Indian Village: Posting Crime Comments

southsider · September-29-10, 11:06 AM

I live in Indian Village and we share an email thread to discuss neighborhood activities including recent crimes. I always felt that this was futile and potentially damaging to our neighborhood to share this information in email. If anything, I believe its used as propoganda to fuel financial contributions to the private security we share. I think it does more harm to publicly advertise EVERY single crime that happens. It could be distributed to potential investors/homebuyers that may consider the village. In my attempt to guerilla attack this flawed practice I'm considering posting the content of the emails on this site to get my neighbors to stop writing these stories of the warzone that we live in. What do you think?

**Detroitnerd** · September-29-10, 11:21 AM

How is e-mail public? And why are you proposing publicly posting private e-mails when you evidently feel would harm the values of your property?

I'd love to see the e-mails, though.

southsider · September-29-10, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

How is e-mail public? And why are you proposing publicly posting private e-mails when you evidently feel would harm the values of your property?

I'd love to see the e-mails, though.

Anything that's memorialized in writing and sent via email is subject to public disclosure. Once its out there [[even though it may be intended for private eyes) its out there. I'm hoping that once other villagers start seeing these emails on public forums and realizing the potential for public disclosure they'll STOP WRITING THEM. That's the point.

**Baron_Haussmann** · September-29-10, 11:43 AM

Let me see if I understand what you are saying. You want to teach your neighbors a lesson about keeping quite about neighborhood crime by posting their email thread on a popular website?

**Detroitnerd** · September-29-10, 11:47 AM

I hope your neighbors keep writing those e-mails. If you think sharing information about a real problem -- CRIME -- is less important than keeping it quiet in the belief it will protect your property values, then I have to conclude you have a screw or two loose.

**REL** · September-29-10, 11:58 AM

If someone in my neighborhood kept breaking through basement windows, or I learned that people with dogs tended to be less victimized, I'd want to know that.

I hope you find the information useful, in order to protect yourself better. As a former Indian Village resident, I agree it's sometimes a war zone. So why not use information to make it less so? Otherwise, one would just be burying their head in the sand [[and getting shot in the behind).

southsider · September-29-10, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I hope your neighbors keep writing those e-mails. If you think sharing information about a real problem -- CRIME -- is less important than keeping it quiet in the belief it will protect your property values, then I have to conclude you have a screw or two loose.

Missing the point. Sharing information is ALWAYS a good idea. Memorializing it in writing is where you get in trouble. Any competing neighborhood can use these emails to demonstrate the woes of living in the city as oppossed to rumor and inuendo. Share in person. Here's a novel idea: F*!ing TALK TO EACH OTHER. Stop writing blogs and emails about how horrible it is to live here! If you think I gain knowledge by opening my email and reading 3xs a week about someone having their car stolen or broken into or a window busted you're sadly mistaken. Guess what? I live in Detroit. I know cars get stolen! Reading an email about it every other day does nothing, but reminds me of the warzone I live in. They're usually coupled with...Be careful there are car thieves lurking about. Yep, quite helpful.

**Detroitnerd** · September-29-10, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by southsider

Missing the point. Sharing information is ALWAYS a good idea. Memorializing it in writing is where you get in trouble. Any competing neighborhood can use these emails to demonstrate the woes of living in the city as oppossed to rumor and inuendo. Share in person. Here's a novel idea: F*!ing TALK TO EACH OTHER. Stop writing blogs and emails about how horrible it is to live here! If you think I gain knowledge by opening my email and reading 3xs a week about someone having their car stolen or broken into or a window busted you're sadly mistaken. Guess what? I live in Detroit. I know cars get stolen! Reading an email about it every other day does nothing, but reminds me of the warzone I live in. They're usually coupled with...Be careful there are car thieves lurking about. Yep, quite helpful.

Now I'm sure you have a screw loose ...

**n7hn** · September-29-10, 12:16 PM

people are gonna talk bad about Indian Village [[and the city anyway). I would think its better to have a watch and info share process like you have, so you can be informed. Forget the rest, I really dont think too many people are going to go thru all that hacking and public information requests just to rip you off. From the average criminal perspective Better to just take a chance and do what they are doing than to leave a paper [[or computer hacking) trail. Since when in Detroit did u have to have a master plan to commit crimes? Put down the pipe, the paranoia will subside. = )

**ptero** · September-29-10, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by southsider

Reading an email about it every other day does nothing, but reminds me of the warzone I live in.

Soooo, quit reading them! You breaking the reasonable expectation that private emails remain private is what would be out of line. Other forums will BAN you if you engage in that practice. Private is private.

**EastsideAl** · September-29-10, 02:02 PM

As a former long-time IV resident who still lives in the area, I have to ask, what in the hell are you talking about Southsider? I must say that you do sound a little off here. Let me get this right, you want to post e-mails from a private list on public forum, so that people will stop bothering you with those same private e-mails? Why not just ignore the e-mails you don't want to read? Or, better yet, unsubscribe from the list?

**n7hn** · September-29-10, 02:05 PM

MOM, he is LOOKING AT ME!

**fryar** · September-29-10, 10:53 PM

Who in this day and age considers buying a house, say in IV, and doesn't google the place? Buyers will know there's crime. People exchanging information about crimes in the area should be a good thing.

Why don't you guys set up a forum?

