Be careful at the Packard Plant! More assaults, thefts

[neavling]

I've been going to the Packard for two years, and I've never seen it as busy as it is now. Although the ground is littered with shattered car windows, people still park around the plant, thinking their car is safe. Now people are getting beat up, guns are being pulled. Here's a story about it: http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2012/0...thugs-thieves/

[jt1]

I've been going to the Packard for two years, and I've never seen it as busy as it is now. Although the ground is littered with shattered car windows, people still park around the plant, thinking their car is safe. Now people are getting beat up, guns are being pulled. Here's a story about it: http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2012/0...thugs-thieves/

As far as I'm concerned, if this is happening on private property [[which the city should force the owner to tear down and it just as wrong as anyone in this) then the city should require the slumlord owner to hire his own security.

DPD resources should not be wasted on people that are victimized while trespassing. DPD should be responding to and spending time where it assists the law abidibing citizens of Detroit. Unless the people serving up the beat downs are suspected of other crimes I say leave it alone and help our the residents, not the trespassers.

[jt1]

From the article: "Earlier this month, Emily Johnson and her friends drove from Troy to the Packard Plant, curious to see the cavernous ruins that everyone has been talking about. After an hour-long tour, Johnson and her friends returned to their car.
“One of the windows was smashed in,” the 22-year-old said. “Everything we hid in the trunk was stolen. I won’t be going back there again.”

I'd rephrase the article as "Suburbanites upset that they are victimized while breaking the law in the city"

Here's what should be done:
- The city should announce that they will not be sending in resources to the Packard and will not investigate any crimes against anyone that take place in the Packard [[unless someone was taken there against their will)

• The city should force the owner to hire private security
• The city will consider ticketing anyone illegally entering or leaving the property with criminal tresspass and level a huge amount of community service as a fine [[I know, this contradicts the first point)
• Anyone who reports being a victim of a crime while illegally in the Packard will be fined and sentenced to community service cleaning up other blighted properties.

I’m entirely too fed up with the Emily Johnson’s of the region whining about being attacked while illegally in a very dangerous place. Fuck her.

[noise]

I’m entirely too fed up with the Emily Johnson’s of the region whining about being attacked while illegally in a very dangerous place. Fuck her.

Two wrongs make a right?

[jt1]

Two wrongs make a right?

Nope, but neither do three wrongs. She is knowingly breaking the law, she is victimized, then she [[and others like her) are taking precious time from DPD that could be used to better protect the law abiding citizens.

If DPD was sitting around bored I would say spend time on this but her actions [[and others like her) are adding a urden to an already understaffed, overloaded DPD. If the option is to have someone respond to a call to help a resident or to help her, I say help the resident everytime.

[noise]

Nope, but neither do three wrongs. She is knowingly breaking the law, she is victimized, then she [[and others like her) are taking precious time from DPD that could be used to better protect the law abiding citizens.

If DPD was sitting around bored I would say spend time on this but her actions [[and others like her) are adding a urden to an already understaffed, overloaded DPD. If the option is to have someone respond to a call to help a resident or to help her, I say help the resident everytime.

I understand your concern, but given the scenario you laid out there are so many more serious wrongs than those committed by this woman with which I think we're better off focusing.

[jt1]

I understand your concern, but given the scenario you laid out there are so many more serious wrongs than those committed by this woman with which I think we're better off focusing.

Agreed, kind of. If the wrongs are maintained only in that location then it needs to be written off. Now, more than likely the people committing these crimes are likely involved in other criminal activities so it would be a fair argument that getting them off the street is good for the residents however, I'd prefer my DPD response to focus on law abiding residents and visitors that are victimized while doing nothing wrong. Just a matter of how we want police to prioritize calls.

[DetroitPlanner]

I understand your concern, but given the scenario you laid out there are so many more serious wrongs than those committed by this woman with which I think we're better off focusing.

If the Packard Plant was in Troy, would Ms Johnson feel the same freedom/ entitlement to go into it, smash crap, take ironic pictures, and leave?

[noise]

If the Packard Plant was in Troy, would Ms Johnson feel the same freedom/ entitlement to go into it, smash crap, take ironic pictures, and leave?

I'm not sure she felt the freedom or entitlement to do those things as it stands, but why are you asking me such an irrelevant question?

Maybe we can chalk this up to the internet and not Detroit, but it's amazing that people are being assaulted and we're only concerned with somebody entering a long abandoned building. It's like blaming sexual assault on the victim's choice of attire.

[jt1]

Maybe we can chalk this up to the internet and not Detroit, but it's amazing that people are being assaulted and we're only concerned with somebody entering a long abandoned building. It's like blaming sexual assault on the victim's choice of attire.

The difference is it is not a crime to dress a certain way. I don't think the comparison holds as both are vistims but one is engaged in a crime and the other isn't.

[warsaw7]

If the Packard Plant was in Troy, would Ms Johnson feel the same freedom/ entitlement to go into it, smash crap, take ironic pictures, and leave?

Where does it say she "smashed crap?" Or did you just assume she "smashed crap?"

