharp-eyed host, he runs the room well, chattering in French, English and Spanish. Along with your onion rings, you could get his philosophy about life, with a host of Mayo-isms along the way. Deadpan and funny, most of his utterances are unpublishable here — in a good way.
Mayo says he got his name after living in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, and being attacked dozens of times on the street. As Mayo will tell you, he often knocked his attackers out cold, and police would come to the scene of the crime only to find would-be assailants sprawled unconscious in the street.
"The sergeant said I was all over them like mayonnaise," he says, "and that's when everybody started calling me Mayo."

[aj3647]

But if there is respect then the bullet proof glass becomes obsolete.

How many pump jockeys making $9 an hour want to bet their lives on the neighborhood's "respect" for them?

Besides, even if 99% of the neighborhood respects your decision not to have the glass, all it takes is the 1% who don't care to put a bullet in your head. The people who would respect such a move aren't the ones who are going to rob you anyways. The ones who WILL rob you have no respect for anything, even human life, so not having bulletproof glass won't get respect from them.

I think it is more likely that if you are the one gas station around that doesn't have bulletproof glass, that you've just moved yourself to the top of the "rob me at gunpoint" list. Criminals prefer easy targets, respect has nothing to do with it. Ask yourself why so many homes in Detroit have bars on the windows. I'll give you a hint, the answer is not "overt racism."

[Meddle]

Snitches get stitches! That is the law of the ghetto.

Which is the biggest part of the problem. Once people stop thinking, acting and speaking 'ghetto' and start acting like responsible citizens, thinks will start to get better.

Not before.

[compn]

i'm sure they will get rid of the bulletproof glass when theres no shots fired into the bulletproof glass. its like people will stop using umbrellas when it stops raining. not hard to comprehend.

[Scottathew]

Snitches get stitches! That is the law of the ghetto.

Yup, but it's starting to change a little bit with people exercising their rights to defend their life and property.

Bitches get bullets.

[Shollin]

Which is the biggest part of the problem. Once people stop thinking, acting and speaking 'ghetto' and start acting like responsible citizens, thinks will start to get better.

Not before.

Except it's true. Look no further than the two girls who were killed from Hamtramck.

[daddeeo]

Lived on the next block Winthrop. Parents moved in 1978 and things have only gotten worse. After a couple of armed roberies and a home invasion, they had had enough. Guess who my mom is?

[Zacha341]

I had a close friend on Winthrop... of Plymouth circa 1982-96. After a couple of robberies and home invasions she got out. Left the state. That was once a nice area.

Lived on the next block Winthrop. Parents moved in 1978 and things have only gotten worse. After a couple of armed roberies and a home invasion, they had had enough. Guess who my mom is?

[firstandten]

In the 60's and early 70's there were many black party store owners in the black community. When the crack epidemic hit these same party store owners began selling out to the Chaldean's. One of the reasons was they were paying in cash, it was clean and they could get out of the business. The major reason was that there was no bulletproof class in those days and many of the black storeowners were being killed at an alarming rate from armed robberies.

When the Chaldeans took over the small party/grocery store business in the city the bulletproof class began to come up at all the stores.

I believe the additional cost of the bulletproof glass security, and the long hours drove many of the black storeowners out of the business.

As much as I hate having to do business with a sheet of glass between me and the storeowner without it, you are almost playing russian roulette with your life.

[detroitsgwenivere]

Insurance co.s make bulletproof glass mandatory in order to obtain a policy these days. If a business owner doesn't install it, then they face a quadrupled increase in their rates.

[mkhopper]

No care about the future for that child. Is this the way people should be having children in Detroit in this day?

Of course most of these kids having kids don't care about what the future will be. Everything is the here and now and popping out another baby just means more welfare coming into the home right now. [[and I use the term "home" very loosely there.)

The child will grow up knowing nothing but guns, gangs and drugs and taught early that everyone is against you and if someone disrespects you, you solve the issue by pulling a gun. Oh and, this is how that piece of your body works so as soon as you're old enough, get out there and make some more just like you. By force if necessary.