- It's a much more coordinated way to discuss the crimes.
- Over time, you could measure the criminal activity in some way. Having data is never worse than useless, and could actually be useful. Maybe security can analyze the posts for useful information.
- Better anonymity.

I should think you could password protect the forum.

**Lowell** · September-29-10, 11:12 PM

"I'm considering posting the content of the emails on this site to get my neighbors to stop writing these stories of the warzone that we live in. What do you think?"

Not allowed. Do not post other people' s emails here.

**REL** · September-29-10, 11:39 PM

Awwww SNAP!

southsider · October-01-10, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

As a former long-time IV resident who still lives in the area, I have to ask, what in the hell are you talking about Southsider? I must say that you do sound a little off here. Let me get this right, you want to post e-mails from a private list on public forum, so that people will stop bothering you with those same private e-mails? Why not just ignore the e-mails you don't want to read? Or, better yet, unsubscribe from the list?

I get the email because I want to know what's being published about my neighborhood [[good and bad). By virtue of agreeing to receive them doesn't bar me from expressing my opinion about the damage that publishing them makes.

**EastsideAl** · October-01-10, 04:26 PM

Of course you have the right to express your opinion, but then you should be complaining to the writers themselves, not whining about it here or threatening to post the messages here. The people who are writing these messages are doing so as a member of a list with the full expectation that what they write will not go beyond the members of that list. So why not address your complaints to them?

If you do complain and get a response that is dissatisfying to you, or you continue to be disturbed by the content of the e-mails, then you still have the option not to receive the e-mails as well as the option not to read them. No one is going to chase you down and force you to read bad news. But if you choose to receive and read the messages anyway, then that's really your problem. Certainly not the fault of either the writers on that list or the posters here.

And if what bothers you about the writers is that they are saying things you think shouldn't be written down and distributed to others, presumably because you're afraid that it may become public and get into the "wrong hands," then why in heaven's name would you want to post them here, on a public forum? Wouldn't that be actually "publishing" them, and therefore far more damaging from your stated perspective? Your 'plan' sounds a lot like you'd be cutting off your nose to spite someone else's face. In short, it sounds crazy.

**fryar** · October-01-10, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by southsider

I get the email because I want to know what's being published about my neighborhood [[good and bad). By virtue of agreeing to receive them doesn't bar me from expressing my opinion about the damage that publishing them makes.

They're not being published. It's just people privately exchanging information.

And I realize you think you can fool the world into thinking your neighborhood is safer than it is by keeping everything hush-hush, but I think that's folly. That's not how the world works anymore. Your plan to inflate the value of your home has a weakness in that it is contingent on finding a buyer who doesn't google.

So I repeat the information-age acknowledging constructive approach I suggested earlier.

**n7hn** · October-01-10, 05:58 PM

Its possible someone may be swayed to the area knowing other neighbors are interested, communicating and looking out for one another in a pro-active way and the sense of a welcoming community that represents.

**Newdetroit** · October-01-10, 07:11 PM

Has there ever been any discussions of making indian village or sherwood forest gated communities? Would the residents in these neighborhoods want this?

**EastsideAl** · October-01-10, 10:29 PM

Palmer Woods could do it, and to some small extent has done so by blocking off some streets coming in from Woodward. It would be practically impossible for Indian Village to do it, since, unlike Palmer Woods, it's part of the surrounding street grid. Of course, what are probably the city's most exclusive enclaves, Hamilton Rd and Fairway Dr.surrounding the Detroit Golf Club, are private drives gated and closed except for a couple of small, well monitored, entrances.

I think there would be significant political resistance to gating off Indian Village and other 'street grid' neighborhoods, and perhaps for non-grid neighborhood like Palmer Woods and Sherwood Forest as well. Some of that resistance would definitely come from inside those neighborhoods. I know when I was living there there was resistance, particularly on the part of old eastsiders like me and my family, to going too far in sealing off or closing off the Village to the city it's always been a part of.

Despite Southsider's evident panic, although crime has definitely gone up in the area in the past few years, it's nowhere near as bad as it was back then during either the mid-80s crack years or the heroin and revolution years of the mid-70s.

**Newdetroit** · October-01-10, 10:48 PM

Funny how West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills have gated communities.

**EastsideAl** · October-01-10, 10:56 PM

West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills are suburbs, meaning they were built with each little development or subdivision separated. Detroit is [[still) a city, even with its somewhat tattered urban fabric.

**Meddle** · October-02-10, 01:06 AM

I've always been opposed to any form of gating or street closure including cul-de-sacs. If something happens, storms, flooding, the recent firestorm, or even just someone chasing you, your escape options are limited. And if the gate should fail for some reason, or a tree fell across the road, access for emergency services is limited.

**ragnarok1981** · October-04-10, 11:23 AM

Palmer Woods has not blocked off any streets yet. We have conducted some studies with temporary street closures to see how people liked what was done and to determine what streets should be closed off. Unfortunately the city wanted some unreasonable concessions and so far the project is progressing very very slowly. As for having a neighborhood email about crimes that is very important. I am on the PW security committee and I handle sending out crime alerts to our residents. It is an important tool not only because it helps make people aware of crime activity in the area, but also often leads to additional leads in crimes that have happened. Like it or not we have to realize that the police in Detroit are not very good at handling most calls, and we are lucky if they even respond at all, so it is up to us to try and secure our neighborhoods from the criminal elements out there and email is an effective tool to do so.