Detroit police stop pillow fight

**buildingsofdetroit** · April-04-09, 05:21 PM

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...athers+can+fly

Great story.

Bearinabox · April-04-09, 05:53 PM

Nice to know DPD is confiscating pillows instead of, you know, patrolling my neighborhood or responding to 911 calls or something stupid and frivolous like that. Who has time for murderers and crack dealers when there are people with pillows on the loose?

**Zulu Warrior** · April-04-09, 08:14 PM

And the crazy but true thing about it, some one was undercover on it.....pardon the pun.

Sludgedaddy · April-05-09, 05:32 PM

The DPD was probably warned that the pillow fight was to take place with a large rock replacing some of the feathers turning it into a Detroit type of fun affair.

**Fnemecek** · April-05-09, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by Bearinabox

Nice to know DPD is confiscating pillows instead of, you know, patrolling my neighborhood or responding to 911 calls or something stupid and frivolous like that. Who has time for murderers and crack dealers when there are people with pillows on the loose?

Amen.

It wasn't that long ago that I had to call 9-1-1 to report that two drug dealers were shooting at each other in my neighborhood. They never responded to that call.

But some goofballs what to have a pillow fight in Campus Martius Park and that is what gets them to show up???

James Barren has simply got to go. That man is barely qualified to run the donut shop next to a police station, let alone an entire police department.

**Bloomfield Pills** · April-05-09, 09:12 PM

Originally Posted by Fnemecek

James Barren has simply got to go. That man is barely qualified to run the donut shop next to a police station, let alone an entire police department.

I agree the police should be concentrating on more important things than pillow fights, but you'd have to look far and wide to find someone more qualified than James Barren. Or were you just kidding? Either you don't know of which you speak or you're just joking, because Barren has an incredibly impressive resume.

Also, keep in mind: The police may have been ordered to break up the pillow fight from someone in the Mayor's Office because they're trying to put the best face on downtown with the NCAA tourney in town.

I can almost guarantee you the rank-and-file cops who were told to break up the pillow fight would've rather been doing something else.

**michmeister** · April-06-09, 05:25 AM

Ain`t nothin`like removing the criminal element from our downtown area! All those loaded pillowcases and I`ll bet not one of them were registered!

**Danny** · April-06-09, 07:09 AM

YAY Pillow fight!

**g-dub** · April-06-09, 10:12 AM

April 4 was pillow fight day around the world. I wonder if the police showed up at any of the other like 50 cities where this was planned. One of these stealth pillow fights took place in Chicago last year, in front of the Art Institute. Video here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndID=172459254
Silly hipsters.

**slick** · April-06-09, 11:46 AM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30070062/?Gt1=43001

We made msnbc news, of course it is under the weird news catagory.
they also have a video of Saturday's VIOLENCE in New York on wall street.

**choquant** · April-06-09, 12:04 PM

You know, although this is just a small thing, it's one of the reasons people feel like they can't trust the Detroit Police. They waste their time harassing people who are doing innocent stuff while we all know of things happening all around the city that are more worthy.

I am not a police-hater, I think they have very difficult jobs, but I think it would be nice if some police didn't get their kicks from bossing around easy targets while leaving the rest of us feeling unprotected. This is our tax money at work, after all.

**hockey_player** · April-06-09, 12:17 PM

On the one hand, it seems frivolous. On the other hand, the police didn't want to pick up a bunch of loose stuffing and feathers left behind by a group of self-entitled suburbanites who flock back home and leave a bunch of shit laying around the center of the city.

**Ed Golick** · April-06-09, 12:20 PM

When pillows are outlawed, only outlaws will have pillows.

diver1369 · April-06-09, 12:20 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Eyiad8ZxMc

**rjk** · April-06-09, 12:26 PM

Instead of using these social networking Web sites to have pillow fights, why don't they get together and do something productive like, I don't know, maybe pick up trash instead of creating a mess [[feathers) that will be difficult to clean up.

**Gsgeorge** · April-06-09, 12:35 PM

What'd they do with all the confiscated pillows? I hope they went to the Tumani center or another homeless organization in the city.

**DetroitHabitater** · April-06-09, 12:56 PM

I feel safe now! I'm glad they weren't wasting their time with stopping home invasions in my neighborhood or anything..

gravitymachine · April-06-09, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by hockey_player

On the one hand, it seems frivolous. On the other hand, the police didn't want to pick up a bunch of loose stuffing and feathers left behind by a group of self-entitled suburbanites who flock back home and leave a bunch of shit laying around the center of the city.

exactly...

**Downriviera** · April-06-09, 01:19 PM

We need a PFL [[Pillow Fight League} here in the D. Who knows, maybe we could host the PFL final four someday. 72,000 people jamming Ford Field to watch girls with pillows, I'm there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma9lnb8ykYw

**raptor56** · April-06-09, 02:04 PM

Think about it though. You have a few hundred to a thousand people gather in campus matrius for a pillow fight. Not only does that make a mess, but inevitably you'll get a few screwballs who take it too far and start swinging pillows at bystanders, which isn't fair to the bystanders, and can cause unintentional injury. This is not something you want happening while you have a few hundred thousand people downtown for a nationally televised event. I'd wager if this pillow fight was planned for some other suburban city or some other part of Detroit aside from the center of downtown, this pillow fight would have been uninterrupted and nobody would have cared. The cops were all over downtown anyway, so it's not as if they were taking people off the streets and assigning them to some anti pillow fighting taskforce. I swear you folks need to get your heads out of your asses sometimes and not take everything as a slight to your civic rights.

**g-dub** · April-06-09, 02:05 PM

Actually, this partially answers my question. At least in Chicago they had a few minutes of pillow-brawl... http://chicagoist.com/2009/04/06/a_r...Pic=12#gallery

**choquant** · April-06-09, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by raptor56

I swear you folks need to get your heads out of your asses sometimes and not take everything as a slight to your civic rights.

It ain't about civic rights, it's about proper allocation of limited municipal funds!

gravitymachine · April-06-09, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by choquant

It ain't about civic rights, it's about proper allocation of limited municipal funds!

very true. if there was a big mess of feathers in campus martius, they would probably have to allocate more people to clean it up

**raptor56** · April-06-09, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by choquant

It ain't about civic rights, it's about proper allocation of limited municipal funds!

The cops were already there to patrol for the Final Four. It's not like they went out of their way to organize a task force that took officers off the street for the sole purpose of sabotaging a pillow fight. I don't see where this is a case of misallocating municipal funds. If youâ€™re going to have officers in the area already, might as well have them take care of this issue as well.

Bearinabox · April-06-09, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by gravitymachine

very true. if there was a big mess of feathers in campus martius, they would probably have to allocate more people to clean it up

I wasn't aware that police officers were responsible for picking up litter. Actually, given the amount of litter I see around town, I'm surprised that anyone at all is responsible for it. I know about Roger Penske's trucks, but the city doesn't pay for those, does it?