Would Detroit benefit from the formation of militias?

[Tig3rzhark]

With the appointment of an Emergency Financial Manager coming to Detroit next month, the city is going to be in a need of forces to maintain order.

When the city of Highland Park was taken over by an Emergency Manager, the Wayne County Sheriffs had to take over policing for the city. The city, although it has its own police force again, is unable to handle the majority of the crime in the area.

We aren't talking about some small suburb that is about to be taken over by the state. We are talking about the largest city in Michigan. Currently there are about less than 2000 police on the Detroit Police force. That's about 1 cop for 350 people. That's definitely not going to be enough to cover the city.

When this EFM comes next month, there will be less Detroit cops on the street, unless there is a partnership of bringing more Michigan State Police, along with the Wayne County Sheriffs to do patrols to make up for what Detroit can't do.

I offered arming the Neighborhood Watch organizations because these organizations know where the danger zones are, where the criminals are and who they are, and if given more power to patrol their neighborhoods, could help make them safe.

A show of force would encourage citizens to report more crime information to the police without fear of getting killed by gang members, drug dealers, arsonists, and all criminals.

[stanman13]

So do I understand correctly then, that after performing a root cause analysis we have determined that the problem is that there are not enough guns in the neighborhood, so then the logical solution is to add more guns? Got it. Clearly that's the problem in our schools as well, not enough guns in 'em, so to truly fix the problem, we need to add more guns. Glad that's all figured out now.

[oladub]

I can tell that some of you posters have never lived in the hood.

Who exactly is supposed to be operating these roving bands of patrolling militias?

Last time I checked, the overwhelming majority of folks running the households in these high crime areas are seniors on fixed incomes. Or they're single mothers, ghetto-vet war widows doing whatever they have to to keep their kids fed with a roof, or procreating with mostly men-children that are LUCKY to have a job and are just trying to stay alive out here.

Community policing is a great idea. There are lots of tools that neighborhoods can utilize to stay connected and informed, that can prevent crime in progress and in the future. But it begs to question, what is the community? What tools will work with the folks that are actually a part of this community? Is there even a community building process taking place?

Most people on DYES seem to think that these neighborhoods are unsalvageable. What makes anyone think that an unsalvageable place would have the manpower or the resources to organize a community policing effort, let alone hire their own security?

detroitsgwenivere, That was a thoughtful and insightful post. I'm an outsider now and don't have a nuts and bolts answer to what you see around you. My thoughts though have a couple of constraints on militia's, neighborhood watch groups, posses, or similar concepts. On the one hand, whatever must be done has to be within legal and especially constitutional bounds. On the other hand, a firmness must finally be employed. In the movie Romeo and Juliet, the Prince of Verona blames himself for not laying down the law. So even those who will not stop the violence are punished. I once heard that Black Muslims were patrolling the Jeffries Housing Project and that, for whatever reason, the bad guys backed off. Some guys, I don't know what would be considered community, have to step in and take control. If there are no police, perhaps posses could be trained to do as best they could and given some leeway. This is what the Prince said to the Capulets and Montagues.

"And I, for winking at your discords too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished."

Detroit will continue to be punished, as was the Prince, as long as it keeps winking at and coddling crime.

[mkhopper]

I'm not sure having armed militias roving the city would be the best idea. It's already like the wild-west out there on the streets and I could only imagine firefights between the "good guys" and "bad guys" occurring every night making things worse.

However, the communities never seem to have much of a problem getting people together to patrol the streets for the span of days leading up to and including Halloween, so why not do that every night? Or even every other night?

Sure there's a cost involved, fuel if nothing else, but at least it's something.

[scottn55]

Driving home from work the other day I decided I would cruise through Palmer Woods and the University District just for the hell of it. I've always liked to check out the houses and dream a little. The black Crown Victorias stationed at the neighborhood entrances dissuaded me from entering even for that innocent purpose. I wonder if these private security officers have the same effect on actual criminals.