[Zacha341]

You've got-sta know when you go into these abandoned areas you're being OBSERVED and judged as an easy 'mark' [[cameras aiming and fingers pointing as I've seen) for having your car broken into, stolen, camera taken from you or worse a direct crime up your person. I hope these where not two women? Very unwise...

No photos are worth that! I would not even drive thru there in the late evenings.

I’m entirely too fed up with the Emily Johnson’s of the region whining about being attacked while illegally in a very dangerous place...

[noise]

The difference is it is not a crime to dress a certain way. I don't think the comparison holds as both are vistims but one is engaged in a crime and the other isn't.

We'll have to disagree. I just hope you don't speed while driving home from work today because you'd deserve to die a slow death.

[Hypestyles]

when is someone in government going to play hardball with the owner.. city council gets in a tizzy over belle isle, et. al, but not a peep about the owners of these derelict hulks..

[detroiteratheart1977]

I’m entirely too fed up with the Emily Johnson’s of the region whining about being attacked while illegally in a very dangerous place. Fuck her.

[Meddle]

I've been going to the Packard for two years, ...

Stop trespassing.

[Khartoum]

It's a big abandoned building! You're there trespassing! How in the heck do you feel entitled to safety and adequate parking?!

Hey Emily Johnson, I hear the Opera House has secure parking; go there & take some pictures instead!

[[Or maybe just suck it up & attribute your broken window to "Detroit Tax". I have a friend who's had his window broke 6 times, he doesn't whine about it to detroitcitymoonraker.com!)

[mikefmich]

I find it odd that some folks are whining about the heinous misdeamenor crime of trespassing on a property that has been essentially abandoned for over half a century, but it's seemingly ok that someone gets their car broken into, robbed, etc.,...which I believe is a felony, and hell even "deserve" it in retribution for having the audacity to enter the city and park anywhere.

Where is that big fat chill pill?

[xequar]

when is someone in government going to play hardball with the owner.. city council gets in a tizzy over belle isle, et. al, but not a peep about the owners of these derelict hulks..

I've wondered about this, as well. It seems to me that the city could easily justify seizure via Eminent Domain of the old Packard Plant, the Depot, and some of these other notorious derelict buildings. I mean, the Packard plant doesn't even have the windows that once said Motor City Industrial Park on them, as they've all been broken out [[I was through there last week). Is it a question of money, that they don't have the funds to follow the process through the courts? Lack of will? Some political agenda of which we're unaware? I mean, I'm all for saving cool old buildings if there's a way to do it, but I think at this point the city would be better off in terms of reputation and forward progress if they could tear even just Packard down.

Although, I wonder how big of a Catch-22 sites like Packard are? I mean, I'm sure that building's full of all sorts of interesting and nasty chemicals, asbestos, lead paint chips, and every other flavor of superfund brownfield site horror you could think of. The owners ain't gonna pay to clean it up, and the city ain't about to take on the liabilities for it let alone the fabulously-expensive cleanup. There's no money, so the sites sit vacant and derelict causing continued harm by their very presence, but there's no money to get rid of the harmful presence repeat ad nauseum...


As for these people, I feel like blaming them for their cars getting broken into is a case of blaming the victim. Their illegal entry into the plant does not justify their cars being broken into. That said, I don't think they have any business being surprised that it happened, either. If you park in a questionable area and show off all the hallmarks of not belonging there, then you have to prepare for the increased possibility your stuff's getting broken into.

[poobert]

If you play with fire, you are going to get burned.

So many people like Emily were raised in hermetically-sealed environments like Troy cul-de-sacs and told they were special for their entire lives and never experienced a damn thing about the real world outside the subdivision. It seems to breed a lack of understanding, a hubris, even, that one can do whatever one wants and everything will be okay, because, well, there are laws about these sorts of things, and gosh that sort of stuff happens to other [[mostly poor) people!

For the rest of us we've had our share of blows an run-ins earlier in life and learn to keep our noses clean and don't go around looking for trouble. These folks are learning the hard way, later in life. I do hope they walk away unharmed but a little wiser. Don't fuck around in the 'hood. It's not rocket science.

[rex]

a whole lot embarrassment being showcased in this thread. Misdirected

[wolverine]

Just a question. If I visit Detroit and photograph the Packard from a public street, should I at least receive the same entitlements to safety as residents since I will be spending my dollars in the city?

[Wheels]

Just a question. If I visit Detroit and photograph the Packard from a public street, should I at least receive the same entitlements to safety as residents since I will be spending my dollars in the city?

You may be entitled to safety but you won't receive any just like a city resident. That is the point of most of the comments about staying away and not using up what little resources that are left in the city.

[DetroitPlanner]

Just a question. If I visit Detroit and photograph the Packard from a public street, should I at least receive the same entitlements to safety as residents since I will be spending my dollars in the city?

The issue is residents don't have an entitlement to public safety, why should people who are in town to knowingly break the law and tresspass?

[jt1]

Just a question. If I visit Detroit and photograph the Packard from a public street, should I at least receive the same entitlements to safety as residents since I will be spending my dollars in the city?

I woudl expect that you deserve the same right to security as any law abiding resident or visitor.