Downtown under siege

[Det_ard]

[quote=1KielsonDrive;140740]

Petty crime is up everywhere. What makes you think downtown is an exception?[/quote]
I think this is the key question. Not to absolve the criminal element, but there is now poverty reaching higher and higher into our society. If I was hungry and cold, I'd be looking for any way to feed and warm myself.

There are a lot of ways to get food and warmth that don't involve busting a car window to steal its contents. Need drugs and alcohol? That's where window busting comes in handy.

[DetroitPole]

Never said it was an exception. What I said was that for years Detroit's mayor and city leaders made it a mission to keep downtown safe for all in particular Detroit's non-residents so that they would return. No one is coming to check out Brightmoor so there is no need for a armed presence there.

Crime is everywhere. I didn't get oblivious overnight. We can't have non-residents thinking that they are going to get robbed if they go to Greektown.

I do not believe it amounts to "displacing" police to the neighborhoods. One square mile of a 130-odd square mile city should not receive such disproportionate security while the rest of its residents - who are paying the astronomical taxes for police protection and other city services - are left to languish.

I believe the opposite is true - police presence is finally being brought to where it needs to be - the neighborhoods. Everyone has a right to be safe and secure in the city, but it is a borderline injustice to give precedence to, as you said yourself, non-resident visitors. There hundreds of thousands of residents of this city who need better police protection - residents of Brightmoor and other non-glamorous neighborhoods included.

In fact, the city has overall experienced far less crime YTD than last year, as a result of focusing on high crime areas. It stands to reason, too. These criminals are not materializing out of thin air. In many cases they are coming from high crime neighborhoods - and they are most certainly not confined to there.

There is no question that downtown needs to be safe and make a good impression on visitors. However it also does us no good if it is just a Potemkin village while the rest of the city is a war zone.

[oldredfordette]

I work downtown and there has been a serious upswing in crime. My company had a Detroit police officer come to the building and talk to us, it was 45 minutes of my life I will never get back, basically he said it was our fault, don't leave things in the cars, the homeless are doing it and maybe we should park somewhere else [[we park in a lot leased by our company, we have to pay for the privilige of getting our windows smashed.

Where are the cops? In the Anchor having lunch or driving around the casinos. Useless fuckers.

A guy was robbed at gunpoint behind our building, the cop denied it.

[English]

Has Midtown/New Center seen a corresponding rise in crime?

[Patrick]

Desperate times lead to desperate actions by people from all walks of life. If you are broke or desperate and see an easy-to-grab IPod or change-dish in a car…

[R8RBOB]

I do not believe it amounts to "displacing" police to the neighborhoods. One square mile of a 130-odd square mile city should not receive such disproportionate security while the rest of its residents - who are paying the astronomical taxes for police protection and other city services - are left to languish.

I believe the opposite is true - police presence is finally being brought to where it needs to be - the neighborhoods. Everyone has a right to be safe and secure in the city, but it is a borderline injustice to give precedence to, as you said yourself, non-resident visitors. There hundreds of thousands of residents of this city who need better police protection - residents of Brightmoor and other non-glamorous neighborhoods included.

In fact, the city has overall experienced far less crime YTD than last year, as a result of focusing on high crime areas. It stands to reason, too. These criminals are not materializing out of thin air. In many cases they are coming from high crime neighborhoods - and they are most certainly not confined to there.

There is no question that downtown needs to be safe and make a good impression on visitors. However it also does us no good if it is just a Potemkin village while the rest of the city is a war zone.

Now this is why we have forums. To bounce thoughts back and forth. You are correct in your assessment but you should have kept reading. You would have caught this comment from me.

I agree that the neighborhoods should have always been the first priority. Mayor Young decided that the city should invest in downtown at the expense of the neighborhoods. We are witnesses to what happen to many of Detroit's neighborhoods as been discussed in other threads.

I started this thread referring to Downtown Detroit as the "last fort" because for years the city had a huge police presence to keep the visitors of downtown safe at the expense of the neighborhoods who were the victims of the predators.

IMO because of the increased numbers of reported crimes, Mayor Bing is going to tell Chief Evans that they are going to need more officers to patrols the areas of downtown because downtown is Detroit's last fort or "jewel." The problem is that Chief Evans has reduced numbers so that means.....

[Stosh]

Now this is why we have forums. To bounce thoughts back and forth. You are correct in your assessment but you should have kept reading. You would have caught this comment from me.

I started this thread referring to Downtown Detroit as the "last fort" because for years the city had a huge police presence to keep the visitors of downtown safe at the expense of the neighborhoods who were the victims of the predators.

IMO because of the increased numbers of reported crimes, Mayor Bing is going to tell Chief Evans that they are going to need more officers to patrols the areas of downtown because downtown is Detroit's last fort or "jewel." The problem is that Chief Evans has reduced numbers so that means.....

Naturally. What other choice does he have? Either raise revenue or batten down the hatches. And that's across the board. Not just downtown.

[tallboy66]

Crime will follow where the money is. WSU area had a pretty high crime rate when I lived there but it was petty crime and usually the result of, like has been mentioned, people leaving something on the seat in view or the great change in the ash tray thing.

My car was stolen when I first moved but I left it on a deserted parking lot, the doors didn't lock and you could start it without a key.

But in all the years I lived there, visited and rode my bike all over even to Belle Isle at night I never had any problems.

[kryptonite]

It is not a matter of the police blaming the victims. It's a matter of telling people not to leave items in plain view in a vehicle, and what types of behavior to avoid if you are on foot Downtown.

I was in Philadelphia once and walked by five cars in a row that had been broken into, glass was everywhere on the sidewalks. I have seen it in other cities as well. A friend of mine lived in NYC for a while and said many people had their cars broken into routinely, they actually started replacing the glass with bullet-proof unbreakable windows, left the cars unlocked, etc. I do think Detroit is worse than most other cities but warning people how to avoid the problem is not blaming the victim. Rochester Hills and Troy in recent years have had rashes of thefts from unlocked cars, what are they stealing?laptops, cell phones, blackberrys, purses, wallets, all sorts of things left inside the cars.

Personally I only leave items like coffee mugs/umbrellas/baseball caps in my car. Knock on wood but I have never had a smash and grab despite having been in Detroit neighborhoods thousands of times over the years.

[Hermod]

Back when BMW had the best high end sound system of any vehicle on the market, the joke was that BMW stood for "break my window"

[Retroit]

As Detroit continues to lose population, thieves have less available targets, so they seek more lucrative opportunities in downtown and suburban areas.